Vice President JD Vance told East Texas voters on Tuesday that Democrat James Talarico is "a threat to your way of life," as new polls show the state representative holding a narrow edge over Republican Ken Paxton in the race for Texas' open U.S. Vance spoke at a rally at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport less than a week before early voting begins and three weeks out from the November election. The trip came days after President Donald Trump rallied for Paxton in San Antonio, his third stop in the state in a month.
Republicans have held the seat for decades. Democrats haven't won any statewide race in Texas in 32 years. Newsweek has reached out to the Paxton and Talarico campaigns for comment via email.
Vance painted Talarico as a left-wing candidate dressed up as a moderate. "While we may laugh at James Talarico for all of the goofy stuff that he says, the simple fact is, he is dead serious. He is crazy, and we cannot elect 'Tala-freako' to the U.S.
Senate," he said, warning that Talarico would "spend every single day trying to shove left-wing ideology down the throats of this country." He pointed to the Democrat's past comments about Texans cutting back on meat. "He is a threat to your way of life. He is a threat to your livelihood," Vance told the crowd.
The vice president also went after Talarico's statements on gender and transgender youth. When a man in the audience shouted that he loved him, Vance answered: "I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear.
I'm the Vice President, not James Talarico." At an earlier Texas appearance this month, Vance, Catholic, questioned whether Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who has built his campaign around his faith, was sincere about it. "A man who wears your religion as a cover will never fight for your values," he said then. Republicans have also labeled Talarico a socialist.
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