Trump to Texans: Vote for Ken Paxton, or blue-state ‘squalor’ is coming 

President Donald Trump returned to Texas Wednesday, his third visit in less than a month, to rally for Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. 

Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in Texas in more than three decades, but polling shows Talarico slightly ahead in a razor-thin contest.

Republicans have dumped tens of millions into the race in recent weeks to hold the seat, and Trump’s visit signals the party is on high alert in one of the nation’s most closely watched races, less than a month before the Nov. 3 midterms.

Trump spent much of the rally praising Paxton’s record as attorney general and mocking Talarico, whom he has nicknamed “Talafreako” and dubbed a “weak, gutless, self-hating, transgender-promoting freak show.”

“For decades, Texas has been the state where people flee to escape the economic oppression and social collapse of Democrat-run California, New York, Illinois, and other failing blue states,” Trump said at the rally, held in San Antonio, adding that if Talarico and Democrats win, “all of that squalor, misery, poverty, homelessness” will be ushered into the state.

“When the blues get in, everything becomes dirty,” he said. “The streets are dirty. The doorknobs going into stores are dirty. The sidewalks are filthy dirty. Everything becomes dirty and has a bad smell.”

Trump said if Paxton wins he will be “one of the best senators that we have in this country,” but “Texas will be almost instantaneously destroyed if Talafreako gets in.”

As attorney general, Paxton sued the Biden administration more than 100 times, Trump said, adding that he sued Medicare fraudsters and sued “to stop the radical left from mutilating Texas children and he won.”

Talarico “personally authorized the bill to force critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion insanity into every public school,” Trump added. “Whereas I fought for school choice,” he said, crediting Paxton and other state Republicans for securing education freedom.

Paxton, whose campaign did not return a request for comment about the rally, told the crowd the race was about more than red versus blue. “We are talking about capitalism,” he said. “On the other side, we are talking about communism, socialism.”

Heartlander News reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment about the race.

Where is Talarico?

The Republican National Committee told Heartlander News that Texas voters are increasingly wary of Talarico.

“The more Texans learn about James Talarico’s radical plan to eliminate oil and gas, raise taxes and force sex changes on kids, the more they realize they want nothing to do with him. No wonder he is running scared and hiding from Texans,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft said, referring to reports that Talarico has been missing from the campaign trail for over a week.

The Democrat’s campaign has said he has the flu, but Paxton has seized the opportunity to hang “missing” posters and launch a “have you seen this man?” campaign. Trump also referenced Talarico’s absence from the campaign stump.

“And James Talafreako, wherever he may be, we’re looking for the guy, it’s been two weeks. Where the hell is he? Does anybody know where he might be?”

Talarico’s campaign did not return a request for comment.