(The Texas Tribune) - For the home stretch of his yearlong Senate campaign, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton goaded his opponent, James Talarico, to "Come and Take It." On Tuesday night, Talarico did just that, handing Paxton his first ever electoral defeat in an election that decimated Republicans' decades-long winning streak.

Despite months of polls projecting a Talarico win, Paxton's loss came as a shock to both his supporters and detractors who have grown used to seeing the scandal-plagued candidate defy the odds and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, time and time again.

Riding the wave of Texas' growing hardline conservatism, Paxton rose from a legislative backbencher to the most prominent red-state attorney general in the country and a standard bearer of the modern Texas GOP.