UPDATE:(10:36 p.m.)
CBS News is predicting that Democrats will take control of the U.S. Senate in today’s midterm elections. In addition to James Talarico’s victory over Ken Paxton here in Dallas and Annie Andrews’ win over Republican incumbent Darline Graham Nordone in South Carolina, Sherrod Brown, the former Democratic senator from Ohio, has defeated Republican John Husted by a slim two-point margin.
In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton has defeated Republican Roger Marshall to win that Senate race. This is the first time in 94 years that Kansas has sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. Democrat Roy Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley, flipping that North Carolina Senate seat blue for the first time in nearly two decades. And in Iowa, Josh Turek defeated Republican Ashley Hinson to flip that seat to blue, too.
Democratic incumbents also held Senate seats in Georgia (Jon Ossoff) and New Hampshire (Chris Pappas, the first openly-gay man elected to the U.S. Senate.)
UPDATE:(10:05 p.m.)
Greg Abbott has just conceded the Texas governor’s race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa!
The legendary Ann Richards, who served as governor from Jan. 15, 1991-Jan. 17, 1995, was the last Democrat to be elected governor of Texas. Hinojosa is always only the third woman ever elected governor of Texas (Miriam “Ma Ferguson from 1925-1927,. then again from 1933-1935, and Ann Richards from 1991 to 1995).
UPDATE:(9:55 p.m.)
With 60 percent of the vote counted, NBC News has just called the U.S. Senate race in Texas for Democrat James Talarico!
The last time Texas had a Democratic U.S. senator was in June 1993, when Bob Krueger served briefly after being appointed by Governor Ann Richards
UPDATE:(9:48 p.m.)
In Dallas County races for the Texas House of Representatives, five Democrats were unchallenged in their re-election races: Texas Legislature LGBTQ Caucus President Jessica González in District 104, Terry Meza in District 105, Linda Garcia in District 107, Toni Rose in District 110 and Yvonne Davis in District 111.
Venton Jones, an openly LGBTQ+ man and the first openly HIV-positive person elected to the Texas Legislature, has easily won reelection over Democrat Jordan Scott Hoffnagle in District 100. Other Democrats in Dallas County winning state House races are Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos in District 102, Rafael Anchia in District 103, Aicha Davis in District 109, Zach Herbert in District 112, Rhetta Andrews Bowers in District 113, John Bryant in District 114 and Cassandra Hernandez in District 115.
The only Republican to come out ahead in a state House race in Dallas County tonight is Morgan Meyer who defeated Allison Mitchell in Distrrict 108.
UPDATE:(9:30 p.m.)
With nearly 58 percent of the vote counted state-wide, James Talarico continues to lead Ken Paxton by 18 points, and with 58.5 percent of the vote counted in the governor’s race, Gina Hinojosa leads Greg Abbott by 13 points.
Democrats also continue to lead in other statewide races: Vikki Goodwin leads Dan Patrick by 14 points for lieutenant governor; Jon Rosenthal leads Bo French by 15 points for railroad commissioner; Nathan Johnson leads Mayes Middleton by 15 points for attorney general; Sarah Eckhardt leads Don Huffines by 15 points for state comptroller; Benjamin Flores leads Dawn Buckingham by 14 points for land commissioner, and Clayton Tucker leads Nate Sheets by 14 points for agriculture commissioner.
UPDATE:(9:21 p.m.)
Lindsey Graham, known as a right-wing MAGA and a staunch ally of Donald Trump, held that Senate seat from Jan. 3, 2003, until his death on July 11 this year.
Before tonight, the last time South Carolina elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate was in 1998.
UPDATE:(8:41 p.m.)
Poll watchers in Tarrant County are telling us that as final results are coming in there, Democrats appear to be winning every contested county-wide seat.
As of 8:46 p.m. the Tarrant County Elections Office’s website shows that Talarico is ahead of Paxton there by more than 20 points, and Democrats lead in every U.S. House seat election except one.
