Impacts, implications of blue wave in Texas surprise political experts

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- History was made in Texas during the midterm elections.

James Talarico delivered Democrats their first statewide win since 1988. And Gina Hinojosa is headed to the Governor’s mansion, the first Democrat to win there since 1990.

While most eyes were on the race for senate and governor in Texas, Democrats are projected to win essentially every statewide office.

Besides Talarico and Hinojosa set to be sworn in come January, all other statewide officials on the ballot are going to democrats except the courts. That's according to the latest results from the Texas Secretary of State.

That includes Vikki Goodwin as Lieutenant Governor, who will also preside over the state Senate, Nathan Johnson as Attorney General, Sarah Eckhardt as Comptroller of Public Accounts, Benjamin Flores as Land Commissioner, Clayton Tucker as Commissioner of Agriculture, and Jon Rosenthal as Railroad Commissioner.

That leaves Senator Ted Cruz as the only statewide Republican left, as he wasn't on the ballot. 

"I wouldn't have believed it a year ago," said UT Austin Professor James Henson. "I probably, frankly, wouldn't have believed it two months ago."

Henson is director of the Texas Politics Project and did polling in the lead-up to this election.

In the state legislature, Democrats are now predicted to take control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time in a generation.

The votes are still being counted, but the Texas Tribune has called that Democrats have at least half of the house seats in the state, picking up the more than 75 seats required for the majority.

This hasn't been seen since the start of the century - and is one more surprising result for political experts in the state.

"So I think we're going to see a lot more conflict and a lot more need for compromise between the two parties," Henson said. "And that's going to be the big question going in. In this political environment where voters are clearly unhappy with patterns and governance and have been unhappy with them for a while, will there be incentives in any of these of the key policy areas for cooperation between these newly empowered Democrats and Republicans that are retrenching in their last stronghold in the Texas Senate?

Even with expectations of a wave election in response to the administration in this midterm - and political baggage in the top of ballot race, Henson says it wasn't expected to be a complete sea-change in political power in Texas.

"We saw Democratic advantages building in some ways, but we also knew that Republicans went into this with a lot of institutional advantages," Henson said. "And I think this is where the nationalization of the election weakened the foundation that might otherwise have stood a more moderate storm."

Democrats are expected to pick up seats in other bodies as well, such as on the Texas Supreme Court and the state Board of Education.

And the reasons and implications behind this will be studied for years to come.

"Choose your metaphor. This was a major hurricane or a major earthquake," Henson said. "And the Republican infrastructure that had withstood, you know, other challenges over the last couple of decades just couldn't couldn't withstand the onslaught this time."

The Texas legislature goes into its next session come January as well, and there are a lot of expectations of friction and figuring out the new balance of power with a likely split House and Senate in the state.

That's something ABC-7 and Professor Henson will be keeping a close eye on next year.