San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro says he's still mulling run for statewide office

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro’s comments came during a San Antonio-focused panel at the 2025 Texas Tribune Festival. Credit: Michael Karlis

Austin — U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said during a public appearance Friday that he’s still considering a run for statewide office and that he’ll make a final determination before the Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline.

“I haven’t ruled anything out,” said the seven-term congressman said during a San Antonio-focused panel at this year’s Texas Tribune Festival.

Castro said he joined a Zoom call earlier this year with former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, State Rep. James Talarico and one-time El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rouke to figure out which office each planned to run for. Castro added that he didn’t want to see the quartet of Democratic power players waste the opportunity by saturating a single race.

“It doesn’t really make sense to have four people running for U.S. Senate and then have nobody running for anything else,” Castro said. “At one point, I told a few of those guys I’d slot down to the [Texas Attorney General] race if you guys can figure out the rest and who’s running for what. But we just couldn’t get there.”

Despite the meeting, Allred and Talarico are running against each other in the 2026 Democratic primary for Texas’ U.S. Senate race. The primary victor will take on either Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton or incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the general election.

The Senate race is seen as winnable for Democrats, especially if scandal-ridden Paxton takes the GOP nomination. That explains why Castro appeared frustrated Allred and Talarico are battling each other in the primary.

Indeed, Allred took a jab at Talarico during a separate TribFest panel, using his time at the mic to target his opponent’s donor list.

“I like James, but when I see him say he’s running against billionaires, but then when nobody was looking, his top donor was Miriam Adelson,” Allred said.

A PAC funded by Adelson, a casino mogul and Republican megadonor, gave Talarico’s state House re-election campaign $59,000 last year, Politico reports.

Meanwhile, four Republicans and two Democrats have announced plans to run for the seat Paxton is leaving vacant. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a far-right firebrand whose district includes part of San Antonio, is among the GOP contenders.

Castro said both the AG and U.S. Senate races represent great opportunities for Texas Democrats.

“[It] was my hope that we would have a full slate, and we didn’t quite get there,” he added.

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San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro says he’s still mulling run for statewide office

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