{"id":470433,"date":"2026-10-19T11:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470433\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T11:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:16:10","slug":"james-talarico-ken-paxton-even-up-as-they-visit-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470433\/","title":{"rendered":"James Talarico, Ken Paxton even-up as they visit Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"State<\/p>\n

State Rep. James Talarico, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/p>\n

Richard Rodriguez, Anna Moneymaker<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton remain in a virtual tie<\/a> in the race for U.S. Senate as the start of early voting brings statewide candidates to Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Talarico leads Paxton by 2 points and has crossover support from 6% of Republicans in the poll of 2,000 likely voters<\/a> conducted Oct. 10-14 by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs. But the overall 2-point margin is within the margin of error of 2.19 points.<\/p>\n

The only other race in a virtual tie is Westover Hills Republican Bo French\u2019s campaign for one of three seats on the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas. French leads Houston Democrat Jon Rosenthal by 2 points.<\/p>\n

\"James James Talarico technically has a 2-point lead but that\u2019s within the margin of error in the race for U.S. Senate. Hobby School of Public Affairs\/University of Houston <\/p>\n

Gov. Greg Abbott has a 3-point lead in his re-election campaign over Austin Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Other Republicans lead by 5-7 points.<\/p>\n

Abbott, Paxton and Talarico scheduled Oct. 19 appearances in Fort Worth on the first day of early voting:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Abbott chose the Old Texas Brewing Co. in west Fort Worth for a lunchtime rally with state Rep. John McQueeney, facing a challenge from Democrat Beth Llewellyn McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Talarico announced an evening rally at North Crowley High School in southwest Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 That 7 p.m. event was set to compete directly with a Paxton rally featuring Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the T&P Station rail station ballroom downtown.<\/p>\n

\"Gov. Gov. Greg Abbott leads state Rep. Gina Hinojosa by 3 points in the race for Texas governor. Hobby School of Public Affairs\/University of Houston <\/p>\n

The Talarico-Paxton race has tightened and the candidates have been in a virtual tie in five major polls released since Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

Talarico had a thin lead or was tied for the lead in four of those five polls.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the same October poll by the University of Houston showed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz beating Dallas Democrat Colin Allred by 4 points. Cruz went on to win by 8.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion columnist. In a 54-year Texas newspaper career, he has covered two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 Texas Legislature sessions..
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Rep. James Talarico, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Richard Rodriguez, Anna Moneymaker Getty Images Democrat James Talarico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-470433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}