Texas Senate Closing Arguments: James Talarico in Houston, Ken Paxton in Fort Worth as the Tossup Race Enters Its Final 48 Hours
The Senate race that has become a national measure of the midterms made its closing arguments Saturday: Democrat James Talarico told Houston the election is about whether a senator puts money in voters' pockets or his own, while Republican Ken Paxton in Fort Worth warned that losing Texas means losing America — and each man spent the day campaigning against the other's powerful backer as much as against each other.
The closing arguments in Texas' tossup Senate race arrived Saturday, in two cities at once. In Houston, Democrat James Talarico hammered Republican Ken Paxton — the longtime attorney general who has weathered indictment and impeachment and carries President Donald Trump's endorsement — as an especially corrupt example of a rotten political system, according to the Associated Press account of the final weekend, read in full this cycle. "This election is about whether you want a senator who puts money in your pocket or who puts money in his own," Talarico said in Houston, per the AP. In Fort Worth, Paxton answered by painting Talarico — a state lawmaker, seminarian and former teacher — as too liberal for Texas, per the same account.
Each candidate's real target was arguably the man behind the other. For Talarico, the shadow opponent is Elon Musk, who has spent more than $150 million of his own money to help Paxton keep pace with Talarico's fundraising, per the AP. "It's David vs. Goliath," Talarico said. "The people of Texas are my slingshot." Paxton, who defeated Sen. John Cornyn in this year's Republican primary with Trump's help, argued Talarico would be a lackey for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. "The left in this country keeps getting more and more radical," Paxton said, per the AP, before closing with the stakes as he frames them: "I'm not exaggerating when I say, if we lose Texas, we lose America." He urged Republicans to match enthusiastic Democratic early-voting turnout, and ended, per the AP, with an entreaty: "Pray for our Texas. Pray for me."
The sprint ends Monday. Talarico's "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts" tour culminates in a rally Monday, November 2 in Austin, per Austin Monthly's account of the final pushes. Paxton's "Come and Take It" tour closes the same day in Conroe at 11 a.m. and Allen at 5:30 p.m. — the Alamo finale his campaign once advertised is not on the campaign's Monday listings, as the Texas Tribune reported Saturday and this station covered. Republicans hold the Senate 53-47 nationally, and national early voting approached 50 million ballots heading into the weekend, per the AP. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with Bexar County polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
