Rev. Dr. Eve Blackwell has been elected U.S. senator from Texas, defeating incumbent Sen. Royce Whitman 51% to 49% and flipping the seat to Democrats, according to a campaign press release that said official results had been confirmed.

Blackwell, a Houston pastor and leader of Greater Cornerstone Cathedral in the city’s Third Ward, enters the Senate after a campaign focused heavily on household costs. Her campaign described the result as historic and said it was driven by voters seeking action on grocery prices, fuel costs, rent and other cost-of-living pressures.

The result changes the Senate’s party balance from the previously reported Republican 26-seat majority to a 25-25 split, with Democrats holding 24 seats when including the Independent who caucuses with them. The release did not state when Blackwell would be sworn in or identify the circumstances surrounding Whitman’s departure from office.

Blackwell’s campaign promoted a six-point cost-of-living platform that included spending discipline, domestic production, corporate price transparency, targeted family relief, results-based housing investment and a public quarterly scorecard.

In her election-night statement, Blackwell said she intended to make the platform’s commitments measurable after taking office.

“Relief was never supposed to be a hope,” Blackwell said in the statement. “It is work, and today Texas told me to go and do it.”

She said her priorities would include reducing waste, expanding domestic production, providing public information on corporate margins, directing assistance to families in need and increasing housing supply. She also pledged quarterly public updates on her work.

The campaign said Blackwell sought to distinguish herself by avoiding attack advertising, referring voters to public records and giving opponents credit when she believed they were correct. The release did not provide independent evidence assessing those claims or further details about the campaign’s advertising and outreach.

Blackwell has been a prominent religious and civic figure in Houston. According to biographical information provided by her campaign, she leads Greater Cornerstone Cathedral, one of the largest Black congregations in Texas. Before becoming the church’s senior leader following the death of her husband, Bishop James Blackwell, she spent years managing its operations and finances.

Her political profile has centered on housing, health care access, criminal-justice reform and working-family issues. During the Senate campaign, Blackwell placed economic concerns at the center of that agenda, framing affordability as a matter requiring both government oversight and practical policy implementation.

The close Texas result arrives during a polarized national political period in which cost of living, immigration and executive power have remained prominent issues. It also adds a new Democratic senator to a chamber that had been controlled by Republicans before the election.

Blackwell said the campaign’s outcome reflected participation from Texans facing financial strain rather than a personal victory.

“This isn’t the end of the fight for your grocery bill, your gas tank, or your rent,” she said. “This is the day that fight got a senator who shows up for it.”

Whitman had not issued a statement in the material provided.