Texas has never elected an unmarried man to US Senate — until this race
Texas has never elected an unmarried man US senator or as state governor.
For generations, Texas politics has treated marriage not just as a personal biography but also as a political attribute. Governors posed with their wives and children in campaign advertisements. First Ladies have become extensions of campaigns. Family values were not just messaging points; these were often part of the image voters expected of senior elected leaders.
This expectation was sometimes stated explicitly.
In June 2001, at a reception for then-Gov. RickPerry, President George W. Bush described family life as the center of leadership: “What I appreciate most is your integrity and your values, and the fact that you make your family your top priority. I love the fact that you love your wife and children,” he says.
Now, that long-standing pattern is headed for a new test in the closely watched U.S. Senate race between Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico; Here, for the first time, voters will choose between two single men for one of the state’s highest offices.
The matchup is already notable not only for its ideological stakes, but also for how each candidate’s personal biography is discussed in political messaging and online comments; It’s a familiar feature of high-profile Texas campaigns, which often center on competitive statewide races.
Paxton, whose wife filed for divorce in July 2025, is joining the race after years in public office, where family life has long been a part of his political identity.
Meanwhile, Talarico has faced renewed public attention in his personal life as he steps into one of the state’s most high-profile races. Some online critics have focused on his support for LGBTQ+ rights and accusations of veganism, a label he disputes in public and on social media, where he has been shown consuming meat. Recently, as the contours of the race became clearer, interest in his relationship status began to circulate in online discussions and his previously mysterious girlfriend, Brianna Menard, came into the spotlight and made headlines across the US, including in the New York Post.
While family structures have changed in recent years—with Americans marrying later and more adults remaining single—remnants of old expectations can still surface in voter perception, even if they are not as noticeable.
It remains unclear whether this has any weight in the Paxton-Talarico matchup.
More: What is beef? Why is the GOP falsely claiming James Talarico is vegan?
Has Texas ever elected an unmarried man as senator?
According to compiled historical biographies, no U.S. senator in Texas has ever been elected while unmarried. Texas State Historical Society.
Both of the state’s current U.S. senators (Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn) were married during their campaigns and remain in office. Cruz, who was elected in 2012 and sworn in as a deputy senator in 2013, married his wife Heidi in 2001. Cornyn, who was first elected to the Senate in 2002, has been married since 1979.
And every senator before him, senior or junior, was married at the time of their election. However, not every senator was married for their entire term, and there were cases in Texas history where men joined the U.S. Senate without being married without being elected by voters.
They include Morgan C. Hamilton, John Henninger Reagan, and Matthias Ward, who served in the Reconstruction-era and pre-17th Amendment eras when U.S. senators were appointed by the Texas Legislature rather than elected as was standard election practice.
Two of the clearest examples of this in the modern era are William A. Blakley and Andrew Jackson Houston; Both were appointed to fill positions vacated following the death or resignation of sitting senators, according to their biographies.
Blakley served two brief terms as a U.S. senator pro tempore, first in 1957 following the resignation of Price Daniel and again in 1961 following the resignation of Lyndon B. Johnson, who left the Senate to become vice president. In both cases, Blakley lost the subsequent special election and was replaced by the voters’ election.
Additionally, Andrew Jackson Houston was appointed in 1941 following the death of Senator Morris Sheppard. He served for just over two months, the shortest term of any U.S. senator from Texas, and did not seek re-election.
Still, there is no documented case of a candidate who was unmarried at the time of the election being elected to the U.S. Senate by Texas voters.
More: Talarico ahead of Paxton in first Texas Senate poll after GOP runoff
Was Ken Paxton ever married?
Yes. Paxton was married for nearly four decades before his wife filed for divorce last year.
He married Angela Paxton in 1986 after the two met at Baylor University. The couple remained married for 38 years and raised four children together, while both became active in Texas politics; himself as attorney general, himself as a state senator.
In July 2025, He announced on social media that he filed for divorceHe wrote that he did so “biblically” and sought reconciliation, but no longer believed it was appropriate to remain in the marriage.
“I believe marriage is a sacred agreement and I pursue reconciliation earnestly,” he wrote. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that remaining in marriage honors God or loves myself, my children, or Ken. I move forward with full confidence that God always works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”
Ken Paxton also shared a post on X shortly after, saying that the couple decided to “open a new page in our lives” and asked for privacy.
At the time of these press releases, neither the case details nor the underlying circumstances outlined in the court records were publicly available. The records were initially sealed at the couple’s request, and the reasons for the divorce were not disclosed.
However, the records were unsealed in February. Texas NewsroomAfter a group of news media organizations appealed the decision, arguing that the case involved issues of public interest tied to public office, possible use of taxpayer resources and court transparency, according to The Texas Newsroom. In the applications, adultery was claimed as the reason for divorce.
Allegations of adultery also emerged during Paxton’s impeachment proceedings in 2023; where former aides testified as part of broader allegations involving misconduct, conflicts of interest and Paxton’s interactions with a political donor whose company employed the woman who had an affair with the attorney general. The Texas Senate ultimately acquitted Paxton.
Paxton was divorced during his U.S. Senate campaign, which began in November 2025. It is expected that he will still be unmarried in the general elections in November.
Has James Talarico ever been married?
No. Talarico never married.
The 37-year-old Democratic state representative from Austin has largely kept his personal life out of his political profile throughout his years in the Texas House; here he built a reputation around education policy and progressive messages often framed within Christian language and values.
As he enters the 2026 U.S. Senate race, his personal life has attracted increasing public attention, including discussions about his relationship status.
It was revealed for the first time that he was in a relationship during an appearance Jamie Kern Lima ShowDescribing his girlfriend as his “rock,” he said, “I don’t know if I would have made it through the last six months of this crazy race without her by my side.”
But until last week, the identity of his girlfriend, Brianna Menard, 30, was not made public in wider news. The two met when Menard took over as Talarico’s chief of staff in 2022, but they didn’t start dating until January of the following year, according to the report. New York Post.
She currently works as a lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association, which claims to focus on “bipartisan efforts to improve early learning, access to child care, workforce development, and health care affordability.” The association also supports gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone care.
Talarico was unmarried at the time of his U.S. Senate campaign, which began in September 2025. He is expected to be currently unmarried when voters go to the polls in November.
More: Talarico ‘regrets’ past comments – what ’embarrassing’ comments are
Brandi D. Addison covers weather across the United States as the USA TODAY Network and Texas’ Weather Connect Reporter. He can be reached at baddison@gannett.com.. You can find him on Facebook here.
This article first appeared on USA TODAY: Texas voters could make history with 2 single US Senate elections
