“After the shocking Democratic victories in Texas last week, it was hard not to look over the shoulders of James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa and see the shadow of Beto O’Rourke, whose losses for Senate in 2018 and governor in 2022 had become cautionary tales of Democratic hopelessness in Texas,” Vanity Fair reports.“And perhaps proof that nice guys couldn’t win. But in the years after those failed runs, O’Rourke never really went away. He launched a voter-registration group called Powered by People, punched out missives on Substack, livestreamed his thoughts, and quietly advised his party from the background.”