Well, the results are in from deep in the heart of Texas, and it was a big night for both parties' political establishment wings. On the Republican side, two candidates will now head to a runoff election in a few more months (May 26th), but the sitting senator surprisingly got more votes than his firebrand challenger. On the Democratic side, the establishment candidate beat out his own firebrand challenger and won the nomination outright. Neither of these outcomes was guaranteed, and the vote was pretty close in both, but both parties' bigwigs are undoubtedly now heaving a big sigh of relief.

Republican Senator John Cornyn, as of this writing, eked out a slim win over challenger Ken Paxton last night -- but the margin was about as razor-thin as you can get. With over 95 percent of the votes counted, Cornyn had received 904,548 votes to Paxton's 878,412. Out of more than 2.1 million votes cast, the margin was only 26,000. That's close. Neither candidate managed to get even 42 percent of the total vote (due to a third candidate in the race), which means they will face each other again in a runoff election. But Cornyn's position is a lot stronger now after proving he could still beat Paxton. If Paxton had edged Cornyn out, the conversation today would be far different. Paxton was actually favored in the polling, so even though Cornyn is an incumbent, this was somewhat of an upset.

But it could lead to weeks and weeks of both GOP candidates spending piles of money attacking each other. Which would, of course, mean a lot of money essentially wasted before the Republican general election campaign even gets started. So Donald Trump decided to weigh in, in typical fashion (making the race all about himself, in other words):

The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT! My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don't Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!!

This may prove to be wishful thinking on his part. If Trump endorses Cornyn, will Paxton gracefully drop out of the race? That's hard to imagine, since Paxton and the word "gracefully" are generally never used in the same sentence at all. Paxton is a maverick, and delights in doing exactly what he feels like doing, so even with Trump set against him, it's hard to see him being convinced to drop his campaign for the good of the party.

It's also hard to imagine Cornyn dropping out, if Trump gives the nod to Paxton. John Cornyn is, after all, a sitting United States senator. He has risen (at times) to leadership positions in the Senate, and is dead-set against having Paxton be his party's nominee. He has broken ranks with Trump on previous occasions, so it'd be tough to see Cornyn dropping out of the race just because Trump told him to. Stranger things have happened, but it doesn't seem guaranteed that either one of these candidates will just meekly drop out if Trump tells them to.

The conventional wisdom from the GOP establishment is most likely right, it bears mentioning. Cornyn would almost certainly have a better chance of winning in November than Paxton -- especially now that the Democratic nominee has been chosen. Paxton is so polarizing a figure that a Texas Democrat could actually manage to beat him, while Cornyn would have a much better chance of winning in November. It will be interesting to see which way Trump moves, since he obviously likes Paxton a lot better than he does Cornyn. But he might also be convinced that Cornyn would have a much better chance of winning, so he might make the practical pick.

With or without Trump's endorsement, it's tough to predict what will happen in the runoff election. The third candidate, Wesley Hunt, pulled in 13.5 percent of the vote (almost 300,000 votes), so his voters may be the key to Cornyn or Paxton's ultimate victory. Did they vote for Hunt because they were too disgusted with both of the other candidates? Which candidate will be able to convince Hunt voters to back them in the runoff? Of course, Trump weighing in will probably have a big effect in this equation, but it'll be interesting to see what the polling says in the next few weeks.

Over on the Democratic side, the race wasn't quite as close. James Talarico won 52.4 percent of the vote to beat Jasmine Crockett's 46.2 percent. As of this writing, Talarico got around 150,000 more votes than Crockett -- still close, but not as close as the Republican race. Interestingly, more people voted in the Democratic primary (2.31 million) than in the Republican primary (2.16 million), which shows a certain degree of enthusiasm on the Democratic side. Usually Republicans turn out around 20 percent more voters in Texas primaries, so the fact that more Democrats voted than Republicans is pretty noteworthy.

The Democratic voting was a bit marred by Republican tactics that changed the way voters in certain counties had to cast their ballots -- which resulted in some voters being turned away from polling places, and led to duelling judicial rulings on whether the polls could stay open a few hours longer or not. These were urban areas, where Crockett was a lot stronger than Talarico.

But Crockett conceded the race this morning, instead of dragging everything out with a court case. Instead, her campaign released a message stating:

This morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person. This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I'm committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.

Kamala Harris, who was Crockett's biggest Democratic endorsement, also put out a statement urging party unity: "I congratulate James Talarico for his win, and the inspiring campaign he continues to build. I offer him my full support in the months ahead."

Support for the two candidates divided largely along racial lines, with Talarico holding a strong advantage with Latinos and Crockett holding a strong advantage among Black voters. Healing this divide will be critical for Democrats to have a chance in November, but Talarico's Latino strength is already making Republicans very worried. Texas redistricted their House seats to try to add five more Republicans, but they did so using data from the 2024 election, where Trump pulled in a lot of Latino votes that aren't what you would call solid Republican voters. If a large portion of them flip over to voting for a Democrat (or even stay home), it could undermine the whole redistricting plan (turning it into a "dummymander" rather than a gerrymander).

James Talarico is an interesting candidate, and although he was backed by most of the Democratic establishment he should not be thought of as a political moderate. He won almost all the counties carried by Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, showing that Talarico has support among Texas progressives. His message is centered on economic populism and his own deeply held Christian views (he is a seminary student on leave from his studies). He explained this in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert (that got lots of attention because CBS pressured Colbert not to air it, so he put it up on YouTube instead, where it has gotten over nine million views). Talarico says Christianity is easy to understand because God basically asks for just two things: love God, and love your neighbor. Talarico isn't afraid of taking on Christian Nationalists on the right, who twist the words of Jesus to mean what they want them to mean. This is not the usual campaign message for a Democratic candidate, but it might just be the right one for Texas. After all, compassion for your neighbor is, as Talarico points out, at the heart of most of what the Democratic Party believes in.

Talarico has also been campaigning hard in an effort to win over voters that might have supported Donald Trump and Republicans previously, but might now be ready to jump ship. His inclusive style of campaigning contrasted sharply with Crockett, who ran an "excite the base and turn out voters who don't normally vote" style campaign. Talarico's style may give Democrats a better chance in November.

But to close on a sobering note, this is still Texas we are talking about. No matter which Republican emerges as the nominee, they are going to get vicious in portraying Talarico as some sort of communist radical lefty weirdo. And flipping Texas blue -- for at least two decades now, if not longer -- has always been the impossible dream for Democrats. They routinely expend a whole lot of energy and time and money in the effort (remember Beto O'Rourke?) but have always come up short when the votes are counted. That could play out this year, too. It is still going to be a very steep uphill climb for Talarico, no matter which Republican he winds up running against. But even having said all of that, Talarico does look like he at least has a chance to pull off a big impossible dream upset in November. And for now, that's good enough for most Democrats.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant