Talk Elections

Let's assume Beto O'Rourke wants to run against U.S. Senator John Cornyn in 2020, wins the Democratic senatorial primary and is later nominated as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate.

Is Beto allowed to run for Senator and (Vice) President at the same time?

If so, will there be a special election after Election Day in case Beto wins both the senatorial and the presidential elections, or will Governor Abbott appoint a new U.S. Senator?
If not, how will the new Democratic senatorial nominee be determined?

I know that some states allow candidates to run for two statewide offices at the same time. Joe Biden, for instance, won his senatorial election in 2008 and immediately resigned to become U.S. Vice President. Ted Kaufman was then appointed to continue Biden's term until Chris Coons was elected in a 2010 special election to finish Biden's term.
Are the rules in Texas the same as in Delaware?

Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Interesting.
Johnson was allowed to run for both offices in 1960; he left the U.S. Senate on January 3, 1961.
William A. Blakley was then appointed to begin Johnson's term, but lost the special election in June 1961 against the 27 years younger Republican opponent John Tower. The question, however, is if the rules have changed in the meantime.

If Beto wins the Senate election (which I consider unlikely), Beto would still be able to enter the Senate on January 3 (his term as VP wouldn't start until January 20, at which point it's just a regular Senate vacancy to which Gov Abbot could appoint a replacement).

Could Abbott appoint anyone he wants, or must his nominee be approved by the state parliament?
If he indeed can, must the appointee be a Democrat?

No.  That's not the law in Texas.  Abbot would definitely appoint a Republican.

Definitely safe, legal, and rare. But if he didn't beat Cruz in a D+9 year, how does he plan to beat Cornyn in what at best will be a D+2 year?

Keep telling yourself l’ll be a neutral year it may of may not but that’s not the best case scenario for dems.
Also the not how PVI works Texas is R+7 and he lost by 2 points he outperformed by a lot.
But you can keep denying the truth.

Lloyd Bentsen did the same in 1988, but he only won one race. Joe Biden was also reelected senator in 2008 but stepped down on January 15.

NJ Dems are doing that for Booker. Tea Partier is about to challenge Cornyn. Cornyn is more skilled than Cruz

In the case of Bentsen in '88 and Biden in '08, they were entrenched incumbents with token opposition in their Senate races, and could afford to blow off Senate campaigning to run for VP, and still manage to win the Senate race.  In this hypothetical though, O'Rourke would be the *challenger* in the Senate race.  You really think he'd be competitive for Senate if he's not campaigning for Senate, but instead running around the country campaigning for VP?  I would imagine that for someone in his position, he'd have to pick one or the other, even though legally, sure, he could run for both at once.

I know it's just a hypothetical question. Maybe Cornyn doesn't want to run. Who knows?
But what would happen if Beto decides to step down as the senatorial candidate?
How would the replacing be done?

The rules have not changed.

In 1932, John Nance Garner was elected Vice President and re-elected to his House seat. He was House Speaker at the time, and is thus one of two persons who have presided over both the House and Senate.

In 1952 Allan Shivers ran for governor as both Democrat and Republican. This permitted supporters of Dwight Eisenhower to vote a straight Republican ticket. Shivers received about 1/4 of his vote for governor on the Republican ticket. After this election, the law was changed to say that a candidate could only appear on a ballot once.

This law was changed so that a candidate could appear on the ballot twice, if one of the offices was for President or Vice President. This was done specifically for LBJ's benefit.

In 1988, Lloyd Bentsen ran unsuccessfully for Vice President, and successfully for re-election as Senator. In 1996, Phil Gramm sought the Republican nomination for President, and later sought re-election as Senator, so he was on the primary ballot twice.

Special elections in Texas are all-comers without regard to party. Texas does not have party registrations, so in a special election you can say whatever party you fancy. Since there are not party nominations for special elections, a party does not have to be qualified to make nominations.

Unless an emergency election is called, the special election is held on the next uniform election date. In 1960, there were four such dates each year, and the special election was held in May. John Tower was elected in the runoff in June. He was the first Republican Senator from Texas.

There are now only two uniform election dates, and the one in May might be eliminated.

In any case this would permit Governor Abbott to appoint a senator to serve until an election (assuming that O'Rourke were elected both Senator and Vice President). Since Abbott can appoint the interim senator, there would be no reason for an emergency election.

Conceivably O'Rourke could take his senate seat on January 3, 2021. This would permit him to vote for his own election as Vice President in case there is an electoral college tie. He would then resign before January 20, when he would become Vice President.

If Trump were to be impeached and removed from office before then, President Pence could appoint John Cornyn as his Vice President. Cornyn could then also run for Vice President and Senator.

