... And why he might not get the nod
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If Talarico wins the 2026 Senate race and if he's named to a White House ticket and that ticket wins — a string of very big "ifs" — he would resign his Senate seat, likely in early January 2029, before being sworn in as vice president.
- The governor would then be empowered to appoint his successor, who could be of either party.
Reality check: No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.
- Talarico will face either U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are vying for the GOP nomination in a May 26 runoff and who are trailing Talarico in recent polling.
Between the lines: If Talarico does manage to pull off an upset in Texas, national Democrats will be reluctant to give up his seat with a (likely) Republican governor — Greg Abbott — appointing his successor.
- "When push comes to shove in those conversations, that's often a decisive factor — you don't want to mess with a 50-50 Senate or one that's 51-49. You don't want to shake that up with other viable (running mate) options available, which there will be," Adam Schiffer, a scholar of American politics at Texas Christian University, tells Axios.
The bottom line: For every Talarico, even if he wins in 2026, there could be a Jon Ossoff, the Democratic U.S. senator running for re-election in Georgia, or a Seth Bodnar, now running in Montana as an independent for the U.S. Senate.