Elections are scheduled to be held in Texas on November 3, 2026. Primary elections took place on March 3, while runoffs took place on May 26 for primary candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote. Early voting in the primary ran from February 17 to February 27, while early voting in the runoff ran from May 18 to May 22.

All of the states' executive offices are up for election, as well as 16 seats of the Texas Senate and all seats of the Texas House of Representatives, all 38 seats in the United States House of Representatives, and one of the state's United States Senate seats.

In the primaries, Democratic voters outnumbered Republican voters for the first time since the 2020 primaries.[1][2]

Federal

United States Senate

Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn ran for re-election. He faced attorney general Ken Paxton in a runoff on May 26, after neither gained an overall majority in the first-round primary. Paxton won the runoff with 63% of the vote and secured the Republican nomination. U.S. representative Wesley Hunt came third in the primary.[3][4]

Ken Paxton will face Democratic nominee James Talarico, who won his primary against U.S. representative Jasmine Crockett.[5]

United States House of Representatives

All 38 seats are up for election. Congressional districts were redrawn in 2025 by the state legislature in a move seen as beneficial for Republicans.[6]

Executive

Governor

Incumbent Republican governor Greg Abbott is running for re-election to a fourth term. He was re-elected in 2022 with 54.76% of the vote. Abbott will face Democratic nominee state representative Gina Hinojosa.

Lieutenant governor

Incumbent Republican lieutenant governor Dan Patrick is running for re-election to a fourth term. He was re-elected in 2022 with 53.75% of the vote. Patrick will face Democratic nominee state representative Vikki Goodwin.

Attorney general

Incumbent Republican attorney general Ken Paxton is running for U.S. senate. He was re-elected in 2022 with 53.42% of the vote.

The race featued competitive primaries in which neither the Republican and Democrats primary elections resulted in a candidate receiving a majority vote and necessitated a runoff. Declared candidates in the Republican primary included state senators Joan Huffman and Mayes Middleton, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy Aaron Reitz, and U.S. representative Chip Roy.[7][8] Middleton and Roy advanced to the runoff and Middleton ultimately secured the nomination.

Declared candidates in the Democratic primary included attorney Tony Box, former mayor of Galveston Joe Jaworski, and state senator Nathan Johnson.[9] Jaworski and Johnson advanced to the runoff and Johnson won the nomination.

Comptroller of Public Accounts

Incumbent Republican comptroller Glenn Hegar was re-elected in 2022 with 56.39% of the vote. He resigned on July 1, 2025, to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System and was succeeded by his chief clerk, former state senator Kelly Hancock, as acting Comptroller, who ran for re-election.

Hancock faced Texas Railroad Commission member Christi Craddick and former state senator Don Huffines in the Republican primary.[10] On March 3, 2026, Huffies would win the Republican primary with 57% win.[11] Huffines will face the Democratic nominee state senator Sarah Eckhardt in the general election.

Commissioner of the General Land Office

Incumbent Republican Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is running for re-election to a second four-year term. She was first elected in 2022 with 56.2% of the vote. Buckingham will face the Democratic nominee Bay City councilor Benjamin Flores.

Commissioner of Agriculture

Incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller ran for re-election to a fourth four-year term. He was re-elected in 2022 with 56.4% of the vote. Miller, who received a late endorsement from U.S. President Donald Trump, would lose to Nathan Sheets, who was backed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, 52% to 47%.[11] This marked the first time in years that a statewide Republican official would lose renomination in a primary.[11] Sheets will face Democratic nominee Clayton Tucker in the general election.

Railroad Commission

Incumbent Republican Railroad Commission of Texas member Jim Wright ran for re-election to a second six-year term. He was first elected in 2020 with 53% of the vote. Wright faced multiple primary opponents and went to runoff election against former Tarrant County Republican Party chairman Bo French. French narrowly won the runoff 50.6% to 49.4%. French will face state representative Jon Rosenthal in the general election.

