Sources say former Mayor Ron Nirenberg has been telling fellow Democrats he’s contemplating a run for governor in 2026 — a doubtlessly grueling race in opposition to the formidable Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
In latest months Nirenberg, 48, has repeatedly teased the concept he might run for one more workplace — in speeches on the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s gala and different public occasions.
Final week Nirenberg returned from a household trip in Spain and instantly appeared alongside Beto O’Rourke, state Rep. James Talarico (D-Spherical Rock) and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) — all considered as potential statewide candidates in 2026 — at an occasion at San Antonio’s Secure Corridor.
Sources aware of the conversations say Nirenberg had been discussing the potential for working for governor even earlier than he’d left the mayor’s workplace — and returned from trip telling the opposite Democrats he was within the race.
Nirenberg didn’t reply to a request for remark Wednesday by his longtime marketing campaign hand James Aldrete.
“2026 is a vital election,” he informed a packed home Friday night at Secure Corridor. “That is extra than simply about Democrats and Republicans, that is about proper and incorrect.”
He went on: “[It’s about] constructing a group that bolsters and embraces democratic values, and democracy, or slips additional and additional behind, as we’ve got seen within the final 150 days the Trump administration, or frankly, the final 35 years the Republicans managed the state of Texas.”
A full Democratic ticket?
Not like latest election cycles, the place Texas Democrats had only one main candidate elevating huge cash for a statewide race, this yr a number of high-profile candidates are speaking about working.
Governor, lieutenant governor, lawyer common, a U.S. Senate seat, and nearly all of Texas’ different statewide workplaces can be on the poll in November 2026.
Allred, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2024, simply launched one other Senate bid this week. Talarico has additionally been contemplating working for Senate, as has Castro and O’Rourke.
Broadly, Democrats wish to keep away from messy primaries within the statewide races, however the main candidates are nonetheless in dialog with each other about who most closely fits every place.
O’Rourke deliberate the occasion at Secure Corridor and invited Talarico and Castro, in addition to native Democratic officers. Upon invitation, Nirenberg supplied to offer a welcome tackle, in keeping with a supply aware of the dialog.
One other occasion with O’Rourke, Castro and Talarico is within the works, more likely to be held in Austin later this month. It has but to be decided whether or not Nirenberg will even be a speaker.
A formidable incumbent
Abbott, for his half, has signaled little concern about opposition to his bid for a 3rd time period.
The governor began the yr with almost $70 million readily available and was in San Antonio final week elevating cash at an occasion hosted by Bruce Bugg, chairman of the Texas Transportation Fee, in keeping with an area Republican official.
Requested about Texas Democrats’ maneuvering for 2026, Abbott’s chief political adviser Dave Carney informed the Dallas Morning Information final month that “it’s irrelevant what the Democrats do.”
Carney informed the newspaper: “We’ll inform voters what we’ve achieved and that we wish to proceed to construct on these successes.”
An extended wind-up for Nirenberg
When Nirenberg took workplace in 2017, he introduced a distinctly apolitical method to the nonpartisan mayor’s workplace.
However over eight years within the position — the utmost allowed beneath town’s time period limits — he’s sharpened his criticism of GOP leaders and labored to broaden his political community past San Antonio.
In a primary talking position ultimately yr’s Texas Tribune Pageant, Nirenberg stated Texas’ mayors have been transferring the state ahead on points like housing, infrastructure and workforce improvement — whereas state leaders actively made their jobs tougher.
“The issues which can be holding us again, the headwinds that we’re going through, are up within the capital,” he stated within the September interview with former Tribune writer Evan Smith.
Nirenberg went on to counsel that Abbott’s push to create a college voucher program and the so-called “Dying Star” invoice have been examples of Texas Republicans steadily overplaying their palms, interesting to their base on the expense of the remainder of the state.
“If you happen to fail to spend money on schooling, in the event you ignore the challenges of city communities … in the event you ignore the overwhelming majority of this inhabitants, which is now in an city state, you’re going to proceed to alienate your self from Texas,” he stated. “That’s why I believe Texas is or quickly can be in play.”
On the identical time, Nirenberg has been constructing relationships with nationwide Democratic leaders who final yr made him a nationwide surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign.
Nirenberg was thought of within the combine for a possible White Home appointment if Harris had received.
Weeks after the November election went the opposite method, textual content messages between Nirenberg and his workers indicated different political plans have been within the works.
In a Dec. 13, 2024, textual content message to the mayor, obtained by open information request and shared with the San Antonio Report, Nirenberg’s chief of workers and political adviser Zack Lyke stated they might spend the following six months assembly with as many Democratic governors as potential, and doubtlessly use the boys’s Last 4 basketball event, hosted on the Alamodome, as a “convening alternative.”
Lyke later said that these conferences didn’t come to fruition.
However Nirenberg has additionally continued elevating cash, shaped a brand new PAC within the final yr, and has been engaged on a possible ebook.
In a farewell tackle final month, Nirenberg supplied some hints at a potential future marketing campaign pitch.
He spoke passionately about main an economically susceptible metropolis by the Covid-19 pandemic and the investments town has since made in reasonably priced housing, workforce improvement and public transit.
Nirenberg additionally addressed a number of the tradition struggle points he steered away from earlier in his profession, however has taken a extra aggressive method to in his remaining time period.
“We proceed to climate the state and nationwide politicization of illness, gender, autonomy, and the easy freedom of selection,” Nirenberg stated. “We need to dwell our lives how we wish to dwell them — and till all are ready to take action, the work should proceed.”
