🎾 Pickleball hits a wall

Pinch us, it's Friday.

🌤️ Today's weather: Getting warm out there, with a high approaching 90.

🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Austin members Randal Teich, Rainbow Di Benedetto — and a happy early birthday to members Cathy Nordstrom, Matt Wood, and Kara Bradley!

• Thanks so much for supporting our work.

Today's newsletter is 999 words — a 3.5 minute read.

With Ken Paxton's GOP primary win this week, Democrats now have the Republican Senate candidate, tactically speaking, they were hoping for.

• Now the question is whether their nominee, James Talarico, a young state lawmaker from Austin, can deliver them out of the wilderness.

Why it matters: A Talarico win would give the Democrats an unexpected seat in their quest to retake the Senate — and potentially move Texas into the battleground column for 2028, a seismic reordering of the national electoral landscape.

The latest: Talarico ratcheted up the pressure on Paxton yesterday, announcing his campaign had raised more than $3 million in the 24 hours after Paxton defeated longtime U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Tuesday runoff — calling it the biggest single-day haul of the campaign.

State of play: Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has dodged an impeachment conviction and an FBI investigation over corruption allegations from his own senior staffers. He also avoided a trial on felony security charges. Now his wife, Republican state Sen. Angela Paxton, is seeking a divorce on "biblical grounds."

• Meanwhile, Democrats are invigorated by special election results across the country, including in Texas, and see hope in President Trump's low approval ratings.

What's next: Talarico's first campaign stops of his general election campaign hint at his strategy: Excite the Democratic base and win over disaffected Republican voters in suburban and rural areas.

• He rallied in Houston on Wednesday night, spoke last night in Nacogdoches in deep-red East Texas and has stops in San Antonio, Leander (on Sunday) and then Plano — just down the road from Paxton's hometown in the northern Dallas suburbs.
• "We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis," Talarico said of Paxton at a packed nightclub in Houston.

The other side: At his victory rally on Tuesday night, Paxton called Talarico an "extreme radical."

• Paxton accused Talarico of running a "vegan campaign" and called his opponent "James Talafreako."
• The next night, Talarico said that he's been "eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment" and his campaign has coopted the insult, selling "I'm a Talafreako" T-shirts.

Jay R. Jordan contributed reporting.

The race between Paxton and Talarico could hinge on the answers to these questions:

• Can Paxton count on the support of establishment Republicans — personified by the George W. Bush wing of the party — who supported Cornyn?
• Will Black voters who supported U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) in her Senate primary campaign turn out for Talarico?
• Will Austin-based podcaster Joe Rogan, whose influence on young white men was so heavily scrutinized after the 2024 election and who praised Talarico on his show last year, go to bat for the Democrat — and will it matter?
• Will Talarico's populist message resonate amid rising prices — and Paxton's familiar culture warfare?

The bottom line: To the extent this vote is a referendum on the president, what will the national mood about Trump be in October, when early voting begins?

• Will Texas Republicans want to show their support for Trump — or will many of them just stay home?

🏍️ The Austin City Council voted to direct the city manager to address the growing presence of e-dirt bikes and e-motorcycles. (City of Austin)

🚌 CapMetro has opened two new Park and Ride lots at the endpoints of key bus routes to make commuting into Austin easier. (CultureMap Austin)

🏨 The Line, the hip lakeside hotel in downtown Austin, is headed to foreclosure auction. (Austin Business Journal 🔒)

📲 Austin police say they'll make emergency alert texts clearer after residents complained recent messages were confusing and felt "spammy." (KUT)

😔 Quote du jour

"I was so proud to see the old water tower from the Pickle Research Campus, along with cedar roots donated by locals, recycled and given new life through her. It hurts deeply to know that it all went up in smoke."

— Artist Thomas Dambo this week on the destruction of Malin, his troll sculpture in Pease Park that was discovered burned to the ground late last week.

Google is partnering with local chambers of commerce and small business development centers across Texas to provide hands-on AI training to help people solve business challenges.

The result: Small businesses put AI to work for practical, everyday applications.

Learn more.

Answer correctly these three questions, drawn from this week's Axios Austin newsletters, and you could win a much esteemed shoutout in our Monday edition.

📬 Click on the reply button to this email.

1. Who is "MAGA Mayes" and what did he win this week? (Acceptable tactic: Ask Google for the answer.)
2. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson revealed the names of his new bulldogs. Give us one of them.
3. Which Austin-area state lawmaker is now the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor? (See our suggestion on question No. 1.)

The pickleball craze — so hot in the pandemic and immediately afterwards — may be cooling off.

The big picture: The number of pickleball courts across the 100 most populous U.S. cities increased just 4% from 2025 to 2026. That's compared to 13% growth in 2025, and 14% in 2024.

Yes, but: Parks in the country's biggest cities now have 3,765 pickleball courts, the Trust for Public Land says — up nearly 900% from 2017.

• That includes those striped for both tennis and pickleball.

Zoom in: The website Pickleheads counts at least 75 courts in the Austin area.

🎾 Will Klein, TPL's director of parks research, tells Axios: "Cities are still adding courts, but not at the breakneck pace we saw over the last two years and since 2017."

• "That slowdown mirrors what we're seeing more broadly in parks systems nationwide, where local leaders are balancing tighter budgets, aging infrastructure, and growing demand for many different kinds of recreational amenities."

Jeremy Denson and his team at Bison Coolers in Texas use Google AI to process orders, take notes, and draft emails, press releases, and product descriptions.

The result: Saving several hours each week to engage with customers and grow the business.

Learn more.

Thanks to Astrid Galván and Bob Gee for editing this newsletter.

🚔 Asher is reading this gripping account from the police officers who responded to the shooting at Buford's in March.

📖 Nicole really loved "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke.

Have a good weekend, folks.