{"id":478847,"date":"2026-10-28T03:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T03:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/478847\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T03:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T03:16:09","slug":"with-dueling-trump-talarico-rallies-lubbock-became-the-center-of-the-political-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/478847\/","title":{"rendered":"With dueling Trump-Talarico rallies, Lubbock became the center of the political universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscribe to The Y\u2019all<\/a> \u2014 a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.<\/p>\n

LUBBOCK \u2014 A sea of red baseball caps formed outside the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center before the sun rose Tuesday. By the afternoon, thousands of Republicans gathered to hear President Donald Trump. Some were draped in American flags. Others wore sequined cowboy hats. They also wore swag that said: \u201cTrump was right about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the street, two dozen protesters assembled. They waved signs supporting Democrat James Talarico for U.S. Senate. Other signs were anti-Trump. Just a few short miles away, scores of Talarico supporters convened for their own rally at the town\u2019s Fiesta Center. The line wrapped several city blocks. <\/p>\n

By 7 p.m., Lubbock had become the center of the political universe with Trump and Talarico holding dueling rallies.<\/p>\n

The split screen in Lubbock laid bare the rocky political terrain Texas Republicans face this fall, especially at the top of the ticket. Talarico has maintained a small but steady lead over Paxton in most public opinion polls this fall<\/a>. Other Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, appear ascendant. Their rise has been fueled in part by growing dissatisfaction over the cost of living, the proliferation of data centers in rural Texas, and other issues like school funding. To win statewide, Democratic candidates must drive up support in places like Lubbock, which have proved to be a firewall for Republicans. <\/p>\n

To that end, Talarico spent the day hopscotching West Texas, headlining rallies in Midland and Amarillo. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, Talarico\u2019s Republican opponent, also held events in Sherman, a small town about 65 miles north of Dallas, then went to Amarillo. Before Lubbock, Trump was in Corpus Christi, the seat of Nueces County, which Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke narrowly won in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats right now are very motivated to go out and vote,\u201d said Drew Landry, a political science professor at South Plains College in Levelland. \u201cSo how can you stem that tide? You get the creator of the MAGA movement to come to MAGA country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lubbock has always been a bright, ruby-red home base for Republicans. The city \u2014 referred to as the Capital of West Texas \u2014 has a mix of voters who range from college-aged students to wealthy business owners and the elderly. When election season arrives, the city is plastered with red and white signs that read \u201cconservative\u201d and \u201cRepublican.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Hub City is also home to a dedicated army of Democrats \u2014 whose hopes and dreams of a blue wave cresting its cotton fields are regularly dashed.\n<\/p>\n

Ken Adams, chairman for the Lubbock County Republican Party, said Trump\u2019s appearance was a significant moment for Lubbock. It\u2019s a reward for Republicans in West Texas, he said, who have held up the red wall that\u2019s kept the party in power all these years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like the Super Bowl,\u201d Adams said before Trump\u2019s rally. \u201cYou feel the energy, the excitement, and you think of a coach that gets the team fired up right before they run out of the tunnel and take the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lubbock Democrats see Trump\u2019s late-season rally as something different \u2014 a show of fear. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like the Republicans are running scared,\u201d said Kim Gonzalez, the Lubbock County Democratic Party\u2019s secretary. \u201cWhy would they come to Deep Red Lubbock if they weren\u2019t a little scared about what\u2019s happening in Texas? Things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

C.C. Lawrence, a Texas Tech University student, was among the protesters outside the Trump rally. She called Trump and Paxton criminals, and said the way the Epstein Files were handled was unacceptable. She wants to see the people involved punished, she said. She\u2019s also concerned about gas prices and the war in Iran. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese forever wars suck up our resources and eat up taxpayer money and make billionaires richer,\u201d said Lawrence, who was wearing overalls with an American flag design. <\/p>\n

Inside the venue, the crowd was electric as they waited for Trump to arrive. \u201cUSA\u201d chants broke out a few times, and they booed mentions of Talarico and \u201cblue-haired weirdos\u201d in reference to Democrats. One attendee shouted \u201cfreak\u201d when Talarico was mentioned by a speaker.<\/p>\n

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock native, told the crowd that Austin is \u201cthe craziest, most blue progressive place there is,\u201d and they would decide what happens in Texas if Republicans lose. The crowd booed in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Lubbock doesn\u2019t vote, if Amarillo doesn\u2019t vote, if all the other great cities and counties do not vote, Travis County gets to decide what our state is all about,\u201d Burrows said.<\/p>\n

Trump spoke for more than an hour, repeating familiar attacks against Talarico. He claimed that Talarico and Democrats would repeal the Second Amendment and that millions more people would pour in from the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you go out and vote, we\u2019re gonna have a tremendous win in Texas,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou cannot have a guy like Talafreako, because he\u2019s not even Christian. We can\u2019t lose the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loretta Davis, a Lubbock resident, said she plans to vote this week and, after Trump\u2019s speech, she\u2019s even more motivated to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy with all the things that he\u2019s done and everything that he\u2019s doing,\u201d Davis said. \u201cEspecially closing the border and helping everybody come together in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey see what we see\u201d <\/p>\n

Talarico is not the first Democrat to make advances in West Texas. O\u2019Rourke, from El Paso, regularly visited the region during his unsuccessful U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns. On Tuesday, Democrats once again promised this was their time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWest Texas shows up,\u201d said Riley Rodriguez, a Democratic state Senate candidate. \u201cWe (will) take our state back for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 4,000 people signed up for Talarico\u2019s rally, according to a campaign spokesperson. Demand was so high that the campaign changed locations to accommodate more people.<\/p>\n

Talarico took the stage at about 8:30, shortly after Trump finished his speech. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know that we\u2019re not the only show in town tonight, and I appreciate all four thousand of you that showed up here this evening,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of Talafreakos in one room.\u201d <\/p>\n

He promised to lower costs of housing, groceries, and healthcare. He said costs have been inflated as a result of the Trump administration\u2019s policies. <\/p>\n

Talarico pledged that his campaign represented working people taking power back from billionaires, whose corruption he also blamed for the \u201caffordability crisis\u201d in the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are scared, they are terrified,\u201d Talarico said of Republicans and the party\u2019s spending on the Senate race. \u201cThey see what we see \u2014 that we\u2019re about to win this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas Tech University has been a major financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subscribe to The Y\u2019all \u2014 a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[145,3496,2135,1967,168,170,169,287,293,6473],"class_list":["post-478847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-donald-trump","tag-gina-hinojosa","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-politics","tag-texas-legislature","tag-well-a-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478847","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=478847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}