Texas has restrictions on replacing a withdrawing candidate. A candidate may be replaced if he dies or has a catastrophic illness or injury. He may also be replaced if he runs for another office. He may also be replaced if his party determines that he is ineligible.

Traditionally in Texas, if a candidate want to withdraw, they do something like moving to a different district (their wife and kids continue to reside in the old house - the kids don't want to switch schools (wink) and the husband who lives in Austin visits his family as often as possible even though he no longer lives there). In Texas, a legislator must live in his district for a year prior to election.

This doesn't work for federal offices. A candidate only has to reside in his state on election day. Tom Delay moved to Virginia and got a driver's license and fishing license, but continued to visit his wife's residence in Texas. A federal court ruled that he could not be replaced, because no one, even Delay, could be sure where he would be living on election day.

O'Rourke could use the other office loophole. The Democratic convention is in July before the Olympics, so he could formally become the nominee in Texas as soon as the the state party informs the SOS. In that case, the state executive committee would choose a replacement senate candidate.

Paul Ryan ran for re election to the house in 2012 while he was still the republican nominee for Vice President so yes. However I don't think you can run for senate and President as the same time.

I think Dems have learned from Edwards experience.  A Veep need gravitas, not just looks and youthfulness. Gephardt was stronger to pick off Ohio than Edwards.

Cheney, Biden and Pence had gravitss and worked with both sides of aisle in Congress.

Heinrich, HICKENLOOPER and Brown are gonna ne Veep for Harris

Running for Vice Presidency and Senate works only for the incumbents. That would look terrible.

Lieberman was also reelected in 2000, while losing the vice presidency. Not a Senator, but Ron Paul run simultaniously in Republican presidential primary and for reelection in his district. Before LBJ John Nance Garner was reelected Representative the same day he won the vice presidency, but IIRC it was a write-in campaign.

Beto hasnt made a splash in the polls, he's at 5%

Just like, I previously said, BETO wasn't ready for prime time

Rand Paul caused a mess in Kentucky in 2016. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_Senate_election_in_Kentucky#Background)  Which could have been worse had he stayed in the race past Iowa, or been picked as the nominee’s running mate.

Garner ran conventionally. In 1952 Allan Shivers ran for governor as both the Republican and Democratic nominee (all statewide candidates did so). This permitted voters to vote for Eisenhower without splitting their ticket. Shivers had formed Democrats for Eisenhower, in large part because of the theft of Texas oil by Truman (and his belief that Stevenson would follow the same policy). Shivers(D) defeated Shivers(R) by about a 3:1 margin.

Afterwards the legislature changed the law to limit a candidate to appearing on a ballot more than once. This was a general law applicable to all offices and intended to keep Republicans from being elected. The LBJ Loophole was added a few years later.

I was wrong, Beto should be considered Harris Veep

What are you? ???

Didn't Bentson do this?

And so did Biden in Delaware.
Rand Paul, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to do this in Kentucky.

Can anybody give me a list/map of all states that allows candidates both for president and for a second office?

The idea that Beto could win the Senate even without the burden of also running for vice president is fanciful. Moreover, since if by some chance he were to succeed, the Democrats would then likely narrowly control the Senate, he'd be under immense pressure to keep his Senate seat and let the new President nominate a different Veep rather than have Republican potentially win a special election.

So, regardless of whether it is legally doable, politically it makes no sense for Beto. It only makes sense for an incumbent from a relatively safe district or State to attempt simultaneously running for Vice President and another office.

Each state has its own rules. Some states like West Virginia actually let legislators also hold a local office, not merely run for two of them. It is not only permitted, it is considered normal.

Texas has a resign to run law that says if you are in the middle of a four-year term for some offices, and run for another office you have resigned the first office.

John Nance Garner was re-elected to Congress and elected to Vice President at the same election. As he had been House Speaker, he went from presiding officer of the House to presiding officer of the Senate on the same day.

In 1952, Allan Shivers was elected governor on both Republican and Democratic tickets. He did this so voters could vote against Harry Truman who was trying to steal Texas oil, and still vote Democratic.

After that, the law was changed that said you could only appear on the ballot once. But then an exception was inserted to permit someone to run for President/Vice President and some other office, this was done so that Lyndon Baines Johnson could run for Vice President and re-election for Senator.

Lloyd Bentsen was re-elected to the Senate in 1988 while also running for Vice-President. Phil Gramm was re-elected to the Senate in 1996, after earlier campaigning for the presidential nomination (the LBJ loophole let him appear twice on the primary ballot).

No one is listening to Beto anymore. He wont even get a cabinet position. The only Texan whom people are listening to is Castro.