James Talarico and Donald Trump staged dueling rallies in Lubbock on Tuesday as the Texas Senate race tightened with a week left before the election. Talarico drew supporters to an evening rally while Trump appeared in the city to boost Ken Paxton.
Tim Jones, an emergency room physician, waited for hours in lines that stretched for blocks to see Talarico. He said, "We’re all closet Democrats," and added, "There are a lot of people who are finally upset at gas prices, diesel prices, inflation, lies, the war, all of it."
Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
Trump spoke at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, where Marco Rubio was introduced and drew one of the loudest reactions. Talarico told the crowd, "We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis. But we can change that in this election, in this state, in this race," and called Paxton "the most corrupt politician in Texas."
Talarico also said Elon Musk had put more than $150 million into Paxton’s candidacy. Trump called Talarico "Talafreako" and said he thought Talarico’s disappearance from the campaign trail earlier in the month was either due to a "mental problem" or because he was "sick to his stomach" from eating meat.
Texas Senate race
The race has drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in spending and has become a test of whether Texas Republicans can keep a statewide seat they have controlled for 34 years. Republican strategists viewed it as a real fight at a moment when Americans were feeling anger and dissatisfaction toward Washington.
That fight has been sharpened by Paxton’s personal scandals and by infighting among Texas Republicans after a nasty primary campaign in which Trump backed Paxton over John Cornyn. With Talarico holding a narrow lead in polling and both sides pulling attention to Lubbock, voters in the Texas Senate race are being asked to decide whether the state’s Republican advantage is still enough to hold.
