AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, on this morning after the midterm elections. I’m Amy Goodman, with Anjali Kamat.

ANJALI KAMAT: We turn now to Texas, where Democrats have shattered more than three decades of Republican dominance, winning races for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and even railroad commissioner. And Democrats are poised to possibly take control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time since 2003.

James Talarico will be the first Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate since Lloyd Bentsen left in 1993. Talarico spoke at a victory rally Tuesday night after defeating Trump-backed MAGA Republican Ken Paxton.

SEN.-ELECT JAMES TALARICO: We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. …

We were the underdogs in this race. We went up against nearly 40 years of doubt and disillusionment. We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deepfakes that money can buy. Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment. …

We saw it in this race. We saw it in every billionaire-funded attack ad. The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets, that they are defunding our schools, that they are gutting our healthcare, that they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It is the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer. But tonight, we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top: We will not be conquered. …

As this movement heads to the seat of power, as we head to the United States Senate, we know what this moment requires of us. Texas, it’s time to start flipping tables.

AMY GOODMAN: That was James Talarico, the Democratic senator-elect of Texas, speaking after he defeated the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton. When President Trump said that James Talarico was a “vagan” — that’s how he put it, talking about a vegan, saying he was a “vagan” — James Talarico’s response was “I’ve been eating Texas barbecue before Paxton was either indicted or impeached.”

Meanwhile, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has lost his bid for a fourth term. Democratic state Representative Gina Hinojosa defeated Abbott by nearly 700,000 votes. She becomes Texas’s first-ever Latina governor.

GOV.-ELECT GINA HINOJOSA: We did it! Everything is bigger in Texas, including the shock of this win. We shocked the world tonight. … And now I stand before you, humbled and grateful, and in awe of the incredible grace and power of God and of Texas. I am a daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, where the people embody the work ethic and values of our great state, where no one would have imagined that one day a little girl from the RGV would stand before you here as the next governor of the greatest state, Texas.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Gina Hinojosa in her victory address last night in Austin, Texas.

For more, we stay in Austin. To talk about the significance of these historic elections in Texas, we go to Mike Siegel, an Austin, Texas, City Council member, two-time Democratic nominee for Congress and the founder of Ground Game Texas, a statewide voter turnout organization.

Thanks so much for joining us from Austin. We spoke to you there last night in our midterm special, which we encourage people to check out at democracynow.org and on our YouTube channel. Mike, you were at the victory party of James Talarico. If you can just talk about the significance of these two wins?

MIKE SIEGEL: Well, thank you so much, Amy.

It’s a wonderful morning here in Austin, Texas. And yes, the Earth shook last night. I mean, getting rid of Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton and also Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, just means so much to the people of Austin, the people of Texas. These three individuals caused so much harm across the state in so many different ways.

And I went to Talarico’s event last night, Hinojosa’s event, other events, and everyone is just celebrating. I mean, the air was ringing with the sound of car horns last night, people yelling all across town. It’s like we won the Super Bowl or something of that nature. And people are celebrating the work of Texans, Texas Democrats, over so many electoral cycles, you know, voter registration, turnout. We’re celebrating these wonderful candidates who won office.

And we’re also starting to think about what it means to hold power, the idea that Democrats will control the executive branch of government in the state of Texas. This is an event of international significance. And we need to start thinking very quickly about how we will protect public education, how we will stop data centers and the encroachment of AI on our society, you know, how how we will protect public schools, how we stop collaboration with ICE. I mean, there’s so many things people are thinking about right now. And I heard some talk last night about how we need a Project 2027 for Texas, and we need to get that together in the next couple of months, because these folks caused so much harm, and there’s so much opportunity right now to show the people of Texas a different way of government, how government can actually take care of people and make us safer, make our futures stronger.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Mike, can you talk about the significance of the Latino vote and the voter turnout, that came out for the Democratic candidates last night, and how this was a rejection of the harsh immigration enforcement policies of President Trump and, in Texas, of Governor Abbott?

