Talarico Casts Himself as the Underdog in Final Houston Rally, Attacks Musk's Spending for Paxton
James Talarico closed his Houston campaign at Bayou Music Center on Saturday before 1,900 supporters, calling himself David against Goliath and Elon Musk the money behind Ken Paxton - on the day Harris County reported a record one million early votes.
HOUSTON - James Talarico's final Houston rally before Election Day filled Bayou Music Center on Saturday, and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate played the role he has chosen for the closing weekend: the underdog. "We are the underdogs. It's David versus Goliath. It's the powers that be versus the powers that ought to be," a hoarse Talarico told the crowd of 1,900, the Houston Chronicle reported.
His named Goliath was Elon Musk. "Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our tax dollars. He wants his very own personal United States senator," Talarico said. "He is trying to buy Texas." Musk alone has spent more than $150 million backing Republican nominee Ken Paxton, according to federal election filings cited in the report. Talarico's broader pitch, in the Associated Press account of the same Houston stop: "This election is about whether you want a senator who puts money in your pocket or who puts money in his own."
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee and Harris County Judge candidate Letitia Plummer were on hand to urge the crowd to vote and volunteer. The rally landed on a record day at the county's vote centers: Harris County reported Saturday that more than a million residents had voted early, a new county record.
Paxton, the state attorney general who defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary, spent Saturday at a rally in Fort Worth, where he described Talarico as an extremist and said, in the Chronicle's account: "(Talarico) is a radical who has never met a tax increase he didn't love." Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
