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| JORDAN BOYD |
The event served as a snub to Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico, who hosted his own Lubbock rally the same night.
Exactly one week ahead of the 2026 midterm Election Day, President Donald Trump jetted across the Lone Star State from Corpus Christi to Lubbock to coax West Texans into voting for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.Trump’s visit to the 273,000-person city was certainly welcomed and celebrated by locals. Thousands of MAGA and Charlie Kirk gear-wearing attendees who lined up to tailgate hours before the rally doors even opened and stayed to watch a rally livestream on jumbotrons when the Lubbock Civic Center venue reached capacity.
The event served as a snub to Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico, who hosted his own Lubbock rally the same night less than three miles away. This fact pleased Renee Taylor, a Lubbock local who told me Talarico has no place in Texas politics.
“Who would want anyone to run our Senate that thinks God is nonbinary and has six genders and wants our children mutilated?” Taylor told me while she waited in line to enter the Trump rally.
“Who would want anyone to run our Senate that thinks God is nonbinary and has six genders and wants our children mutilated?” Renee of Lubbock, TX asks, referring to Talarico. https://t.co/mxNzDVq1KS
— Jordan Boyd (@jordanboydtx) October 27, 2026While the people I talked to said they planned to or had already voted for Paxton, they were largely in attendance to see and express support for Trump. Taylor’s goal in attending was to “show [Trump] that this town right here is really in favor of him.” The Texas attorney general seemed to recognize this as the crowd’s reigning attitude and only took the stage for a few minutes.
Trump, unbothered by the shortness of Paxton’s speech, used the momentum ignited by his presence to highlight the Republican’s track record. He called the Paxton the “best [attorney general] ever.” The candidate’s legal victories include shutting down Texas Children’s Hospital’s illegal child transing scheme and replacing it with a free detransition clinic, securing several key election integrity wins for the state, and taking on the illegal abortion pill black market and outlaws who run it.
Trump also let loose on “Tala-freak-o.” He poked fun at the Democrat’s “non-meat campaign” commitment with a joke about barbecue-induced indigestion being the cause for Talarico’s recent absence. The president also warned that a vote for Talarico means a vote for a candidate who supports gun grabs and regulating oil and gas companies out of business.
The Elephants In The Room
When Trump wasn’t talking about the Texas Senate race specifically, he was tooting his own horn on the administration’s victories in the farming and oil and gas industries and calling out other radical Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar (or, according to U.S. government documents, Ilhan Nur Said Elmi) and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
The president’s comments about falling gas prices and the Iran War were a direct appeal to voters whose biggest concerns heading into the midterms are affordability and another Middle East conflict.
Madeline and Avery, two high school students who attended the rally with Turning Point USA’s Club America, told me ahead of Trump’s speech that they were worried about rising costs.
“Everyone’s getting cars now, and gas is really pricey. Like getting a job and all your money going straight to gas,” Madeline said.
Avery, who drives a truck, said she specifically wanted to hear Trump discuss “lowering diesel prices.”
They weren’t the only ones. Sawyer, a high school senior who volunteered at the rally, agreed that affordability is front of mind for him and his peers.
“I know the younger generation is struggling a lot with economics, especially in housing and things like that. So that’s one big thing I hope he’ll cover,” he said.
Sawyer, a high school senior at Southcrest Christian School in Lubbock says he hopes Trump addresses housing affordability in his speech tonight. https://t.co/b87KDeaJQR
— Jordan Boyd (@jordanboydtx) October 27, 2026Hudson Goldsmith, a freshman at Texas Tech University, attested to feeling the financial squeeze.
“As a college student, I think just money matters. Like I gotta, I gotta pinch,” Goldsmith said. --->READ MORE HERE
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