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James Talarico, Texas Democratic Senate candidate, speaks during a rally the day after Election Day in Houston, Wednesday, May 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Texas Democrats will open their convention Thursday in Corpus Christi, buoyed by what they foresee as a hostile midterm election cycle for Republicans and\u00a0by the opportunity to present themselves<\/a> as a generational alternative to the GOP’s decades-long dominance that has lost touch with the needs of a youthful state.<\/p>\n Leading their ticket heading toward the Nov. 3 election is 37-year-old James Talarico, who, if elected, would be the youngest member of the U.S. Senate. And the Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are about a decade-and-a-half younger than the incumbent Republicans who are each seeking a fourth term in office.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “It’s time for these Republicans to get out of the way and make way for our younger folks,” said longtime activist Donna Beth McCormick, the state Democratic Party’s sergeant at arms\u00a0who is approaching 90 years old.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Hot Wheels and elephants: Scenes from the 2026 Republican State Convention<\/a><\/p>\n The three-day Democratic state convention’s<\/a> chief purpose is to craft a platform laying out the party’s guiding principles and providing something of an issues-based blueprint for candidates up and down the ballot to present to the voters. It’s also an opportunity to cement party unity in a year where Republicans are tethered to President Donald Trump as his approval ratings in Texas and across the nation have fallen amid raising inflation and growing unease with the administration’s foreign policy.<\/p>\n But the convention will not just be about Texas, or about the candidacies of Talarico and those of gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, lieutenant governor hopeful Vikki Goodwin and the others on the statewide ballot. Several national Democrats who might be looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race have also been given featured speaking slots. Among them are U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Illinois Gov. JB Prtizker and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who identifies himself as a democratic socialist and has twice sought the Democratic nomination for president, will deliver the keynote address to close the convention on Saturday.<\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Austin, who at 37 is among about a dozen members of the House born after 1988, said the convention presents an opportunity to show how Texas is overdue for an upending of the GOP’s status quo.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Democrats look to the future, Texas Republicans are running the same candidates whose corruption and bad policies have failed to bring down prices for decades,\u201d said Casar, who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is seeking a third term representing a safe Democratic district.<\/p>\n Republican counter-programming<\/p>\n Republicans held their state convention in Houston earlier this month and used the opportunity to bash Talarico and down-ballot Democrats as too liberal for Texas and too wed to what the GOP sees as such “woke”\u00a0LGBTQ rights policies.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is not on the ballot this year, sought to use Talarico’s relative youthfulness as a cudgel against his maturity and readiness. But he used a reference more relevant to people close to or above retirement age than to a Texan of average age, which, according to the Census bureau, is 35<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The Democrats are trying to deceive the people of Texas because they nominate (Talarico) because he sounds like Beaver Cleaver,” Cruz said, invoking the late-1950s, early-’60s sitcom<\/a> about a good-natured but gullible suburban schoolboy.<\/p>\n Other top Republicans used the coming Sanders appearance in Corpus Christi to counter any Democratic narrative that the party represents mainstream Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s one thing that sums up today\u2019s Democrats more than anything else,” Gov. Greg\u00a0Abbott said in his address to the Republican delegates. “The keynote at their state convention is Bernie Sanders.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n What the polls say about Texas Democrats<\/p>\n<\/p>\n