In statewide offices, voters in Tarrant have, at this point, given Hinojosa a nearly 17-point lead over Abbott in the governor’s race, and Democrats in every other state-wide office are winning the vote in Tarrant County.
Taylor Rehmet, who won the State Senate District 9 seat earlier this year in a special election, is ahead in his rematch with Republican Leigh Wambsganss, and in the race for State Senate District 22, Democrat Amy Martinez-Salas has a 30 point lead over Republican David Cook among Tarrant County voters. That district, however, includes all or part of 10 counties, and we have no word on has Martinez-Salas is faring so far in the rest of the district.
In state House races in Tarrant County, three uncontested races have gone to the Democrats, who are, as of 9 p.m., ahead in five contested races, compared to Republican advantages in three contested races.
Again, this counting votes only in Tarrant County, and some of these districts include parts of other counties as well.
The 14 district court judgeships in Tarrant County that were contested appear to be going to Democrats, although 15 uncontested judicial seats are remaining red. In county court races, 13 races were uncontested and stay red, while Democrats are winning in the two contested races.
And in county-wide seats in Tarrant County, Democrats appear to be trouncing their Republican oppponents: Democrat Alisa Simmons has claimed victory over far-right MAGA incumbent Tim O’Hare in the race for county judge.
Democrats are also winning every other county-wide seat up for grabs in this election — district attorney, district clerk and county clerk. And both county commissioner seats in this election — Precinct 2 and Precinct 4 — are being won by Democrats with large margins.
UPDATE:(8:30 p.m.)
Keisha Lance Bottoms has made history by winning the governor’s race in Georgia, makng the THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER ELECTED AS GOVERNOR OF ANY STATE IN THE U.S.!
She is also Georgia’s first female governor.
UPDATE:(8:18 p.m.)
CBS News is predicting that Collin, Denton and Tarrant Counties — three traditionally ruby-red strongholds in North Texas — have flipped blue in this midterm election.
Colin Allred — who chose not to run for re-election to his former seat in the U.S. House to run in the Democratic Primary for Cornyn’s Senate seat but then dropped out of that race to go up against Julie Johnson, the first openly-LGBTQ+ person ever elected to Congress from a southern state, for the newly-redrawn 33rd Congressional District — has claimed victory in that race.
“Tonight, North Texas made its voice heard, and I am deeply grateful to the people of the 33rd District for the trust they have placed in me. It’s an incredible honor to serve the community that has done so much for me,” Allred said in a press statement claiming the win.
UPDATE:(8 p.m.)
With an estimated 35.5 percent of the votes across the state having been counted in the race to replace Republican John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate, Democrat James Talarico is leading Republican Ken Paxton by a margin of 58 percent to 40 percent, with 1.5 percent of the vote so far going to Libertarian Ted Brown.
And in the race for Texas governor, with 38 percent of the vote counted, Democrat Gina Hinojosa has a 56 percent to 42 percent lead over incumbent Republican Greg Abbott. The Libertarian in that race, Pat Dixon has 1.3 percent.
UPDATE (7:54 p.m.)
With 25 percent reporting, the Associated Press has already called New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race for gay Democrat Chris Pappas, with 59 percent of the vote there, compared to Republican John Sununu’s 39 percent and Constitution Party candidate Edmond Laplante’s 2 percent.
The polls closed on the 2026 midterm elections about 20 minutes ago for all but a small sliver of Texas (El Paso and Hudspeth counties and the northwestern part of Culbertson County in far West Texas are in the Mountain Time Zone and so still have about 40 minutes left to go), and the earliest results show Democrats with edges in most state-wide races.
This makes Pappas, 46, the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate. He has served in the New Hampshire state legislature since 2018, and has been married to his husband, Vann Bentley since February 2023.
ORIGINAL POST
But then, early voting — the only votes counted so far — historically tend to favor the Democrats. So Democrats’ lead in most of those races will likely grow smaller, and even disappear completely in some cases, as the night goes on.
Check back here throughout the evening as we update this post not only with results of Texas elections important to the LGBTQ+ community, but with results from other such races across the county.
— From Staff Reports