Texas Democrats May Pin Hopes on Fresh Faces Like James Talarico in 2026

Barring an unforeseen turn of events over the next several months, Texas Republicans will field a team for the top three positions on the 2026 statewide ballot with some faces that are very familiar to Texas voters.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appear to be shoo-ins for nominations to a fourth term. And the race for the U.S. Senate nomination at this point is largely focused on incumbent John Cornyn, who's seeking his fifth term, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has had a place on the statewide ballot every four years beginning in 2014.

The picture for Democrats in next year's top spots has yet to come into focus, which is not surprising given that statewide races reaching all the way back to 1998 have been little more than suicide missions for their party.

But three-and-half months before filing opens for the March 3 Texas primaries, we're beginning to see the outlines for what the top of the Democrats' 2026 ticket might look like. And with perhaps just one exception, the faces appear comparatively unfamiliar and younger, but not without political experience.

Just to get it out of the way, the potential familiar-face exception for the Democrats is Beto O'Rourke. But let's circle back to him later.

Right now, the Texas Democrats' emerging star is state Rep. James Talarico of Austin. At 36, he's been in office since flipping a Republican House seat in 2018. The fuel in his rocket was ignited by his recent appearance on conservative comedian Joe Rogan's popular podcast, where Talarico so wowed his host by weaving a narrative that blended his self-professed devout Christianity with his left-of-center politics that Rogan suggested he run for president.

But Talarico is aiming his sights lower, but not by much. His eyes are on the U.S. Senate seat that Cornyn and Paxton are presently spilling each other's blood over. Talarico hasn't formally declared his candidacy, but he does have a "launching soon" website, TalaricoForSenate.com. And he's hop-scotching all over the state with appearances to take advantage of the platform that Rogan, whose podcast draws in as many as 11 million listeners per episode, provided him.

READ MORE: Texas Republicans kick off redistricting hearings without any new maps

Now, back to Beto. O'Rourke, whose 2018 tantalizingly close challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has made him Texas' most recognizable and perhaps most influential Democrat. Even after making a failed bid for the 2020 presidential nomination and losing two years later by double digits to Abbott, O'Rourke remains the face of the Texas Democratic Party.

And in recent weeks he's used that status to lead a road show to provide a showcase not only for Talarico, but also for such emerging Democrats as U.S. Rep. Jazmine Crockett of Dallas, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa — a possible candidate for comptroller — and U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Austin. Also part of the entourage is U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, a potential Talarico rival in the Senate race, who has been around quite awhile but has yet to run for anything outside of his hometown.

Speaking to reporters at the Texas Capitol on Thursday, O'Rourke said he's hoping his efforts will end up gelling a statewide Democratic field where some of the new or newish faces find separate lanes so they don't chop one another up in the primaries. Asked if there's a lane for him, O'Rourke sounded almost ambivalent.

"I'm open to it. I want to be helpful. I want to be useful," he said. "But if that's not the right move, that's not how it pans out, if that's not what people in Texas want, then I'm going to support a ticket" of Democrats who do run.

So if O'Rourke stands down and Talarico or some of the other up-and-coming Democrats step up, the 2026 political battlefield in Texas could be a study in contrasts. Talarico said to Rogan and at his other public appearance that he doesn't see the political divide as "left vs. right, but top vs. bottom."

The underlying message is that those in power are committed to protecting that power. But it might also be generational.

The average age of Abbott, Patrick and Cornyn is 71. If you replace Cornyn with Paxton, the average drops to 68.

The age of the average Texan is 36. That's the same age as Talarico. So whatever statewide race he lands on, and if he survives the Democratic primary, the battle cry for Talarico might be not "top vs. bottom," but "yesterday vs. tomorrow."