Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton are taking their Senate fight to Tarrant County on Monday, holding dueling rallies in Fort Worth as Texans cast the first ballots in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country. Tarrant County has swung back-and-forth over the past decade. Former Representative Beto O'Rourke carried it in his 2018 Senate race with 313,497 votes to 309,189 for Senator Ted Cruz, the last time a Democrat below the top of the ticket won the county.
In presidential elections, former President Joe Biden edged President Donald Trump there in 2020 by less than a quarter of a percentage point, and Trump took it back in 2024, beating former Vice President Kamala Harris 51.9 percent to 46.7 percent. Both campaigns now see the county as pivotal. Talarico and Paxton are holding competing rallies in Fort Worth on Monday as they crisscross the Lone Star State ahead of Election Day.
Talarico, an Austin state representative, starts the day with a 1 p.m. rally at the University of North Texas in Denton before heading to North Crowley High School in southwest Fort Worth. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the program scheduled for 7 p.m. His “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” tour began with a stop in Plano on Sunday.
It will continue through East Texas, Houston, the Gulf Coast, San Antonio, South Texas, El Paso and Lubbock before returning to Dallas on October 29. Talarico plans to hold his final rally in Austin on November 2. Paxton, the state's attorney general, will also rally in Fort Worth at 7 p.m., joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
His campaign has not publicly announced the venue. The Republican will begin the day in Allen, in Collin County, after stops in Rockwall and Killeen on Saturday and San Antonio on Sunday. GOP Governor Greg Abbott is also scheduled to appear in Fort Worth on Monday.
The candidates have offered contrasting messages on the trail. Paxton's “Come and Take It” tour frames him as a defender of Texas values, including Christianity and the oil and gas industry. At a Saturday rally in Rockwall, he accused Talarico of threatening those values and urged supporters to vote early.
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