Republicans are going into the fall midterm elections expecting to take their lumps. Polls show them losing or barely hanging on in a number of districts they have long held. And at the state legislative level, Democrats have relied on an energized voting base to take over some long-held Republican seats, causing a great deal of discomfort within the GOP.

Then again, that isn't true everywhere. Last night in West Texas, there was a special election to finish out the four-year term of state Sen. Carlos Uresti, who had resigned after being convicted of 11 felony charges. The seat hadn't been held by a Republican since 1879, and a lot of people assumed that no Republican could win there, just because 66 percent of the population is Hispanic.

Well, the Republican candidate, Pete Flores, did win last night with 53 percent of the vote. Not only that, but he beat Pete Gallego, a former Democratic congressman who had once been considered a rising star in the state party. The San Antonio Express-News states that the win all but guarantees Republicans will retain their state Senate supermajority after November's election.

Local Democrats, meanwhile, seem pretty much in shock at the outcome. No one seems to have any obvious explanation except for complacency -- a strange thing for the party in power to suffer from right in the middle of an election season. Vox is warning of possible close losses in November that could deprive or limit Democrats of a historic opportunity to make gains.

Surprisingly, Flores becomes the first Hispanic Republican to serve in Texas' state Senate.