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SELMA, Texas — James Talarico and Ken Paxton are both attacking one another as outsiders more beholden to California than Texas in the closing days of their competitive Senate race.
Onstage at a Paxton rally at a dance hall in the San Antonio suburbs, retiring Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who’d briefly considered a House run in Texas, told the crowd: “I’m from California, known for our technology, but we’re also known for fruits and nuts and flakes. So don’t elect Talarico.”
“California has two senators; it doesn’t need a third from here,” added Paxton.
The next day, in a packed nightclub in San Antonio, Talarico accused Paxton, who partially grew up in the Golden State, of being the real Californian: “Ken Paxton is not one of us. He’s not even from Texas. He’s from California, just like Elon Musk.”
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With the midterms about a week away, economic issues are still front and center for both candidates as war-fueled inflation continues to bite. Talarico and Paxton both acknowledged the impact of high prices on voters at their events over the weekend, though Paxton hasn’t publicly put much distance between himself and President Donald Trump.
Paxton said voters throughout the state were “telling me the same thing: Everything costs more. Gas, groceries, the electric bill, everything’s up except our paychecks.” He floated tax deductions for medical bills, new home purchases, or healthy living decisions (like prescription GLP-1 drugs) as a way to relieve financial burdens.
Talarico, on the other hand, tried to link cost-of-living issues to alleged corruption by Republicans like Paxton. “This election is about whether you want a senator who’s going to put money in your pocket or who puts money in their own,” he said.
Democrats are cautiously optimistic about the race as polling shows Talarico narrowly ahead, though many are still smarting from Beto O’Rourke’s close loss in 2018 to Sen. Ted Cruz. Ronnie Smith, 66, of Schertz, Texas, was among the more than 1,000 people that the Talarico campaign said attended his San Antonio rally with actress Eva Longoria. Smith told Semafor he’d been a lifelong Republican until Trump ran in 2016, and believed things were “looking more positive” for Talarico, though he was still “apprehensive” about the outcome.