Talarico vows to 'take back Texas' as Trump makes last-minute push to
keep the state in GOP hands
[October 28, 2026]
By STEVEN SLOAN, JESSE BEDAYN and LEKAN OYEKANMI
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on
Tuesday decried a "corruption crisis” he says is plaguing the U.S.
political system, competing for the spotlight with President Donald
Trump in deeply conservative West Texas ahead of next week's midterm
elections.
Trump was in Texas for the third time in a month in a last-minute push
to back Republican Ken Paxton and block Democrats from notching their
first statewide election victory in more than three decades.
Talarico took the stage in Lubbock an hour after Trump wrapped up his
own speech across town. A seminarian and a former teacher, Talarico
reached for metaphors from both the Bible and a famous Texas pastime —
Friday night football — to cast himself as an underdog against powerful
forces including Trump and Elon Musk, who is bankrolling attack ads
against Talarico on Paxton's behalf.
“We’re going to shock the nation and shock the world when we beat the
billionaires and take back Texas,” Talarico said.
Moments earlier, Trump leaned into cultural issues to portray Talarico
as too liberal for Texas.
“He doesn’t represent your values, and we can’t take a chance,” Trump
said.
Trump won Lubbock County by 40 points in 2024, and won most of the other
counties in West Texas by far more. Republicans hope the president's
visit will motivate his staunch supporters to vote. The president spoke
earlier in Corpus Christi, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
As Trump’s war in Iran spikes gas prices and adds pressure on Republican
candidates across the U.S., he sought to highlight an earlier military
operation in Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly appeared
onstage with Trump, who used the trip in part to highlight the
arrangement made with Venezuela to process more of its crude oil in
Texas refineries.
Trump is entering the final week of his last midterms in a frenzied push
to shore up Republican strongholds against unusually competitive
Democratic candidates. Beyond Texas, he swung through Mississippi,
Michigan, Georgia, Florida and Iowa over the past week, and his next
stops are Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa again.
He won all of these states in 2024.
Texas tests Trump's sway over the GOP
The campaign marathon is a bet that while Trump is broadly unpopular, he
still holds sway over the GOP's most loyal voters — a bloc whose
participation in the elections will be critical.
The strategy is facing its fiercest test in Texas, where Talarico has
capitalized on the difficult political environment for Republicans and
Paxton's history of ethical and legal problems.
Trump argued that Paxton was a “good man” and Musk, the world's richest
man, has joined Trump's effort to stop Talarico's advance.
“Talarico is lunatic left,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X,
to his 241 million followers, part of a drumbeat of attacks he’s posted
against the candidate in the race’s final days.
Musk has headquartered Tesla and SpaceX, as well as himself, in Texas,
and is so set on ensuring Republicans hold control of his adopted state
that he appears to have sunk at least $158 million into defeating
Talarico. Musk gave that much to the Senate Leadership Fund, which then
gave the same amount to the Texas PAC, the largest contributor to
Paxton’s campaign.
That’s helped make the race one of the most expensive in the country,
with over $563 million being spent on advertising between the primary
and general elections, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.
While Musk’s investment is a challenge for Talarico, it also falls right
into the Democratic campaign’s central message. At every stop, Talarico
has argued that, for too long, the wealthy and their donations have
corrupted politics, and that this corruption has fueled the
affordability crisis.
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U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks to attendees at the Voto
Latino "Ready, Go, Vote," rally Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, in Weslaco,
Texas, ahead of the midterm elections. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
Talarico has begun naming Musk in his stump speeches. Paxton tends
not to discuss him.
“He is trying to buy Texas,” Talarico said of Musk. “Texas is not
for sale.”
That parallels the Texas governor's race, where Democrat Gina
Hinojosa is waging a spirited campaign against GOP Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa has sued to be able to view communications between Musk and
Abbott, arguing that their relationship evinces how cozy her
opponent is with the ultra-wealthy in Texas.
On Monday, a judge ruled that Hinojosa, given her position as a
state representative, must be able to review over 1,000 unredacted
pages by Thursday.
Rubio's visit previews GOP's potential 2028 contest
As the midterms reach the final stretch, the early stages of the
next campaign are already surfacing.
Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, was
hitting the road with Trump for the first time as the president
barnstorms the country. A State Department official said Rubio was
traveling with Trump in his capacity as national security adviser
and not secretary of state.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
travel plans, said Rubio “needs time with the president on all kinds
of issues” and “being on the plane with him gives him a chance to
talk to him about these items.”
Rubio previously ran for president in 2016 and is considered a top
prospect in 2028. He has not said whether he will run, and his
political activities have been limited since becoming secretary of
state.
He appeared onstage with Trump briefly in Corpus Christi — and only
after Trump repeatedly called on him to come forward.
“It’s an honor to work for the greatest country in the world, for
the greatest president in the history of the United States of
America,” he said before exiting. He was similarly brief in Lubbock,
where he kept his remarks to a single sentence.
Another top Republican 2028 contender, Vice President JD Vance, has
been more active on the campaign trail, stopping in Michigan on
Tuesday, where he called the Senate race between Republican Mike
Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a “clash of competing visions.”
Meanwhile, Pete Buttigieg, the former U.S. transportation secretary
and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, was in
Mississippi, campaigning on behalf of Democratic Senate candidate
Scott Colom a day after Trump made his own stop in the deep red
state. Both parties have poured money into the state, where
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith faces a surprisingly tough
challenge.
It's no mystery why gas prices are up, Buttigieg said.
“It’s because Donald Trump decided to start a war and your elected
leaders refused to stop him. We can do better than that under new
management,” he said in Biloxi.
In California, Xavier Becerra, a Democrat running for governor,
urged voters to reject a voter ID ballot measure, which he said
would make it harder for people to vote.
“We want democracy not just to shine, but be so resilient and so
strong that Donald Trump cannot knock California down,” Becerra said
in San Francisco.
___
Sloan reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Matthew
Lee, Aamer Madhani and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Haven Daley
in San Francisco, Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Joseph B.
Frederick in Orangeburg, N.Y., contributed to this report.
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