Paxton and Talarico tussle for Texas Senate seat. Trump to campaign virtually instead of in person

Texas was not expected to be an epicenter of midterm elections that could reshape the final chapters of Donald Trump's second presidency.

But Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico are making final weekend blitzes in a tossup U.S. Senate race that has become one measure of voters' frustration with Trump's leadership and his party.

Paxton, the longtime state attorney general who defeated Republican Sen. John Cornyn earlier this year with Trump’s help, warned voters against restoring Democratic control of Capitol Hill.

“The left in this country keeps getting more and more radical,” Paxton said Saturday morning in Fort Worth. The election, he told his supporters, will “go down to the wire” and is about rejecting “every dangerous idea that Democrats across the country are putting forward right now.”

Talarico, a state lawmaker, was to rally support in Houston later Saturday.

The closing sprint in Texas comes as early voting nears its conclusion in several states. Early balloting totals were approaching 50 million heading into the weekend.

The president was stepping away from in-person rallies Saturday in favor of virtual events. He was scheduled to call into six tele-rallies after spending the morning and early afternoon at the golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The White House released few details on what to expect, but the president generally participates in such calls — a departure from his rally speeches, which often stretch for 90-plus minutes.

The president has blitzed the closing weeks of October with rallies across the country, including in states he won comfortably in each of his three campaigns. On Sunday, Trump is set to hold rallies in Iowa and Kansas that were scheduled, pulled down and then rescheduled.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would become speaker if Democrats win a House majority, was in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District campaigning with former Rep. Elaine Luria, who is in a rematch with Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Luria lost her seat to Kiggans four years ago.

“We're going to fight hard each and every day for an affordable America,” Jeffries said.

He hammered Republicans for filling a “graveyard of broken promises” and repeated his pledge to hold votes on reversing Republicans' healthcare cuts, pass sweeping voting rights laws and limit Trump's military actions on Iran.

“Beginning on day one, we're going to hold the crooks accountable,” he said, previewing aggressive oversight of the Trump administration. He specifically named Trump's Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, who has rankled Democrats and Republicans, among other actions, with his overhaul of military leadership and dismissals of top generals and other officers .

“In the majority, one of the first things we are going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Jeffries said, drawing perhaps the loudest roar of his 11-minute speech.

The southeast Virginia district is among the most competitive in a House battleground map that Democrats have tried to widen to target at least 60 seats. Trump won many of those by double digits in 2024.

Texas was perhaps the first of those outliers to be recognized as truly competitive.

Paxton, beset by years of controversy but backed by Trump, has focused on casting Talarico as the frontman for a far-left agenda and Washington powerbrokers like Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say, if we lose Texas, we lose America,” Paxton said. “That’s what we’re fighting for. This is our time, our moment to draw our line in the sand that generations of patriots drew before us.”

He urged Republicans to match enthusiastic early voting turnout from Democrats. Then he made one more entreaty.

“Pray for our Texas,” he said. “Pray for me.”

Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and former primary rival Haley Stevens were expected to campaign together on Sunday with Rep. James Clyburn, but that is in doubt.

After Stevens renewed her criticism of El-Sayed, his campaign is no longer welcoming her to events, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.

However, Antjuan Seawright, an adviser for Clyburn, said the congressman was still inviting both to join him for church on Sunday morning.

Both Stevens and her spokesperson did not respond to texts asking whether she was still planning to attend.

Stevens has been demanding that El-Sayed condemn an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to rising grocery prices and also address concerns about his past rhetoric that has concerned some Jewish voters.

___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti and Will Weissert contributed from Washington.