Over 4,000 supporters gathered in Austin celebrated as the Democrat claimed a U.S. Senate victory, hoping his win would usher in a new era for Texas politics.
By Sally Avila Edwards,Staff Writer
AUSTIN – Ervin Jordan jumped up and down as election results rolled in Tuesday night, his cowboy hat bobbing above the crowd of supporters gathered to watch Democrat James Talarico’s bid for the U.S. Senate.
For Jordan, a 43-year-old military veteran and former bull rider from Houston, the election was about more than sending a Democrat to Washington. It was about bringing Texans back together after decades of Republican dominance.
“I was young when we had all Democrats, then I grew into all the Republicans. And I’ve seen the decline of Texas, the separation of Texas. This right here, Talarico is going to bring us back together as one Texas,” Jordan said.
That sense of possibility brought supporters from across Texas to Austin, where they watched election returns with hopes that Talarico could accomplish something Democrats have failed to do for decades: win a statewide election.
Among them was Nizam Uddin, 60, of Austin, who compared Talarico to former President Barack Obama and President John F. Kennedy, two Democrats whose political appeal extended beyond their party’s traditional supporters.
Uddin said Talarico represented the kind of candidate Democrats should have been running all along.
“This kind of candidate that we should have had all the time,” he said. “He’s more Texan than anything else.”
His ambitions for Talarico extend well beyond the Senate.
“I met him, I was here on his primary,” he said. “I told him not only he should run for the Senate, day after today, he should get prepared for the next presidential run”
For Mario Jimenez of Laredo, election night was also a family celebration.
His daughter, Cecilia, has worked on Talarico’s campaign from the beginning, warming up crowds before the candidate takes the stage. Jimenez traveled to Austin with his wife, also named Cecilia, to support their daughter and watch the election returns.
Jimenez and his wife immigrated from Mexico 35 years ago, and Jimenez said seeing his daughter play a prominent role in the campaign was deeply personal.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said. “We came from Mexico 35 years ago and raised our daughter, we raised her to do the right things — and there she is. risking it for the right cause.”
Jimenez was optimistic about the outcome from the start of the night.
“I have the feeling that we got this one,” he said.
Back among the cheering supporters, Jordan was already imagining Talarico taking the stage to deliver a victory speech.
For the Houston veteran, that possibility represented something he had waited much of his adult life to see: a Democrat breaking the Republican Party’s decades-long hold on statewide office and promising a different direction for Texas.
When CNN called the race for Talarico, supporters were ecstatic — jumping up and down, openly weeping, and embracing. When the Senator-Elect took to the stage, a thunderous cheer rolled across the auditorium.
“This is a win the size of Texas, and now, we have a mandate the size of Texas,” Talarico said. “Now, the real work begins.”
Staff writer
Sally Avila Edwards is an intern for The Dallas Morning News. Avila Edwards covers the latest breaking and trending news about the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She graduated from Harvard with a degree in Government and English Literature. Originally from Central Texas, Avila Edwards previously reported for KXAN Austin and The Harvard Crimson.
