SAN ANTONIO (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday fought to rally Texas voters behind embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton as a series of protests disrupted his rally in San Antonio.
The president
was interrupted repeatedly during his remarks, including by one demonstrator who appeared to be close to the stage. Trump stepped away from the microphone briefly.
“He’s going back home to mom,” Trump said. “But what he doesn’t know is his mom voted for Trump.”
Other demonstrators emerged one after the other, until the interruptions reached at least a half dozen. Some were led away by police.
Trump at first just tried to talk through the disruptions while the crowd booed. But as the interruptions continued, he said, “Those are really bad-looking people.”
The protests underscored the Republican Party's struggles in Texas during this year's midterms.
Texas is the nation’s most populous reliably Republican state, where Trump won in 2024 by almost 14 percentage points. But with Election Day less than a month away, Trump’s poor approval ratings, the Iran war and soaring gas prices have threatened Republicans in virtually every state.
This was Trump's third trip to Texas in less than a month as the GOP tries to stave off a blue wave in a state it did not think would be in play this year.
In a sign of Trump’s poor standing, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend the evening rally at Freeman Coliseum. A three-term Republican governor who won reelection in 2022 by roughly 11 percentage points, even Abbott has been caught in the turbulent national currents.
He’s locked in a competitive reelection race against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.
Instead of appearing with Trump, Abbott was scheduled to headline the dedication of a hospital about 330 miles away. Democrats seized on the governor’s absence.
“For years, Greg Abbott has never been shy about embracing Donald Trump, calling Trump a ‘great friend’ and championing his agenda every step of the way,” said Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Long. “But now, as Texas families get crushed by record-high prices driven by Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran, suddenly Greg Abbott has somewhere else to be.”
While the race for governor has drawn a sudden influx of cash from Democrats, the state’s U.S. Senate race has drawn the most attention as Democrats fight for the chamber’s majority. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, but candidate James Talarico’s fundraising, Trump’s low approval rating and nagging concerns about Paxton’s character have put the race squarely in play.
Trump spent most of his remarks focused on the Texas Senate contest, describing Paxton as “perhaps the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”
“He was tough and he was with us all the way,” Trump said of Paxton. “He’s a fantastic man.”
Trump made no mention of the recently leaked recording of Paxton lamenting the war in Iran and rising fuel prices, while also complaining his campaign was being run by operatives in Washington.
And while Trump praised Paxton briefly at the beginning of his remarks, he spent far more time attacking Talarico, whom he referred to repeatedly as “Tala-freako.”
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Peoples reported from New York and Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
