Texas Democrats stunned the world this week—and they are only getting started. After cycles of overestimating their chances of victory, they completed a total conquest of every statewide seat and control of the statehouse, upending the GOP’s spiritual home in a single night.

Anger at the party in power drove independents, Hispanic voters, young voters and onetime Republicans to swing leftward in force, rejecting the political agenda of President Trump and the Texas Republican leadership despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to save it.

“On no Bingo card did I have the entire slate going down,” said Dade Phelan, a retiring Republican state representative and former Speaker of the House who has been critical of Trump and the far right. “It was just a wholesale extinction of Republicans last night. It was shocking.”Democrats now wield immense power with control of a U.S. Senate seat, the statehouse, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, comptroller, land commissioner, railroad commissioner, four state Supreme Court seats and three criminal appeals court seats.

The consequences of the Democratic sweep will extend well beyond the Lone Star State’s borders, reshaping Texas politics and creating new challenges for Republicans in Washington and at home. Here are some of the dynamics to watch.

Sen. Ted Cruz now becomes the lone Republican holding high-profile statewide elected office in Texas. Democrat James Talarico will join him in the U.S. Senate.

Cruz, who has long eyed a presidential run in 2028, faces a changed political landscape at home. He’ll have to decide if wants to work with his new Democratic colleagues. And if he were to run and win the White House, it would give incoming Democratic Gov. Gina Hinojosa the power to appoint his temporary replacement.

Cruz has called the Republican losses a “blue tsunami” and “Watergate-level repudiation,” and vowed that Republicans will reclaim the state by rebuilding “as a true blue-collar party, not by embracing socialism, but by being real free-market conservatives.”Hinojosa will inherit an office where three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has spent more than a decade consolidating unprecedented executive power, using emergency declarations and other tools to exert greater control over state government.

Several state appointments could give Hinojosa opportunities to reshape the state government. They include the secretary of state and seats on the state’s public university governing boards. She will be able to appoint new regents to the University of Texas system, when conservative leadership has been rewriting the education system of the state.

Hinojosa campaigned on increasing funding for public schools and opposing private-school vouchers, which Republicans pushed through the legislature. On the campaign trail, she repeatedly vowed to fire Education Commissioner Mike Morath on her first day in office.

Democrat Vikki Goodwin, who ousted powerful Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, will assume a post with significant authority over the state Senate, including naming committees, setting rules and controlling which bills reach debate.

Republican state senators could, however, change rules to limit Goodwin’s powers before she takes office. At the start of each legislative session, the Senate adopts its rules and could roll back some of the lieutenant governor’s authority as the presiding officer of the upper chamber.

Republicans will still hold a majority in the Capitol’s upper chamber when the legislative session begins in January. With that Senate majority, Republicans can block appointments and legislative priorities coming from Hinojosa and Democrats. Any funding for Hinojosa’s policy priorities also must clear the Senate.

All eyes are on whether Talarico and other Democrats could help bring Texas back to an era of bipartisanship it enjoyed when the state was more competitive, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He campaigned on a message of inclusiveness and, since winning, has doubled down on saying he will reach out to work with people across the political spectrum.

“I’m going to build bridges with all of my 99 colleagues in the U.S. Senate,” Talarico said in a CNN interview Wednesday. “I’m going to build bridges or at least try to with President Trump, because my mandate is to deliver for working people in my state.”

Cruz wrote on X that he is willing to work with Talarico and other Democrats “when they are willing to be reasonable”—like in bringing flood relief to the Hill Country or bringing a space academy to the state.

Hinojosa announced at a news conference Thursday that her transition team includes Republican Ernest Bailes, a former state lawmaker who lost his seat to an Abbott-endorsed primary challenger after he did not support Abbott’s preferred school-voucher plan.

The proof that Democrats can be competitive in Texas stands to upend power dynamics in future elections. Texas has gone red in every presidential election since 1980 and is considered vital to any GOP electoral college win. This shift now makes it a central battleground in the 2028 presidential race and elections that follow, and will surely draw in more attention from both parties than in years past. The battle for Texas, however, will come with a massive price tag.

A competitive Texas could impact elections across the country simply because of its size and ability to devour political money. Advertising costs in this year’s Senate race topped $573 million, making it the most expensive nonpresidential race on record, according to Ad Impact. That is a preview of the money both parties could pour into the state in future cycles—and of the pressure it could put on national campaign budgets.