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Nov. 10: What Happened and What Comes Next: post-election review with James Dawson

How Texas' religious traditions helped shape Talarico's Senate victory

How did progressive Democrat James Talarico win the Texas Senate race? Historian Joseph Locke argues that the state’s conservative religious politics are a historical outlier.

Religion has long shaped Texas politics, from the populist movements of tenant farmers and sharecroppers to the civil rights movement and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Joseph Locke, a history professor at the University of North Texas and author of “One State Under God: A History of Religion in Texas,” about the state’s political and religious traditions.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

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