Talarico's Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Tour Returns to Houston Saturday, on a Closing Run That Ends in Austin Monday

HOUSTON - James Talarico brings his closing tour back to Houston on Saturday, October 31 - the second Houston stop on the Democrat's Clear Eyes, Full Hearts tour, and one of the last four stops of his campaign for the U.S. Senate. The tour's published schedule puts him in College Station on Friday, Houston on Saturday, San Antonio on Sunday, and Austin on Monday, November 2, for a final rally on the eve of Election Day.

The tour has been the spine of Talarico's closing argument. Announced on October 16, it set out to carry his message to voters in 20 Texas cities between its October 18 kickoff in Plano and the Austin finale. 'Texans are tired of being divided into teams - red versus blue, left versus right, rural versus urban,' Talarico said in the news release announcing it. 'That's why we're traveling across the state to unite working people onto one team.' The tour's name borrows the line from the Texas football classic 'Friday Night Lights': 'Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.'

Houston's place in the sequence is deliberate on both sides of the race. Talarico first brought the tour here on October 21; his opponent, Republican Ken Paxton, is spending today - the last day of early voting - at two Houston-area stops of his own bus tour. Harris County has cast more than 862,000 early ballots through Thursday, a record midterm pace, and both campaigns are closing within a few miles of the county that may decide how close Texas's Senate race really is.

After Monday's Austin finale, the tour is done and the argument moves to the count. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with Talarico, Paxton and Libertarian Ted Brown on the ballot for the seat Sen. John Cornyn is leaving.