MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Voters in Texas are waking up to some clarity this morning on what their choices will be this fall for a prized U.S. Senate seat. State representative James Talarico was the winner of the Democratic primary, that according to a race call early this morning by the Associated Press. Here he is last night.
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JAMES TALARICO: Tonight, the people of our state gave this country a little bit of hope, and a little bit of hope is a dangerous thing.
MARTIN: His opponent, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, conceded this morning. But on the Republican side, no candidate won an outright majority, which means the GOP nomination will now be determined by a runoff election. Reporter Blaise Gainey of The Texas Newsroom is up early with us this morning after a very late night tracking the results, and he's with us now to talk about this. Good morning.
BLAISE GAINEY, BYLINE: Morning.
MARTIN: Thanks for taking that early bus.
GAINEY: No problem. No problem.
MARTIN: OK. Let's start with the Republicans. Senator John Cornyn is the incumbent. He's had this seat since 2002, but he was unable to win a majority last night. What happened?
GAINEY: Yeah. I mean, he's facing Attorney General Ken Paxton. So what essentially happened is that more MAGA candidates likely came out to vote for Ken Paxton than Cornyn was expecting. That runoff will be held on May 26, and Cornyn has been a reliable vote in the Senate for President Trump, but he faced attacks throughout the primary that he just wasn't nearly pro-Trump enough. As for which candidate is likely to win that runoff, Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston, thinks it favors Paxton, who's seen as the more conservative candidate.
BRANDON ROTTINGHAUS: We've seen this recipe before. You have a establishment figure who's taken to a runoff with a more insurgent candidate, and the insurgent candidate is always able to get their conservative voters to come out to vote.
GAINEY: Yeah. The recipe for a win for Cornyn is to just try to drive out as many voters to the polls as possible, but it's hard to do that in a runoff that's held just a few months after voters were just asked to go and cast ballots.
MARTIN: So let's turn to the Democratic primary. What can you tell us about that?
GAINEY: Yeah. Talarico was ahead nearly all night over Representative Jasmine Crockett, although it took a long time to call the race because votes seemed to be being counted at a snail's pace. Ultimately, though, he won the districts close to where he represents by a large enough amount that the gap was just too hard for Crockett to make a comeback. Now, on policy, not a lot ever divided these two. Where they were split on is strategy. Crockett's strategy was really more about turbocharging turnout among the base, while Talarico is a seminarian who often invokes his faith. Looking ahead to this fall, he's hoping that helps him reach voters that the Democratic Party just hasn't been able to get to in the past.
MARTIN: We saw some delays tallying votes in Dallas County last night. Can you explain what happened?
GAINEY: Yeah. The simple explanation is that people were confused about where to vote. This impacted many voters who were turned away from Dallas County polls after they arrived at the wrong location. A district judge had said the polls could remain open until 9 p.m. because of that confusion, but then the Texas Supreme Court came back and stayed that order and said any votes cast by voters who were not in line by 7 p.m. should be separated.
MARTIN: So we know Democrats have been dreaming of turning Texas blue for years, but the last time they won a statewide office was 1994. Realistically, Blaise, what are their chances?
GAINEY: Look, if there was ever a time for them to win Texas, this is probably the moment. It's a midterm election. President Trump's in office. His approval ratings are falling. Many people are upset about the economy as well as immigration enforcement. On top of that, Sergio Garcia-Rios with UT Austin says the sheer fact that Democrats received tens of thousands more votes than Republicans in these primaries is a sign of just how energized their base is.
SERGIO GARCIA-RIOS: Things can change, and, of course, it's not definitive, but it's a good indicator of where the motivation is.
GAINEY: Now, whether that same energy for Democrats is there in November is the real question.
MARTIN: That is The Texas Newsroom's Blaise Gainey in Austin. Blaise, thank you.
GAINEY: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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