{"id":1276,"date":"2026-05-26T21:03:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:03:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:03:59","slug":"five-races-to-watch-in-the-texas-runoffs-on-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1276","title":{"rendered":"Five races to watch in the Texas runoffs on Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senator John Cornyn, the senior Texas senator, is fighting for his political life in a two-way runoff on Tuesday after President Trump endorsed his right-wing challenger, Ken Paxton, in the marquee matchup.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Paxton, a scandal-plagued state attorney general, narrowly finished behind Cornyn in the Republican primary in March, even with record-setting spending from pro-Cornyn forces and before Trump endorsed him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paxton is hoping to become the second Trump-endorsed challenger to oust a sitting senator this year, after Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana didn\u2019t even make the runoff in his state this month. Trump\u2019s backing has proved formidable in the House, too, where he helped a GOP challenger defeat Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Senate race is the highest-profile contest on Tuesday, as Texas has emerged as a surprise addition to the map of competitive Senate races and the fight for the majority this fall. Cornyn and several of his Republican colleagues in the Senate decried the Paxton endorsement, arguing that Paxton is more vulnerable to an upset by James Talarico, a Democrat, than the incumbent is.<\/span><\/p>\n

A number of intriguing and consequential runoffs are also appearing on the ballot. They include two representatives facing off against each other, one of whom will become the first Democratic incumbent to lose this year; and a border-district seat that pits a Democratic sex therapist accused of antisemitism who has been boosted by a secretive super political action committee linked to Republicans against a sheriff\u2019s deputy from Bexar County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what else to watch on Tuesday:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Can Cornyn sell an electability pitch? <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cornyn has argued that Paxton would put the senior senator\u2019s seat needlessly at risk this fall against Talarico in a state where Republicans haven\u2019t lost statewide in three decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talarico, a state legislator from Austin, has captured the attention of small Democratic donors who were drawn to his embrace of a religious message as a salve to the party\u2019s generation-long struggles in the state. He raised $27 million in the first quarter, nearly four times what Paxton has raised in the entire race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endorsement last week of Paxton makes Cornyn the underdog: He rolled out a hashtag of \u201c#stillwithCornyn,\u201d which underscored the uphill nature of his reelection bid.<\/span><\/p>\n

The race has broken primary advertising records, but Republicans warned that taking down Talarico could force the party to spend money in Texas in the general election.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A generational clash in Houston <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

No Democratic member of Congress has lost a primary so far in 2026, despite a groundswell of voter antipathy toward party leadership and the old guard.<\/span><\/p>\n

That will change on Tuesday, when two incumbents will seek the same Houston-area seat in a test of the appetite of voters for generational change.<\/span><\/p>\n

The race for the state\u2019s 18th Congressional District pits Rep. Christian Menefee, 38, against Rep. Al Green, a 78-year old, 11-term incumbent. Menefee is an incumbent but only barely: He first won his seat in a special election earlier this year. Green currently represents the 9th District, which was gerrymandered to elect a Republican, and is seeking renomination in the 18th, which includes portions of his current district.<\/span><\/p>\n

A wave of crypto spending on behalf of Menefee and against Green has influenced the race. Green has been a critic of the industry and sits on the powerful House Financial Services Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Can national Democrats stop one of their own they say is antisemitic? <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In yet another Democratic face-off, Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff\u2019s deputy, has the look, on paper at least, of a candidate who should be coasting to victory in his runoff in the 35th Congressional District on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Democratic candidate has been endorsed by the national party\u2019s House campaign arm, by Talarico and by the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in the House.<\/span><\/p>\n

His rival, Maureen Galindo, is a sex therapist and left-wing activist who has suggested an immigration detention center be turned into \u201ca prison for American Zionists,\u201d which Democrats have denounced as \u201cstraight out of the Nazi playbook.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Galindo has been lifted by nearly $900,000 in spending from a secretive super PAC that has reported no donors but has loose ties to Republicans and has been meddling in Democratic races.<\/span><\/p>\n

Galindo finished first in the initial election in March. Democrats believe Garcia could compete for the seat in November, even though Republicans drew it to elect a Republican in their redistricting gambit last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Democratic showdown in Dallas <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Colin Allred vacated his congressional seat in 2024 to run for Senate — he lost to incumbent Ted Cruz — his career in the House of Representatives seemed over. But after he initially tried running for Senate again this cycle, he decided his chances of serving again would be stronger if he ran for the House.<\/span><\/p>\n

That decision has put him on a collision course with his successor, Rep. Julie Johnson.<\/span><\/p>\n

The race has been marked by some of the same racial dynamics of the Senate primary that Allred exited. Allred is Black and Johnson is white. Allred supported Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is Black, in the Senate race; Johnson endorsed Talarico. who is white, before Crockett entered the race. Talarico defeated Crockett by a 6-point margin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adding to the tension was recent audio of Johnson dismissing another Black member of the delegation, Rep. Marc Veasey, as a lawmaker holding a safe Democratic seat and \u201cnot doing a damn thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Two conservatives vie to be Texas\u2019 top cop <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One of the other key races Tuesday is a runoff for the Republican nomination to replace Paxton as the state attorney general, a powerful post that he used to raise his national profile.<\/span><\/p>\n

The contest pits Mayes Middleton, a conservative state senator, against Rep. Chip Roy, who has carved a reputation as a hard-liner on Capitol Hill but who at times has split with Trump, including in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roy is a former top aide for Cruz, who has backed his candidacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Middleton contributed $3 million to his own campaign; Roy was supported by $2.75 million from Alex Fairly, an Amarillo businessperson.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Democrats will also hold a runoff Tuesday between Nathan Johnson, a state senator, and Joe Jaworski, a former mayor of Galveston. Republicans are heavily favored in November.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Jaylen Brown challenges ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith to a debate at \u2018like Harvard or MIT\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in <\/i>The New York Times<\/i>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All eyes will be on the Republican Senate runoff between the incumbent John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton. But the runoffs will feature other important contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nFive races to watch in the Texas runoffs on Tuesday - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1276\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five races to watch in the Texas runoffs on Tuesday - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All eyes will be on the Republican Senate runoff between the incumbent John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton. 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