President Trump made his third trip to Texas in less than a month on Wednesday to rally support for GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton, who is locked in a tight race with Democrat James Talarico.
Mr. Trump held a rally in San Antonio alongside Mr. Paxton and Carlos De La Cruz, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House.
Texas is a longtime Republican stronghold that Mr. Trump carried by more than 13 points in 2024 and hasn’t elected a Democrat to any statewide office since 1994.
People were interested in these podcasts
But it has become the focal point of the Republicans’ plan to retain their slim Senate majority. A loss in Texas would be a major setback for the GOP and complicate any path to keep the upper chamber.
Mr. Trump warned Texans that if Mr. Talarico is elected to the Senate, he and other Democrats will “destroy” their state.
“For decades, Texas has been the state where people flee to escape the economic oppression and social collapse of Democrat-run California, New York, Illinois and other failing blue states,” Mr. Trump said.
“But if [Mr. Talarico] and the Democrats get their way, all of that squalor, misery and poverty, homelessness … that’s coming to destroy your beloved state of Texas.”
At times, Mr. Trump unloaded with personal attacks on the Democratic candidate, whom he called “Talafreako,” picking up on a term widely used in conservative circles.
He said Texas heroes like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and others would be “rolling over in their graves at the mere sight of Talafreako trying to become a senator from Texas.”
“The people of Texas are not going to let a weak, gutless, self-hating transgender-promoting freak show destroy everything that we built,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, but he seemed bemused by the hecklers. After one interruption, he joked that the individual was going home to his mother, who voted for him.
Wednesday’s rally is Mr. Trump’s latest effort to mobilize his supporters for Mr. Paxton.
The president called Mr. Paxton a “pain in the ass” and has taken several jabs at the Texas attorney general’s appearance and lack of charisma, but said Republicans “need Ken so badly.”
Mr. Trump’s Texas trip is part of a broader push to boost candidates in solidly red states that have suddenly become midterm battlegrounds.
In addition to Texas, Mr. Trump has recently traveled to Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska and Vice President J.D. Vance campaigned in Alaska.
Mr. Trump carried all six states by double digits in the 2024 presidential election, but all.
Republicans are pouring millions into the Texas Senate race, which has become unexpectedly close. Mr. Talarico leads Mr. Paxton by six percentage points, according to a New York Times/Siena Research Institute poll released Tuesday.
Ahead of Mr. Trump’s arrival in Texas, a leaked audio tape caused headlines for Mr. Paxton, pushing his campaign into damage-control mode. The GOP nominee told a group of donors and lobbyists last month that the Iran war and high gas prices have hurt his campaign, according to audio obtained by Axios.
Mr. Paxton complained that Washington and Mr. Trump were controlling his campaign and that he doesn’t make the decisions, adding “I don’t … know what’s behind some of these decisions,” according to the Axios audio.
He also griped that Mr. Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas last month hurt his numbers.
The Paxton campaign dismissed the story as “manipulated nonsense.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.