Talarico wins Texas Democratic primary as Republicans face runoff – US politics live

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Midterm primary season begins with Talarico winning the Democratic race in Texas

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

As the war in the Middle East rages on half a world away, the midterm primary season kicked off with James Talarico winning the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas – and a Republican runoff.

The contest between Talarico and firebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Republican dominance.

“We are not just trying to win an election,” Talarico told supporters in Austin before the race was called. “We are trying to fundamentally change our politics. And it’s working.”

Meanwhile, the messy Republican primary between the four-term Republican US senator John Cornyn and the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, ended in a runoff. A runoff is declared in Texas if neither candidate are able to capture 50% of the vote with just over two-thirds of the ballots counted, Cornyn led Paxton by less than two percentage points, with a third candidate, the rightwing congressman Wesley Hunt capturing about 13% of the vote.

Paxton and Cornyn will now face that election on 26 May. National Republicans have been openly fretting that a win by Paxton – a scandal-plagued conservative culture warrior and darling of the Maga movement – would provide Democrats with the opening they need to finally win over the staunchly red state that they have not carried in more than three decades.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley won their respective primaries. In deep red Arkansas, where Republican incumbents like US senator Tom Cotton and governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders are expected to hold onto their seats, results came back as expected, with Cotton winning his primary and Sanders, who is running uncontested, always moving forward in the race.

In other developments:

Senate Republicans are expected today to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict in Iran. “The president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently under way there,” majority leader John Thune said Tuesday.
The vote comes one day after Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters by denying suggestions that he had ordered the attack on Iran because Israel had already decided to do so – a claim that appears to counter comments made by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
In more Iran news, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference at the Pentagon this morning to discuss the conflict.
Minnesota is set to be front and center on the Hill with governor Tim Walz and attorney general Keith Ellison scheduled to go before the House oversight committee this morning over their state’s fraud scandal.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is then set to go before the House judiciary committee, one day after she was grilled before the Senate judiciary committee and refused to retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”.
In more Minnesota news: The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into allegations that Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official who became the face of the state’s highly scrutinized federal immigration crackdown, the New York Times reported. Bovino is being investigated for allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor.

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What does a Talarico primary win mean for the future of the Democratic Party?

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reported from Austin, Texas last night that the Democratic contest between James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Donald Trump and the Republican dominance that has gripped the state for three decades.

Throughout his campaign, Talarico, a 36-year-old former middle school teacher and seminary student, pushed for a “politics of love” that roots progressive policy in the teachings of his Christian faith. He argued that the central divide in American politics is “not left v right” but “top v bottom” and contended that Democrats can rebuild trust in rural and suburban communities without abandoning their core values.

Crockett, on the other hand, has built a reputation as a rhetorical brawler with her unsparing attacks on Trump and Republicans. The 44-year-old former public defender and progressive firebrand leaned into “proven fighter” image during the campaign but also contended that high turnout among young voters and voters of color – not ideological moderation – is the key to winning statewide.

Midterm primary season begins with Talarico winning the Democratic race in Texas

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

The contest between Talarico and firebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Republican dominance.

“We are not just trying to win an election,” Talarico told supporters in Austin before the race was called. “We are trying to fundamentally change our politics. And it’s working.”

In other developments:

Senate Republicans are expected today to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict in Iran. “The president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently under way there,” majority leader John Thune said Tuesday.
The vote comes one day after Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters by denying suggestions that he had ordered the attack on Iran because Israel had already decided to do so – a claim that appears to counter comments made by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
In more Iran news, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference at the Pentagon this morning to discuss the conflict.
Minnesota is set to be front and center on the Hill with governor Tim Walz and attorney general Keith Ellison scheduled to go before the House oversight committee this morning over their state’s fraud scandal.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is then set to go before the House judiciary committee, one day after she was grilled before the Senate judiciary committee and refused to retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”.
In more Minnesota news: The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into allegations that Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official who became the face of the state’s highly scrutinized federal immigration crackdown, the New York Times reported. Bovino is being investigated for allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor.