2026 Midterm Election
- When is Early Voting? Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19 and runs through Friday, Oct. 30.
- When is Election Day? Tuesday, Nov. 3, is Election Day and polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. You can vote if you’re in line by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
- Federal races: (U.S. Senate, U.S. House)
- State races: (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, GLO Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, Railroad Commissioner, State Board of Education, Texas Senate, Texas House)
- County races: (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, Rockwall)
- Judicial races: (Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, Court of Appeals, District Courts, County Courts, Justice of the Peace Courts)
- Bonds and Props: There are several bonds and propositions on ballots; they’re broken down here by schools, municipalities and counties.
- Previous results: Here are the results from the March primary and runoff.
In the Nov. 3 midterm election, Texas voters statewide will decide between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and State Rep. James Talarico in the U.S. Senate race.
Each U.S. state elects two senators regardless of population size, and U.S. senators serve six-year terms. There are no constitutional term limits for U.S. senators, and they can be re-elected an unlimited number of times. The Senate is divided into three classes so that roughly one-third of the seats are up for election every two years.
Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, is a politician and lawyer who has served as the 51st Attorney General of Texas since 2015. As attorney general, he led conservative legal challenges to the Obama and Biden administrations on immigration, healthcare, environmental regulations, and LGBTQ+ rights. Before becoming Attorney General, Paxton served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013 and the Texas Senate from 2013 to 2015, representing the McKinney area in North Texas.
Throughout his political career, Paxton has faced a long history of legal controversies, corruption accusations, and ethical scandal. His 2026 campaign for U.S. Senate has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the Texas Farm Bureau, the National Border Patrol Council, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and 18 U.S. representatives from Texas.
Paxton defeated incumbent senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn by more than 25 points in the 2026 Republican primary runoff in March.
James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives since 2018, representing parts of North Austin. He is a former public school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian. He previously taught at Rhodes Middle School in the San Antonio Independent School District. Talarico also worked at Reasoning Mind, an education nonprofit, and MAYA Consulting, an education consulting firm.
Talarico drew scrutiny for his absence from the campaign trail while he was sick with the flu in early October. Paxton’s campaign asked for “proof of life” and called on Talarico to produce a photo of himself and a newspaper with a current date.
Talarico responded by renewing his challenge to debate Paxton, but those calls have been unanswered.
Talarico’s campaign has been endorsed by the Houston Chronicle editorial board, AFL-CIO Texas, End Citizens United, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, OAG whistleblower David Maxwell, and county legend and liberal activist Willie Nelson.
The race between Paxton and Talarico has become one of the most expensive and closely watched midterm battles in the country. Talarico put up historic fundraising numbers, raising upwards of $64 million in the third quarter of 2026, prompting tech billionaire Elon Musk to back Paxton’s effort with multi-million-dollar super PAC donations.
Early voting for the midterm election runs Monday, Oct. 19 through Friday, Oct. 30. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
