Trump and Talarico hold dueling Lubbock rallies as Texas Senate race tightens
President Donald Trump made his third campaign trip to Texas this month on Tuesday, rallying in Corpus Christi and Lubbock for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, the New York Times reported. Democratic nominee James Talarico held his own rally in Lubbock about an hour apart from Trump’s, USA Today reported. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
A tight race: Polls in Texas show a close contest in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than three decades, the Times reported. A poll from Emerson College Polling and Nexstar Media released Oct. 22 found Talarico at 48% and Paxton at 46%, within the poll’s margin of error, and a Fox News poll released Oct. 21 had them tied at 49%, according to USA Today.
Trump’s pitch: In Corpus Christi, Trump pointed to a tanker he said carried 1 million barrels of Venezuelan crude headed to local refineries, USA Today reported. In Lubbock, he said he was ending Biden-era methane regulations. Before leaving Washington, Trump told reporters he would accept next week’s results “if they are honest,” the Times reported; he has claimed, without evidence, that the electoral system is rife with fraud.
Talarico’s pitch: Talarico attacked the spending by megadonors backing Republicans. “This senate seat doesn’t belong to Elon Musk, it belongs to you, the people of Texas,” he said, according to USA Today. Talarico had raised more than $146 million through Oct. 14, and Paxton had raised $22 million, including for the primary, according to Federal Election Commission reports cited by USA Today.
Online noise: Research released Tuesday by the analytics firm Gudea found that much of the online discussion of the Texas and Kansas Senate races came from accounts that appear to be automated, the Times reported. The firm said a network of hundreds of new accounts spread a fabricated misconduct claim about Talarico.