Trump and Talarico hold dueling rallies in Texas as the Senate race sits tied

One week before Election Day, the President of the United States and the Democrat trying to flip a Texas Senate seat are holding rallies in the same West Texas city on the same night.

Trump speaks first in Corpus Christi, then travels to the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center in the evening to stand beside Ken Paxton, the state attorney general running to replace retiring Senator John Cornyn. Talarico answers in Lubbock at the same hour, with a rally at Texas Tech after a stop in Amarillo, and he campaigned in Corpus Christi himself on October 24. The visit is Trump's fourth to Texas since Labor Day. He spent two days in Dallas in September for the Republican midterm convention, visited a Peterbilt truck plant in Denton on October 1 and rallied in San Antonio on October 7. Lubbock closed its Mahon Library, the civic center offices and the Silent Wings Museum for the day and shut downtown roads around the venue.

The polls say the attention is warranted. A Fox News poll released last week found Paxton and Talarico tied at 49 percent among likely voters, as of October 27. Talarico led the same poll by 51 to 49 in September. Polling averages put the race at a dead heat in a state Trump carried by nearly 14 points two years ago. The money has followed the numbers. CBS News Texas reported that Republicans have spent more than 200 million dollars on Paxton's behalf, much of it on negative ads about Talarico's comments on social and cultural questions. Talarico has outraised Paxton directly by 68.6 million dollars to 19.5 million, according to federal filings. Elon Musk has put more than 150 million dollars behind Paxton and calls Talarico a far left extremist. Neil Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, broke the other way last week and said he voted for Talarico, writing that character matters more than party affiliation.

Trump mixed governing with the campaign on the same trip. The Associated Press reported that the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio planned to visit a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude at Port Arthur on Tuesday, the first time Rubio has joined Trump's political travel. Attorney General Todd Blanche has already appeared at rallies beside Republican candidates this fall.

Vice President JD Vance follows Trump into Texas with a rally in Weatherford on Thursday. Early voting is under way, and Election Day is November 3. A Talarico win would cut the Republican Senate majority to a single seat for the last two years of Trump's term and put his legislative program and his judicial confirmations at the mercy of one defection. Texas has sent Republicans to every statewide office for three decades. Tuesday night in Lubbock, both parties are acting as if that run is in genuine danger.