Democrat James Talarico won Texas’ U.S. Senate race Tuesday, NBC News projected, defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas in nearly four decades.

Talarico had 59.4% of the vote to Paxton’s 39.1% when NBC projected the race, with an estimated 63.5% of the expected vote counted. Libertarian Ted Brown had 1.5%.

The victory flips a Republican-held Senate seat and ends a drought stretching back to 1988, when Democrat Lloyd Bentsen won his final Senate election in Texas.

Talarico, a state representative from the Austin area and former public school teacher, emerged from a closely watched Democratic primary before facing Paxton, the three-term Texas attorney general, in the general election.

Paxton won the Republican nomination after defeating incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, setting up one of the nation’s highest-profile Senate contests. The race attracted extraordinary spending as Republicans fought to defend a seat in a state where the party had not lost a statewide election since 1994.

Talarico centered his campaign on affordability and a populist message arguing that wealthy donors and corporate interests wielded too much influence in politics. Paxton sought to portray Talarico as too progressive for Texas and leaned heavily on support from President Donald Trump.