Texas was not expected to be an epicenter of midterm elections that could reshape the final chapters of Donald Trump's second presidency.
But Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico began making closing arguments Saturday in a tossup U.S. Senate race that has become a key measure of voters' frustration with Trump's leadership and his loyalists in the Republican Party.
Talarico hammered Paxton, the longtime state attorney general who has weathered
indictment and impeachment and garnered Trump's endorsement, as an especially corrupt example rotten political system.
“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.
Paxton, who defeated Republican Sen. John Cornyn in this year's GOP primary with Trump’s help, answered in Fort Worth by painting Talarico, a state lawmaker, seminarian and former teacher, as too liberal for Texas. And each painted the other as front men for dangerous figures.
“The left in this country keeps getting more and more radical,” Paxton said, arguing Talarico would be lackey for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the New Yorker who would set the chamber's agenda if Democrats win a majority.
For Talarico, the shadow opponent is Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who has spent more than $150 million of his own money to help Paxton keep pace with Talarico's fundraising.
“It’s David vs. Goliath,” said Talarico, invoking the biblical story of the shepherd who slays a giant. “The people of Texas are my slingshot.”
The closing sprint in Texas comes as early voting nears its conclusion in several states. Early balloting totals were approaching 50 million heading into the weekend. About 112 million voted in total in the 2022 midterm elections.
The president was stepping away from in-person rallies Saturday in favor of virtual events. He was scheduled to call into six tele-rallies after spending the morning and early afternoon at the golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump’s MAGA Inc., super PAC said that telerallies were lined up for races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan and two separate calls for Florida. The White House released few details on what to expect, but the president generally participates in such calls — a departure from his rally speeches, which often stretch for 90-plus minutes.
“Answer your phones, and ENJOY!” Trump posted Saturday on his social media site.
Trump has spent the closing weeks of October traveling across the country, including in states he won comfortably in each of his three campaigns. On Sunday, he is set to hold rallies in Iowa and Kansas that were scheduled, pulled down and then rescheduled.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would become speaker if Democrats win a House majority, was in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District campaigning with former Rep. Elaine Luria, who is in a rematch with Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Luria lost her seat to Kiggans four years ago.
“We're going to fight hard each and every day for an affordable America,” Jeffries said.
He hammered Republicans for filling a “graveyard of broken promises” and repeated his pledge to hold votes on reversing Republicans' healthcare cuts, pass sweeping voting rights laws and limit Trump's military actions on Iran.
“Beginning on day one, we're going to hold the crooks accountable,” he said, previewing aggressive oversight of the Trump administration. He specifically named Trump's Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, who has rankled Democrats and Republicans with his overhaul of military leadership and dismissals of top generals and other officers, among other actions.
“In the majority, one of the first things we are going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Jeffries said, drawing perhaps the loudest roar of his 11-minute speech.
The southeast Virginia district is among the most competitive in a House battleground map. Democrats are targeting at least 60 seats. Trump won many of those by double digits in 2024.
House Speaker Mike Johnson answered in a Michigan tossup district with dystopian claims about Democrats.
“It’s a spiritual battle,” the outspoken conservative Christian speaker said, suggesting Republican voters owe it to a higher power to vote.
“I know God does not hold us responsible for the results, but he does hold us responsible to be faithful in our duty,” Johnson said, framing Democrats as a godless party.
“These are Marxists, socialists, communists. It’s their ideology,” he said. “The communists, as you know, murdered tens of millions of innocent people in the 20th century alone. That is not who we are in America, and it will not happen on our watch.”
At the same time, Trump has leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric, focusing in particular on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who faces Republican Mike Rogers in one of this year’s most competitive Senate races.
On Saturday, the president posted on social media an Islamophobic cartoon of a man with a flaming torch knocking on the door of the United States after setting fire to countries in Europe.
Paxton, beset by years of controversy, has followed a similar script of dire warnings and issued them again Saturday.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say, if we lose Texas, we lose America,” Paxton said. He urged Republicans to match enthusiastic early voting turnout from Democrats.
Then he made one more entreaty.
“Pray for our Texas,” he said. “Pray for me.”
As enthusiastic as Democrats have been about their prospects, they are still having to navigate internal divisions in El-Sayed's Michigan race. He and his former primary rival Haley Stevens were expected to campaign together on Sunday with Rep. James Clyburn, but that is in doubt.
After Stevens renewed her criticism of El-Sayed, his campaign is no longer welcoming her to events, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.
However, Antjuan Seawright, a Clyburn adviser, said the congressman was still inviting both to join him for church on Sunday morning. Stevens and her spokesperson did not respond to texts asking whether she was still planning to attend.
Stevens has been demanding that El-Sayed condemn an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to rising grocery prices and also address concerns about his past rhetoric that has concerned some Jewish voters.
Campaigning in Sterling Heights, Michigan, El-Sayed said again Saturday that “we ought to keep our money here to invest in schools here, in infrastructure here, rather than sending it somewhere else to drop a bomb somewhere else.”
He also alluded to how much Stevens and her supporters outspent him in the primary. “They might as well have set their money on fire, because we beat them anyway,” he said.
But, unlike some of his previous remarks, El-Sayed did not mention U.S. military aid to Israel or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its support for Stevens and, now, Rogers.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate. Democrats need to pick up at least four new seats for a majority and would need at least five if they lose Michigan.
___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti and Will Weissert contributed from Washington.
