Facing off in what’s become the most expensive U.S. Senate race in American history, both Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton spent one of the final nights before the election rallying with supporters in San Antonio on Sunday.
“If you could see what I see, you would be convinced that San Antonio is going to save Texas,” state Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio) told the roughly 1,000 local Democrats at the Espee music venue in Saint Paul’s Square, where Talarico appeared with Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa.
In deep blue San Antonio, both Talarico and Hinojosa are quite popular. But when it comes to winning statewide in Texas, Democrats are the underdogs.
They’ve been shut out of statewide office in Texas for three decades, and Republicans are so confident they even redrew the state’s congressional districts to help shore up potential losses elsewhere in the country this midterm election.
GOP leaders hope to pick up as many as five seats here this year, with some of the hardest-fought races now unfolding in South Texas. One new San Antonio-area district, the 35th Congressional District, has even been been deemed the “whole enchilada” of the midterms.
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More than 40% of Texas’ 19 million voters have already cast a ballot in this election, breaking a record set in 2018 — the last midterm of a Trump presidency.
Democrats’ prospects rely on running up the score in places like blue Bexar County, where they’ve been barnstorming in the final stretch.
“Bexar County is a laboratory of whoever is going to dominate Texas in the future because this is what the rest of Texas is going to look a lot like this,” said San Antonio Republican consultant Kelton Morgan.
That’s part of why there’s so much money coming into this area this election to find and turnout both parties’ voters.
“If there’s one place anywhere in the country, certainly in the state, that is a hotbed for that for competition for Latino votes, it’s it’s San Antonio and South Texas,” Morgan said. “… there’s a there’s a lot of money being invested in a whole lot of different efforts here.”
Senate race closing arguments
Against that backdrop, Talarico’s campaign has been borrowing lines from the iconic Friday Night Lights TV show and comparing his campaign to the fictional underdog Dillon Panthers football team.
His event was styled like a Texas football tailgate on Sunday night, serving up stadium nachos as the candidate urged supporters to keep working through the final days.
“In the very first episode, right before the big game, Coach Taylor gives a locker room speech… he ends with six immortal words: ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,’” Talarico told the crowd. “San Antonio, we have two days to win this election. Two days to execute. Two days to leave it all on the field.”
Most public polls show Talarico in a tight race or even leading Paxton in the final stretch, and voters with a history of participating in Democratic primaries have cast more early ballots than Republicans this year.
But Talarico warned that crowd that this is still Texas, and many Republicans like to wait to cast their ballots on Election Day.
He offered some final words for San Antonians talking to their Republican neighbors about this race, equating those brave enough to reject Paxton to one of Texas’ greatest heroes.
Talarico said it was Republicans who filed a whistleblower suit alleging corruption in Paxton’s Attorney General office, and a Republican-led Texas House that voted to impeach Paxton in the Texas House.
Then he compared them to Alamo legend Sam Houston, who once held the Senate seat Texans are voting on this year, and who was removed as Texas governor after refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy in 1861.
“Legend says that Sam Houston rested under Austin’s treaty oak, a 500-year-old live oak tree and sacred meeting spot for Comanche and Takawa peace parties. As he rested, Sam Houston wrote the words to his speech he would never deliver … ‘Do right and risk the consequences,’” Talarico said.
“Like my brave Republican colleagues, Sam Houston is a Texas hero because he did right and suffered the consequences. He didn’t do it for himself. He did it for Texas.”
Meanwhile, Paxton was rallying a smaller crowd at the Angry Elephant, where Republicans’ nominee for Bexar County Judge Patrick Von Dohlen warmed up the crowd with chants of “Remember the Alamo.”
Paxton was originally scheduled to end his Come and Take It bus tour at the Alamo on Monday, but the event was scrapped without explanation.
Instead, Paxton said he chose to rally at a bar roughly 20 minutes north of downtown, which the conservative wing of the GOP has made its San Antonio headquarters.
“I think this is becoming my favorite place,” Paxton told the crowd of about 200 people.
In his roughly 20-minute speech, Paxton acknowledged the unusual circumstances in his race.
President Donald Trump endorsed him over incumbent Republican John Cornyn to help reshape the Republican Party in his own image.
Now changing political winds have Republicans worried they could lose their U.S. Senate majority this year, and they’re pouring tens of millions of dollars into Texas to help their embattled nominee.
On Sunday night, Paxton was surrounded by other conservatives who’ve spent their political careers pushing the GOP further right.
That included gun youtuber Brandon Herrera, who is running against Democrat Katy Padilla Stout to replace Tony Gonzales in the 23rd Congressional District, and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals candidate Thomas Smith, who worked under Paxton in the AG office and his Texas Senate office.
Some of these Republicans now find themselves in unusually tough races — and they’re spending the final days trying to unite their fractured party.
For Paxton, that means convincing Texas Republicans that the unthinkable might happen in a state they’ve controlled for decades.
“Understand what is actually at stake here: Texas has never been this close to slipping away,” Paxton told the crowd. “We’ve never been this close to losing everything that we hold dear: our jobs, our livelihoods, our way of life. If Texas falls, we don’t have another Texas to move to.”
In a nod to the high interest in the race, both events were packed with national and even international media.