MIKE SIEGEL: Thank you, Anjali. Yeah, I think it’s twofold, with especially young Latino voters, you know, completely flipping the narrative in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. I think it was driven by both economic factors and the cruelty of ICE. I mean, the idea that the Trump administration promised lower groceries, but then enters this unnecessary and illegal war with Iran and dramatically increases the cost of living, there’s so many failed promises on the economic side of things, which really matters — right? — to working-class people.

But at the same time, Governor Abbott basically used Texas as a testing ground. You know, before ICE became this new, incredibly hostile and violent and deadly organization nationwide, they were piloting programs here in Texas, whether it’s the militarization of the border through a program called Operation Lone Star, where billions of dollars that could have been spent on schools, that could have been spent on healthcare, was instead spent on, you know, border theater to show Donald Trump how good Texas is kissing up to him, and it’s also the collaboration of ICE with our state police, the Department of Public Safety. They have basically got it down to a science how state police and ICE officers can stop people for broken tail lights and other minor offenses, and then folks end up deported, even if they have legal status, even if they’re children, even if they have every reason to be here in the community.

So I think the Latino community was absolutely critical, and the idea that our next governor is from Brownsville, Texas, which is, you know, among the larger cities in the United States, I think, the poorest city and a place of incredible injustice. It’s also the home base of Elon Musk and his, you know, SpaceX company. And so, the idea that we have a woman from Brownsville taking the executive branch of Texas, someone who’s going to take on Elon Musk, who’s going to hopefully end collaboration with ICE at the state level, it just means so much to the people here, and especially the Latino community.

ANJALI KAMAT: And Elon Musk poured, I mean, nearly half a billion dollars to keep Republicans in power and to keep Texas red. What happened to that bet? And now, what’s at stake with all the data centers?

MIKE SIEGEL: What I loved hearing from James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa on the campaign trail is how they framed this election as a battle between, you know, the billionaires and the people. And, you know, we’ve had cycles of billionaires in Texas who have taken over the political system, whether it’s these West Texas billionaires, you know, who are from the oil and gas industry, whether it’s this Pennsylvania billionaire who forced us to have, you know, vouchers in our public education system, and now Elon Musk. These folks have been absolutely distorting the political process, undermining democracy and sacrificing, you know, working people, ordinary Texans, for their own profits. And so, the idea that this grassroots movement across the state, you know, led by our standard-bearers on the Democratic Party ticket, that we were able to defeat Elon, defeat these billionaire interests, despite being outspent, it means so much.

At the same time, we can’t celebrate too much. Obviously, last night was amazing. And, oh man, the social media feeds right now of people just celebrating all the blood, sweat and tears is just so healthy. It’s a wonderful thing right now that all of us are experiencing right now. But we have to take this so seriously that, really, Democrats in Texas have four years to deliver — right? — to show a different way of politics, a different way of government, whether that’s restoring public education, whether that’s expanding healthcare. You know, Abbott refused Medicaid expansion. We have the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, especially among Black women. On environmental issues, on surveillance, the idea that Abbott was supporting the proliferation of Flock cameras and, yes, you know, giving all these tax benefits to AI and data center companies to buy up land, to jack up land values, to raise our electric and water rates — all of these issues are the reasons why we won. I mean, there were so many issues that were in our favor, and our leading candidates — 

AMY GOODMAN: We —

MIKE SIEGEL: — took the right side. Sorry, and I’ll go back to y’all. But I just think — I think we have a lot of work to do to keep the momentum, of course.

AMY GOODMAN: And we want to thank you, Mike Siegel, for being with us. One of the most touching scenes yesterday was in Houston. In Houston, in July, the 52-year-old Mexican national, longtime U.S. resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent. Yesterday, his son Ronaldo voted, and then he took his “I just voted” sticker and put it at the memorial for his father. And then, one Texan after another, after they came out of the voting booth, put their sticker there, too, remembering the man who was killed by ICE in Houston, Texas, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Mike Siegel, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Austin, Texas, City Council member, two-time Democratic nominee for Congress, founder of Ground Game Texas, a statewide voter turnout organization.

When we come back, we continue to look at historic wins. We go to Georgia to speak with Emory professor Carol Anderson about the victory of the first Black woman governor in U.S. history. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman.