Talarico Casts His Race as David Against Goliath in Dallas: 2,600 at the Convention Center, 60,000 Volunteers and a Call to Flip Tables

DALLAS - James Talarico brought his Clear Eyes, Full Hearts tour to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas on Thursday evening before a crowd of about 2,600, the Christian Post reported Friday, on a program that paired him with Democratic governor nominee Gina Hinojosa and Frederick Douglass Haynes III, the Friendship-West Baptist Church senior pastor who is the Democratic nominee in Texas's 30th congressional district. Talarico, a 36-year-old state representative with a master's degree in theological studies, opened by retelling the Friday Night Lights locker-room speech that names his tour - 'clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose' - and turned it into an instruction: 'We have five days to win this election. We have to execute. We have to leave it all on the field. We have to win.'

He pointed to the dozens of yellow-vested volunteers in the hall and put his ground operation at more than 60,000 volunteers knocking on doors and sending text messages in the final days, then cast the money against him in the same frame: 'The billionaire mega-donors and their super PACs are spending more than $200 million to try to stop us. That is the most of any Senate race in American history and more is on the way. They are scared. They are terrified. They see what we see: that we're about to win this election.' The underdog framing ran against the numbers the Post carried alongside it - polling averages show Talarico leading Republican Ken Paxton by 2.1 percentage points - and he named the contrast himself, comparing the race to Scripture: 'For 40 days, Goliath taunts and teases. David wasn't as big or as strong as Goliath. He didn't have as many weapons, but he had hope. He had faith. And he had a slingshot. Dallas, you are my slingshot. The people of Texas are my slingshot.'

The faith argument went one step further. Repeating his description of Jesus as a 'barefoot rabbi,' Talarico told the crowd Jesus was crucified after an act of 'civil disobedience' - walking into the seat of power and flipping over the tables of injustice - and closed on the same image: 'It's David versus Goliath. It's the powers that be versus the powers that ought to be. And it's time for us to start flipping over some tables.' Of Paxton he said: 'Ken Paxton is everything that's wrong with our politics. He doesn't serve us. He serves himself.' Outside the hall, a merch vendor named Hank told the Post he sold more than 300 Talarico shirts and over 100 hats on Thursday. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988; early voting ends today, and Election Day is Tuesday.