For the second time in just over a week, Ken Paxton and James Talarico were on opposite sides of the same city at dueling rallies Tuesday evening in the western Texas city of Lubbock.
The rallies struck starkly different tones but conveyed the same message: The future of Texas and perhaps the nation hinged on the outcome of their U.S. Senate race.
Thousands of people packed into each event. But at Mr. Paxton’s, attendance was stoked by the headliner, President Trump. Mr. Paxton did not deliver a traditional speech, only speaking when the president called him to the stage toward the end of his address, which lasted more than 90 minutes.
“On election night, Texas is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it,” Mr. Trump said. “America belongs to those who love it.”
Across the town, Mr. Talarico was the main attraction.
“We’re going to shock the nation, shock the world, when we beat the billionaires and take back Texas,” Mr. Talarico said to cheers.
The two candidates have been furiously campaigning across the state in the final days of what has been one of the nation’s hardest-fought and most expensive midterm campaigns. Last week, they came within a few miles of each other in Fort Worth, an urban area controlled by Republicans and one both parties consider a battleground.
On Tuesday night, with just a week to go before Election Day, they were again separated by just a short drive, this time on either side of a Lubbock city park famous for its prairie dogs.
For Mr. Talarico, the appearance in a reliably conservative corner of the state was in line with his campaign’s efforts to court independent and centrist Republican voters who may have grown tired of their party. The area has not been a battleground in recent elections, as Lubbock County favored President Trump by about 70 percent to 30 percent in 2024.
But the city, home to about 250,000 residents and Texas Tech University, has large pockets of Democrats. And many came out on Tuesday. Thousands lined up to enter Mr. Talarico’s rally, at the Fiesta Center, snaking through nearby neighborhoods.
For Mr. Paxton, the Republican state attorney general, the visit was an attempt to shore up and turn out his base of supporters. He did so on Tuesday with the help of Mr. Trump, whose appearance with Mr. Paxton at a Lubbock civic center was his second of the day — a remarkable investment of presidential time and effort.
Mr. Paxton made relatively short remarks at rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock as Mr. Trump spoke at length.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
But amid a lot of positive talk were signs of growing Republican concern.
“We’re getting beat bad by the leftists,” Don Huffines, the state’s hard-right comptroller, told the crowd Tuesday. “You need to be scared.”
Toward the end of the event, Mr. Trump invited Mr. Paxton to the stage for some brief remarks that mostly focused on how great it was to spend the day with the president, starting at a rally in Corpus Christi, a humid port city more than 500 miles away along the Gulf Coast.
“We of course flew on Air Force One, and now we’re here,” Mr. Paxton said. “It turns out it’s pretty fun to hang out with the president.”
Mr. Trump, who has now traveled to Texas four times in the last two months, has appeared to be convinced that he can, by force of repeated rallies and speeches, help will Mr. Paxton to victory.
“It’s just great — he’s the one who brought the patriotism out in all of our family,” said Deborah Steppe, 51, a security worker, who came with several family members on Tuesday in Lubbock, waiting hours in line to see Mr. Trump.
During his earlier appearance in Corpus Christi, Mr. Trump also spoke for more than an hour, significantly more time than Mr. Paxton, who delivered an abridged version of his campaign speech before the president took the stage. Absent from Mr. Trump’s remarks in Corpus Christi was the not-so-gentle ribbing the president has given Mr. Paxton in some recent joint appearances, though in Lubbock, Mr. Trump did briefly mock his body.
Mr. Paxton has been trailing Mr. Talarico, a state representative, in most recent polls. But he has benefited from more than $150 million in campaign spending by Elon Musk.
Mr. Talarico has looked to use Mr. Musk’s and Mr. Trump’s support against Mr. Paxton. Even before Mr. Trump began holding events in Texas on Tuesday, Mr. Talarico was already trying raise money off the visit.
“Toe-to-toe while Trump’s in Texas,” read the fund-raising email.
In his speech, Mr. Talarico suggested that the flood of negative political attacks, which have become unavoidable across Texas, could largely be traced to a single source.
James Talarico used Mr. Trump’s and Elon Musk’s support for Mr. Paxton against him.Credit…Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
“If you’ve seen an attack ad on your TV, that was Elon,” he said. “If you’ve gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon.”
Lauren Gay, 22, a communication studies major at Texas Tech, came to see Mr. Talarico even though she had already cast her ballot last week, along with her parents.
“I want people to stay hopeful,” she said.
Lauren McGaughy contributed reporting from Corpus Christi, Texas.
