Democratic State Rep. James Talarico’s U.S. Senate campaign on Monday night drew its largest-ever crowd — and it did so in the Dallas suburb of Plano, squarely in GOP opponent Ken Paxton’s home turf.
That’s gotta hurt.
Roughly 4,000 people from across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex gathered at the Plano Event Center for a stop on Talarico’s “The People v. Ken Paxton” tour. Lines wrapped around the building to see the Austin-area lawmaker speak, according to a report by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
On Nov. 3, Talarico will face off against Paxton, currently Texas’ attorney general, for a shot at John Cornyn’s U.S. Senate seat. Some observers consider the race Democrats’ best chance to flip a statewide seat in decades.
Paxton’s roots in the Big D run deep. He attended Baylor University in nearby Waco for his bachelor’s and MBA degrees. Later, he launched his political career as a representative of Texas House District 70, which included part of Dallas.
But no matter that this is “Paxton country” to some — Monday night, it was Talarico’s house.
The last time Talarico rallied in the area was in February, before he beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination. Only a few hundred people attended that night in what was then considered Crockett country, according to the Star-Telegram.
Talarico’s strong turnout on Paxton’s home turf follows a potential trend of poaching at least part of his rival’s base.
A Texas Public Opinion Research poll released days after the May 26 runoff showed Talarico with a 4-point lead over Paxton ahead of their November showdown. The poll surveyed 1,607 likely Texas voters between May 27 and 28.
Perhaps even more disheartening for the GOP, the poll also found that nearly a third of Republican voters who cast ballots for Cornyn in his runoff against Paxton said they plan to vote for Talarico in November.
In contrast, only 44% of former Cornyn voters said they would back Paxton.
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
