Here are some of the Texas Democrats eyeing statewide runs in 2026

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With the legislative session over, Texas Democrats are turning their attention to the 2026 elections for the state’s most powerful offices — with the hope that midterm backlash against the Trump administration will help the party reverse course from its recent blowout losses and snap a three-decade losing streak.

More than a dozen statewide offices will appear on next year’s ballot, including governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, in addition to one of Texas’ two U.S. Senate seats. The comptroller, land and agriculture commissioners, and several statewide judicial seats are also up for reelection.

Texas Democrats have struggled to mount competitive statewide campaigns since 2018, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke fell just short of unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in what would have been the party’s first statewide win since 1994. Their optimism has since been dashed by a failed push to flip the Texas House in 2020, O’Rourke’s double-digit loss to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022 and a 2024 cycle that saw President Donald Trump carry Texas by 14 percentage points and Cruz win reelection by more than triple his 2018 margin.

But Democrats smell an opportunity to finally break through next year, the first midterm under Trump since their near-miss six years ago. Also fueling Democratic hopes is the prospect of Attorney General Ken Paxton, the hardline standard-bearer who has endured numerous scandals, leading the ballot if he topples incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary.

At least six rising or already prominent Democrats have seen their names floated for one of the top four statewide offices — a pileup of potential candidates that is poised to come into focus over the next few months, with Democrats hoping to present a full, cohesive slate of candidates who can take on the Trump administration, message effectively against Republicans, fundraise and blanket the state ahead of the election.

Several are looking closely at the Senate race and the chance to run against Paxton, who has led Cornyn by a wide margin in early polls. Those considering a run include two statewide campaign veterans: O’Rourke and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who lost to Cruz last year by 8.5 points while overperforming the top of the ticket. Also in the mix are U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and state Rep. James Talarico of Austin.

O’Rourke has hosted several town halls around the state in recent months, including in Republican congressional districts, and said in April he would run for Senate “if” Texans want him to.

In a statement, he continued to leave open the possibility of a statewide run, saying, “With so many of our neighbors and families being hurt right now, I’ll continue standing up for the people of Texas — whether that’s holding these town hall meetings, organizing and registering voters or running to serve and deliver for every person in this state.”

A prodigious fundraiser with high name ID, O’Rourke would also enter the race with clear political baggage, after losing two statewide campaigns and failing to catch fire in a 2019 presidential run, during which he staked out numerous progressive stances that stymied his appeal to right-leaning moderates when running for governor.

Allred, a Dallas Democrat and former NFL linebacker who was endorsed by Republican U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has also said he is “seriously considering” another Senate run and would make a decision this summer.

Though Allred was criticized by some Democrats for not running aggressively enough last year, he outpaced then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ margin atop the ticket by more than 5 percentage points. In a June interview on the Dallas-based Lone Star Politics show, Allred said he would run “differently” this time around, now that he’s out of Congress.

A May poll by Texas Southern University found that 45% of voters had a favorable opinion of Allred, the highest proportion of the six potential Senate candidates surveyed.

“I’m looking at it and seriously considering it,” Allred told the Dallas Morning News in March. “This is a time for everybody to realize just what’s at stake and how important it is that we all stay involved.”

While Allred and O’Rourke are widely known from their previous statewide bids, Castro and Talarico would start from scratch among most voters outside their districts.

Talarico, a seminarian and former public school teacher with a frequently viral social media presence, spent much of the legislative session creating moments of contrast with Republicans on issues like school vouchers and displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. He is often described as one of Texas Democrats’ strongest communicators.

“I’m having conversations about how I can best serve Texas, and that includes the Senate race,” Talarico, who declined to comment for this story, told POLITICO this month. “But in my training as a pastor, you learn the importance of listening and how hard it is to truly listen. With so much at stake for Texas, I’m trying to listen more than I talk right now.”

Castro, who has represented his San Antonio-based district in Congress since 2013 after serving 10 years in the Texas House, has spoken to donors and party experts in recent months about the Senate race while holding town halls in both red and blue districts across the state.

He was tapped in 2021 by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help build the case against Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol for the president’s second impeachment.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is term-limited after this year, has also seen his name thrown in the mix for Senate or to take on Abbott or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, though he has emphasized a focus on closing out his tenure and ensuring a smooth transition to the next mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones, over the next few weeks. He has not said anything publicly about his 2026 aspirations.

Most of the would-be Democratic candidates have voiced interest in the U.S. Senate race, with little chatter about who will step forward for the tall order of challenging Abbott, who has walloped all three Democratic gubernatorial candidates he has faced and established himself as the most prolific political fundraiser in Texas history.

Further down the ballot, the attorney general post will be open for the first time since 2014 as Paxton leaves office to pursue his Senate bid. And Comptroller Glenn Hegar is departing at the end of the month to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, meaning the comptroller seat will either be open or defended by an unelected incumbent, depending on whether Hegar’s Abbott-appointed successor decides to seek a full term.

Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas lawyer, is circling a likely run for attorney general, though he said that he had yet to make a final decision and had received encouragement to run for governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller.

“When I do decide, it will be a calculation of where I think I could be most useful, both from the standpoint of electoral viability and service in the office,” said Johnson, who can run without giving up his Senate seat.

Two Republicans have already launched campaigns to succeed Paxton on the GOP ballot: state Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and former Paxton aide and Department of Justice Trump appointee Aaron Reitz.

Candidates in both parties have until early December to file for the 2026 ballot, though the scope of who is running for which office will likely shake out well before then, with candidates looking to have enough runway to build up their campaign war chests and start introducing themselves to voters. Allred, for instance, launched his Senate campaign in May 2023, and O’Rourke got into the Senate race against Cruz in March 2017.

“There’s a funneling effect, and we’re near the bottom of the funnel now,” Johnson said, adding that there were discussions about “what might it look like if different people run in different places.”

“I'm thinking of this in terms of a functioning machine with different parts,” he added. “If we have everybody vying to play one single part, the machine’s not going to work.”

State Rep. Vikki Goodwin of Austin has already announced her bid for lieutenant governor, giving up her safe Texas House seat to take on Patrick, the three-term Republican with more than $33 million in campaign funds and no shortage of conservative support.

And while Abbott maintains a solid 44% approval rating — slightly better than where he stood at the same point four years ago, according to the Texas Politics Project — he is under pressure to veto an unpopular ban on THC products spearheaded by Patrick and approved by the Legislature this session. Democrats hope his next move could create an opening for them, though political experts say that issue alone is unlikely to pose a serious political threat.

“A lot of the headwinds that have limited Democrats’ chances in the past couple of elections have at least reduced, if not blown themselves out,” Johnson contended. “We’re going to have a highly qualified array of candidates running for a variety of offices, and you will see an additive effect that I don’t think Texas has seen in several cycles.”

Disclosure: Politico, Texas A&M University, Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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