The Week Texas Flipped, Trump's Ex-Party Chairman Got Fired by Voters, and His Own DOJ Got Thrown Out of an Alaska Court
Six losses in one week, and the headline one came with exit polls attached: Tuesday night flipped Texas (twice), fired the guy who used to run the entire Republican Party, and reminded Trump's own DOJ that judges exist even in Alaska. Pour something cold — the Lone Star State just changed color on live television.
1. Three Decades of Republican Texas Governors Ended Tuesday Night — With Greg Abbott
Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat elected Texas governor in more than 30 years and the state's first Latina governor. Abbott conceded Tuesday night after going county by county and concluding the math wasn't there — a sentence no three-term Texas Republican governor expects to say out loud. The Associated Press called the race for Hinojosa as results rolled in, closing out a GOP reign that outlasted three presidents and two of Abbott's own reelections, but not, in the end, this Tuesday.
Thirty years of Republican rule in Texas, gone in one night. Don't mess with Texas — turns out Texas was the one doing the messing.
2. Ken Paxton Lost a Senate Race. Even His Own Impeachment Couldn't Save Him.
State Rep. James Talarico defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton for Texas's open Senate seat Tuesday, delivering Democrats their first statewide win in the state in decades. NPR reports the win breaks a three-decade Republican grip on every statewide office in Texas — a streak Paxton, impeached by his own state House in 2023 on bribery and corruption allegations before his state Senate colleagues acquitted him, had every incentive to protect. Trump-aligned spending poured in on Paxton's behalf; Texans poured out for Talarico anyway.
Acquitted by the state Senate, rejected by the actual Senate. Some verdicts you just can't buy a second time.
3. Trump Won South Carolina by 18 Points. His Senate Pick Still Lost It.
Pediatrician Annie Andrews defeated Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina on Tuesday, flipping a seat in a state Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024. CBS News reports Andrews becomes the first woman ever elected to the Senate from South Carolina and the state's first Democratic senator since 1998, after the GOP's main super PAC dumped an extra $5 million into the race in October trying to stop exactly this. Graham, appointed to finish her late brother Lindsey Graham's term, becomes the first member of that particular political dynasty to lose one.
Eighteen points of cushion and a $5 million emergency fund couldn't do it. Sometimes the deepest red just needs one good pediatrician.
4. The Guy Who Used to Run the Entire Republican Party Couldn't Win His Own Senate Race
Former Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley in North Carolina's Senate race Tuesday, flipping the seat and handing the state its first Democratic senator since 2008. Whatley chaired the Republican National Committee through the entirety of the 2024 election before stepping down in 2025 to run for this seat himself — meaning the man who spent a cycle architecting other Republicans' wins lost his own race by nearly 20 points, 58.7% to 39.1%. He had Trump's personal endorsement and campaigned alongside him; neither showed up on the scoreboard.
He ran the national party's win column for a living and still couldn't win his own line in it. Maybe outsource the strategy next time, champ.
5. Trump's DOJ Sued to Stop Alaska From Counting Its Own Senate Race. A Judge Said Absolutely Not.
A federal judge in Anchorage dismissed a DOJ lawsuit the Trump administration filed in a last-ditch bid to stop Alaska from certifying its U.S. Senate election — one day before the polls that race was part of even opened. Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the federal government simply lacks standing to sue a state over how it counts its own ballots, rejecting DOJ's theory that voters might confuse a Republican incumbent with an unaffiliated candidate who happens to share a last name. The DOJ says it will appeal; Alaska's elections division, unbothered, kept counting.
They tried to put democracy on hold and got told to sit down before Election Day even started. That's not just losing — that's losing the pregame.
6. A Federal Judge Caught Trump's DOJ Running an Illegal Voter Watchlist Days Before the Midterms
A federal judge in Washington temporarily barred the Justice Department and Homeland Security from sending states lists of voters it claimed might be noncitizens, finding the program likely violates the Privacy Act. The Detroit News reports the judge rejected the DOJ's defense outright, noting the government never even published the legally required notice for the database it built, and ordered officials to certify compliance within 24 hours. The order landed one day before the election it was clearly built to shape — and the case is still ongoing, so consider this round one, not the final buzzer.
Caught running the watchlist without the paperwork, one day before voters did exactly what the watchlist was built to stop. Timing really is everything.
Now go back to doomscrolling. You've earned five minutes of not-doom.