President Trump is spending the last Tuesday before Election Day in Texas. According to Fox News, he is scheduled to speak in Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. local time and in Lubbock at 6 p.m. local time on Oct. 27, campaigning alongside Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
The Texas stops are part of a three-state closing swing. WBTV’s weekly Washington preview lists Mississippi on Monday, Texas on Tuesday and Ohio on Wednesday as Trump makes what it calls a “final appeal to voters” before the Nov. 3 midterms, which will decide control of Congress.
The reason a Republican president is campaigning in Texas at all is the Senate map. Fox News describes Paxton’s race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico as deadlocked in its polling, even though Trump carried Texas by nearly 14 points two years ago. Early voting is already underway and runs through Friday, Oct. 30.
The two cities were not chosen at random. Corpus Christi anchors the Coastal Bend, a region with deep ties to energy, the port and the military. Lubbock is the hub of the South Plains and the Panhandle, some of the most reliably Republican country in the state. A strong turnout in both places is the kind of margin Paxton needs to offset the big metro counties.
Why it matters. Rallies are about turnout, not persuasion. With early voting halfway done, both campaigns are fighting to get their own supporters to the polls. For conservative Texans, the practical takeaway is simple: if you have not voted, early voting is open through Friday and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The other side. Democrats argue that a sitting president needing to defend Texas a week out shows Republican weakness; Republicans say the visits are about running up the score and turnout, not rescue.
Open questions. How large the crowds are, whether Gov. Greg Abbott or other statewide candidates appear on stage, and whether the visits move early-vote numbers in Nueces and Lubbock counties in the final four days.
