Tuesday’s Texas primaries mark an early test of party strength for the 2026 midterm election cycle, with results in the two U.S. Senate contests set to shape who Republicans and Democrats will send into November. In addition to the Senate races, voters also choose nominees for governor and other statewide offices, plus candidates for the Texas Legislature and U.S. House seats.
In the Republican U.S. Senate primary, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is seeking renomination after winning his previous four Senate nominations without having to fight in a primary. This year, the field includes a challenge from state Attorney General Ken Paxton, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt and five others, making it one of the more closely watched Republican Senate intraparty contests for Texas.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are competing for the nomination to face the eventual Republican winner, with a third Democratic contender, Ahmad Hassan, also in the race. The AP decision notes outline that these contests will be part of what voters in multiple states are deciding on Tuesday as the general election picture begins to form for 2026.
The governor’s race adds another major statewide matchup, with incumbent Republican Greg Abbott running for a fourth term against 10 Republican challengers. The Democratic field includes former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa and six other active candidates.
Down the ballot, the AP decision notes point to changes in U.S. House races stemming from redistricting. They describe new congressional districts that Texas Republicans redrew at President Donald Trump’s urging as part of an effort to maintain control of the House, and they highlight how some contests may change quickly because of the new map.
Among the district-level matchups mentioned in the notes, the AP says U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green will face each other and two others in the redrawn 18th Congressional District. The notes also say Democratic U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson in the new 33rd Congressional District will face former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and two other candidates in the primary.
The AP decision notes also flag vulnerable Republican incumbents in the House races, including Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Tony Gonzales, who face strong primary challenges in the 2nd and 23rd congressional districts. The notes state that Gonzales has faced calls to resign from fellow Republicans over allegations of an affair with a former staffer who killed herself.
Texas rules require primary winners to receive a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff, and the AP decision notes say that runoff election day is May 26 if needed. The notes also explain that polls close statewide at 7 p.m. local time, but Texas is split into two time zones, with most of the state closing at 8 p.m. ET and the westernmost area closing at 9 p.m. ET, and they say the AP will not make race calls in statewide contests until the last polls close at 9 p.m. ET.
The AP decision notes lay out how they plan to declare winners in primaries: the AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it can determine that no scenario would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. The notes say that if a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover newsworthy developments such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory, while explaining that it has not yet declared a winner.
The decision notes also include turnout and vote-counting context. As of the November 2025 general election, the AP says there were about 18.5 million registered voters in Texas, and it reports that turnout in recent gubernatorial primaries included nearly 2 million voters in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary and nearly 1.1 million in the Democratic primary, with about 53% of Republican primary votes and about 58% of Democratic primary votes cast before primary day.
The AP notes say early and absentee results historically are released in large blocks early in the vote-counting process. It also describes recent timing benchmarks from the 2024 U.S. Senate primaries, including when the AP first reported results after polls closed and when the last vote updates came in the Democratic and Republican primaries.