Judicial

Texas Supreme Court

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Place 3

Republican primary
Nominee
  • Tom Smith, assistant attorney general in the Texas Attorney General’s Office[12]
Eliminated in primary
Democratic primary
Nominee
  • Okey Anyiam, criminal defense attorney[13]

Place 4

Republican primary
Nominee
Democratic primary
Nominee

Place 9

Republican primary
Nominee
  • John Messinger, assistant state prosecuting attorney[13]
Eliminated in primary
  • Jennifer Balido, judge of the Criminal District Court No. 1 in Dallas County[13]
Democratic primary
Nominee
  • Holly Taylor, criminal and civil appeals attorney[13]

Legislature

16 seats of the Texas Senate and all 150 seats of the Texas House of Representatives are up for election. The winners of this election will serve in the 90th Texas Legislature.

Senate

In the Texas Senate, 16 of the 31 seats are up for election to four-year terms. The seats up for election in the cycle were determined after the redistricting triggered by the 2020 census through the drawing of lots.[14] Prior to the election, Republicans held a majority of 20 seats against the Democrats' 11 seats.

Texas Senate
Party Leader Before After Change
Republican Charles Perry 20
Democratic Carol Alvarado 11
Total 31

House of Representatives

All 150 seats of the Texas House of Representatives are up for election to two-year terms. Prior to the election, Republicans held a majority of 88 seats against the Democrats' 62 seats.

Texas House of Representatives
Party Leader Before After Change
Republican Dustin Burrows 88
Democratic Gene Wu 62
Total 150

Board of Education

Local elections

In Texas, county elections are partisan and are held at the same time as national and state races. Local elections are held on the first Saturday of May, and feature races for city council members, school board members, and local bond elections. In addition, in 2026 three city members of DART held elections to withdraw: Addison, Highland Park, and University Park.

County elections

Local Mayoral elections

Eligible incumbents

  • Arlington, Texas: Two-term incumbent Jim Ross is eligible for re-election.
  • Laredo, Texas: One-term incumbent Victor Treviño is eligible for re-election.
  • Lubbock, Texas: One-term incumbent Mark McBrayer is eligible for re-election.

Ineligible or retiring incumbents

References

  1. ↑ Array (March 5, 2026). "Texas sees record voter turnout in primaries, led by Democratic voters". Houston Public Media. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
  2. ↑ Serrano, Apurva Mahajan, Alejandro (March 4, 2026). "Texas voters smash recent midterm turnout records". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 1, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Birenbaum, Gabby (May 19, 2026). "Trump endorses Ken Paxton in Senate GOP runoff". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
  4. ↑ "'The vitriol is going to be real': Republicans brace for fallout from brutal Texas Senate runoff". POLITICO. May 26, 2026. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Talarico defeats Crockett in Texas Senate Democratic primary". POLITICO. March 4, 2026. Retrieved May 26, 2026.
  6. ↑ Saenz, Arlette (August 29, 2025). "Texas Gov. Abbott signs new Republican-friendly US House map | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved August 29, 2025.
  7. ↑ Goldenstein, Taylor (June 12, 2025). "Aaron Reitz, a former Trump DOJ official and Paxton aide, joins the race for Texas AG". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved June 12, 2025.
  8. ↑ Manchester, Julia (August 21, 2025). "Chip Roy launches Texas attorney general bid". The Hill. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
  9. ↑ Klibanoff, Eleanor (July 17, 2025). "Democrat Joe Jaworski to run for Texas attorney general again". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  10. ↑ Scherer, Jasper (March 7, 2025). "Christi Craddick, Don Huffines announce bids for Texas comptroller after Hegar tapped for A&M chancellor". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 24, 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 Whitely, Jason (March 4, 2026). "Here are the 5 Texas incumbents who lost their re-election races". WFAA. Retrieved March 4, 2026.
  12. ↑ Cite error: Unknown parameter "court" in <ref> tag; supported parameters are dir, follow, group, name (see the help page). Cite error: {{broken ref |msg=The named reference {
    Unexpected use of template {{1}} – see Template:1 for details.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nguyen, Alex (February 12, 2026). "Texas Court of Criminal Appeals primaries: Who is running and what to know". Texas Tribune. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
  14. ↑ Barragán, James (January 11, 2023). "Texas senators draw lots to determine how long their terms will be". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Texas_elections