Name: TX Primary: GOP heads to runoff, Dems in limbo over legal fight
Uploaded: 2026-03-04T16:52:04.000Z
Duration: 10 min 28 s
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There is some major drama in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas right now.

James Taurico is leading Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the race to be the Democratic nominee for Senate.

Both are trying to do what no Democrat has done in a generation, win a statewide race in Texas, which has not happened since 1994.

But this primary just got more complicated because the Texas Supreme Court has blocked an earlier ruling that allowed extended voting hours in Dallas County.

The court that any votes that came in after the original closing time should not be counted tonight while the case is litigated separated.

Moments ago, Crockett spoke, saying she thinks it's unlikely that the winner will even be known tonight.

On the Republican side, incumbent Senator John Cornyn will be headed to a bruising runoff against Attorney General Ken Paxton after neither candidate cleared 50% plus 1 of the vote.

Our reporters and analysts are here to cover it all tonight.

And I want to start with CNN's John King, who was the magic wall.

John, tell me, how important is the vote count out of Dallas county for that Tul Rico Crockett race?

Well, obviously it is her home base and every vote counts.

And on this first primary night of 2026, we certainly want to start by making sure every vote is counted.

The question is the Laura, we'll see what happens in the courts and we'll see which ballots they count.

If people were in line and thought they could vote, the question is, is it enough?

Because you look right now at the race, the state representative, as you mentioned, James tellarico leading there 52 to 47.

So he's got a five point lead or 70, just shy of 75,000 votes at the moment with about 63% of the vote counted.

If they're going to have to have litigation now about, you know, are all ballots counted or some ballots because of the state supreme court ruling ruled out of bounds or after time?

At the moment, she's winning big there, 61 to 38.

Again, this is her home base, Dallas county.

And next door in Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Dallas, Fort Worth, where her district stretches and she's winning big there with about 65% in.

But if you look at the rest of the map, Tellarico is running up an impressive coalition.

If you look in the other major areas, Travis county, where Austin is, that's the home base of the legislature where he works, it's the big government town, fifth largest of the 255 counties, 254 counties, excuse me, he's getting 76%.

Laura, we've talked about the Latino vote.

Did they think all those Latinos who drifted toward Trump would stay with Republicans?

We won't know the answer until November, how that actually plays out in this race and every other race in Texas.

But if you look along the Rio Grande Valley, that's mostly Tellarico blue you're seeing there.

And if you go into some of these counties, it's by pretty big numbers.

That has been part of his sales pitch, that he's a candidate who can win some white, moderate voters also win Latino voters.

The question is, if he is to defeat, if he defeats Crockett, and

that's an if at this moment, can he also bring in the African American base of the party?

That will be a question going forward and a conversation for your panel.

But the Democrats are trying to pick a candidate.

And as you noted, this is every two years or four years, we say, is Texas about to go blue?

Is there a chance, they think because of Trump's approval rating and the climate, the broader national midterm climate, that they have a chance?

The question now is who will that Democrat be running against?

When incumbents are forced into runoffs, they usually lose.

Senator Ken Paxton, the attorney general at 41, Congressman Wesley Hunt at 13.

You look at the map, it's Cornyn and Paxton essentially trading counties as you go through.

What's going to happen right now, Laura, this has already been.

It will make everybody at home sick to their stomach because this has already been the most expensive Senate race in history, $71 million just for pro corn enforcers.

The question is, you have a Republican runoff that goes into May in a midterm election year where Republicans have to defend a lot of ground nationally, a lot of expensive places outside of Texas they need to defend.

And so now you're going to have both Cornyn and PAXTTON Going to one Donald J.

President, put your thumb on the scale because otherwise you're going to have more bloodshed, more spending, more Republican fighting in a place.

Listen, if we're talking about this on election night in November, Then that means the Democrats are in a very favorable climate.

So we still don't know who the Democratic candidate is going to be.

But we do know the Republican race goes on for a couple more months and it's been ugly so far.

I can only imagine what it gets like going forward.

So let's talk about going forward with that runoff between Cornyn and Paxson given, of course we don't know who they will ultimately either of them will face in the general.

But can you project out a little bit of based on what you're seeing right now, again, history tells you that incumbents when forced into that one on one race, if they had, if they had an early one and they pushed it a run up very hard, right.

You're an incumbent, why didn't you win the first time?

The forces of change are out there coming at you.

However, as Cornyn has said repeatedly and he's run some pretty crazy eye opening ads.

I'm not going to repeat the language in them, but

you can find them on YouTube, folks at home if you want to see them.

This has been a nasty, I mean, you know, we know about nasty races.

This might give new meanings to nasty as you go through.

Paxton has had a number of character challenges, a number of ethical challenges and Cornyn has tried to take advantage of them.

But despite all that money he spent, I just showed it to you, they're running almost even in that race.

You say, you know, so you look at the map like this and you say, can you find a strength or a weakness when it's a one on one?

I just want to show you if this is overgeneralizing, but this is Bush versus Trump.

Bush days, the Karl Rove days in Texas, even though he has tried to drift with draft with Trump, excuse me, in Washington, like a lot of Republicans do, he's not performative like Trump.

He says elections were stolen and things like that.

So you look at, for Cornyn to win, he needs the traditional college educated, suburban, affluent Republicans in Dallas County.

He did, he did pretty well there, 53% to 31.

What struck me is you come down here to Houston and Harris county, the fastest growing part of the state.

So more traditional Republicans in that part of the state did not go Cornyn's way.

There you come over again, you know, to the big government town here.

This is where Cornyn did have a bigger margin.

Your establishment Republicans are around the government town.

This is the lobbyists and the fundraisers and things like that.

And so you can look at it and see some of the establishment, anti establishment up here in these rural counties where Trump usually runs it up.

Corporate Cornyn is actually doing pretty well.

These are places not by huge margins, but these are places Trump is one.

So I can actually make the, I can go one place and make the Cornyn argument.

I can go somewhere else and make the Paxton argument.

I would just tell you in 40 years of doing this, if you're the incumbent and you get forced to run a runoff, that's a problem.

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TX Primary: GOP heads to runoff, Dems in limbo over legal fight

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