Texas 2026 Election & Infrastructure Intelligence

# Texas Elections and Infrastructure Overview Updated August 3, 2026. Texas combines the nation's largest congressional delegation with the most consequential large-load electricity queue in the country. The state ballot includes governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, railroad commissioner, U.S. Senate and all 38 House districts. ## Infrastructure baseline ERCOT reported more than 438,000 MW of large-load interconnection requests in June 2026, nearly 89 percent associated with data centers. Batch Zero groups qualified requests of at least 75 MW for coordinated reliability and transmission review. SB 6 addresses cost allocation, forecasting, reliability and emergency load shedding. On August 3, Governor Greg Abbott ordered a broader audit and directed regulators to deny or delay projects that fail state requirements. ## Electoral baseline The governor race is Greg Abbott versus Gina Hinojosa. The Senate race is Ken Paxton versus James Talarico and is polling competitively. All 38 House districts are tracked, with special priority assigned to TX-15, TX-23, TX-28, TX-34 and TX-35. Candidate-list verification remains active through the August 17 write-in deadline and August 21 withdrawal deadline.

Race	Status	Candidates	Impact	Key issue
Governor - Statewide	See research	See candidate dossiers	Medium	Infrastructure and policy impact
U.S. Senate - Statewide	See research	See candidate dossiers	Medium	Infrastructure and policy impact

# Texas Race and Candidate Dossiers ## Governor - Statewide **Importance:** Critical **Stage:** General election **Infrastructure:** ERCOT reliability; data-center audit; water; tax incentives; local impacts **Polling:** Competitive; current public surveys vary ### Greg Abbott (Republican) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Conditional** - Confidence: High - Evidence: Ordered audits and denial of grid connections for projects failing reliability, cost, water and neighborhood requirements; earlier directed full developer payment of attributable grid costs. - Backing/alignment: Incumbent; Texas Republican establishment ### Gina Hinojosa (Democratic) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Pause** - Confidence: Medium - Evidence: Called for a pause in data-center expansion pending stronger protections, according to contemporaneous reporting. - Backing/alignment: State representative; Democratic nominee ## U.S. Senate - Statewide **Importance:** Critical **Stage:** General election **Infrastructure:** Federal AI policy; energy permitting; ERCOT growth; semiconductor and defense infrastructure **Polling:** Talarico narrowly leads in recent polling; Fox reported 51%-48% ### Ken Paxton (Republican) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Enable** - Confidence: Medium - Evidence: Broad pro-energy, deregulatory and technology-growth alignment; no detailed Texas large-load cost framework located. - Backing/alignment: Trump-backed; former attorney general ### James Talarico (Democratic) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Conditional** - Confidence: Medium - Evidence: Supports economic development with consumer, grid and community protections; direct comprehensive data-center framework requires continued verification. - Backing/alignment: State representative; Democratic nominee ## Lieutenant Governor - Statewide **Importance:** High **Stage:** General election **Infrastructure:** Energy policy; taxation; land and water; industrial development **Polling:** No verified public poll ### Dan Patrick (Republican) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Unverified** - Confidence: Low - Evidence: No sufficiently specific direct evidence located. - Backing/alignment: Not yet fully verified. ### Vikki Goodwin (Democratic) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Unverified** - Confidence: Low - Evidence: No sufficiently specific direct evidence located. - Backing/alignment: Not yet fully verified. ## Attorney General - Statewide **Importance:** Medium **Stage:** General election **Infrastructure:** Energy policy; taxation; land and water; industrial development **Polling:** No verified public poll ### Mayes Middleton (Republican) - Status: Nominee - Data-center posture: **Unverified** - Confidence: Low - Evidence: No sufficiently specific direct evidence located. - Backing/alignment: Not yet fully verified. ## Comptroller - Statewide **Importance:** Medium **Stage:** General election **Infrastructure:

# Research Gaps and Refresh Rules 1. Refresh the Texas Secretary of State candidate listing daily through August 21. 2. Replace every pending nominee field with the certified ballot name immediately upon confirmation. 3. Track Abbott's August 3 audit instructions, PUCT implementation orders, ERCOT Batch Zero results and any special-session legislation. 4. Capture candidate statements on SB 6, data-center tax incentives, water-efficient cooling, noise setbacks, backup generation and local authority. 5. Store every poll with pollster, sponsor, field dates, sample, mode and margin of error. 6. Do not infer a specific data-center posture solely from party affiliation. 7. Preserve current-district and 2026-map identities separately where redistricting creates ambiguity.