Vice President JD Vance landed in Tyler on Tuesday to rally Republicans behind Ken Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign, using the stop to announce a new agreement with a local oil refinery and to take aim at Democratic challenger James Talarico just three weeks before Election Day. The visit came less than a week after President Donald Trump himself campaigned in Texas to boost the state GOP ticket.
Vance held the midterm rally at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, according to KLTV, which reported the vice president used the appearance to endorse Paxton, the Republican attorney general facing Democratic state Rep. Talarico for the seat currently held by John Cornyn. Smith County Republican Party Chair David Stein told the station the visit marked Tyler's first by a sitting vice president since Dan Quayle attended the Texas Rose Festival parade in 1992.
During the stop, Vance announced that the Trump administration had reached an agreement with Delek Refinery in Tyler for an expansion under the Defense Production Act. As reported by Fox 7 Austin, Vance said the deal would mean hundreds of good-paying new jobs and additional production of both commercial-grade and military-specification fuel.
Vance Needles Talarico Over Schools, Age
Vance also used the rally to criticize Talarico ahead of the Nov. 3 election, continuing a pattern of sharp exchanges between the two camps. According to CBS Austin, Vance told the crowd he wanted Talarico to keep away from schools and urged voters to elect Paxton so children learn to read. Vance also responded to a heckler during the event, saying, “I love you too, sir. And in a totally platonic way... I'm the vice president, not James Talarico.”
Talarico's campaign fired back by pointing to a Wall Street Journal video they said showed Paxton at a 2024 Dubai party with two men who had been indicted on federal health care fraud charges, per the same CBS Austin report. The Houston Chronicle, describing the Journal's reporting, said Paxton celebrated New Year's Eve 2024 in Dubai with his girlfriend, Tracy Duhon, and two Americans indicted months earlier on federal healthcare-fraud charges, according to the Chronicle. Campaign finance records cited by the Journal, as relayed by the Chronicle, show one of those men, Ahmed, donated $190,000 to Paxton, including $25,000 days after he was indicted. Talarico's team also said Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson had flown in to cover for Paxton after he was caught partying with fugitives in Dubai, an allegation Paxton's campaign has not been shown in the dossier to have addressed directly.
Debate Standoff Drags On
The sparring comes amid an ongoing standoff over debates. No debates have been scheduled between Paxton and Talarico, and NBC News reported that Talarico has accepted invitations from multiple media outlets while Paxton has not done the same. Talarico told NBC, “I think it's mysterious that Ken Paxton hasn't responded to a request for a debate in 85 days.”
At a San Antonio rally Oct. 7, Trump and Paxton had criticized Talarico over a two-week campaign absence, with Paxton asking, “Where do you think they hid that little socialist?” and Trump saying, “We're going to crush Dumbocrat communist James Talafreako,” while also calling for a debate with Talarico, according to facts drawn from the CBS Austin report. Talarico later told NBC News the absence was because he had the flu, saying, “I just had the flu, and I feel much better,” and he returned to the trail that Friday. He also posted on X that he would debate Paxton any time, at any place, and on any network, per the same report.
A Race Tighter Than Republicans Expected
Texas Republican leaders have generally expected the Senate seat to remain safely in their column, since no Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, Fox 7 Austin noted. But polling shows the contest has been unusually close all year. A June University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll found Paxton leading Talarico 43% to 42%, a statistically indistinguishable result, while an August Texas Politics Project poll found Talarico ahead 42% to 39%. Among independents in that August poll, 37% preferred Talarico, 11% preferred Paxton, and a plurality, 43%, expressed no preference.
The nonpartisan Texas Politics Project's poll tracker has continued adding new surveys, including a New York Times/Siena poll released Oct. 3 and a YouGov in-house poll released Oct. 6. NBC News separately reported Oct. 11 that Texas Republicans had yet to fully coalesce around Paxton as he faces what the network called a tough race against Talarico.
Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward's University, said Trump's and Vance's visits suggest the Senate contest is tighter than Republicans anticipated, according to the CBS Austin report. Smith said Republicans had expected to spend their time in other battleground Senate seats, and that their presence in Texas shows how close the election will be. He added that the race will come down to turnout, and that Paxton could still win if Republicans turn out in large numbers, while Democrats could flip the seat under different turnout conditions.
A Recon MR poll cited in the CBS Austin report showed Talarico and Paxton within the margin of error, with the race having shifted from where it stood a month earlier. With three weeks left until Election Day at the time of the report, both campaigns are signaling they view Texas as a genuine battleground rather than a formality.
