The Ending of 'The Politician' Can't Actually Happen in Real Life

SPOILER ALERT – This post contains spoilers for the final episode of The Politician season one, so continue reading at your own risk.

The first season of the new Ryan Murphy series The Politician is streaming now on Netflix and the ending perfectly sets up a second season for the show.

Ben Platt‘s character Payton Hobart announces that he’s running for the State Senate seat that Judith Light‘s character Dede Standish was previously running for unopposed.

Vulture did some research into the requirements to run for a State Senate seat in New York and discovered that Payton likely does not meet them, so this wouldn’t actually happen in real life.

“I don’t want to comment on a TV show I have not seen, but for New York State Senate, which is different from United States senators, you have to be a citizen, you have to be 18 years of age, and you have to be a resident of the state for five years and a resident of the district for 12 months immediately preceding election,” a spokesperson for the New York Board of Elections said. “Part of that comes from the New York State Constitution and the other part is the Public Officers Law.”

At the time of the election, Payton will only have been in New York State for three years following his move from California, so there’s no way that he’d meet the eligibility requirements to run.