Democrats are used to heartbreak in Texas - could Talarico turn the tide?

The race for a US Senate seat in Texas may prove crucial in determining which party controls Congress next year – a significant prize in its own right - but for both parties it represents so much more than that.

For the Democrats, their losing streak in statewide elections now stretches back more than three decades. In the second most populous state in America, liberals have been in the wilderness for a generation.

But polls suggest their candidate, 37-year-old James Talarico, may be on the verge of breaking through and turning a Texas Senate seat blue for the first time since 1988.