James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa urged supporters to turn out in the final hours of campaigning as they shared a Dallas stage in two of Texas’s closest statewide contests.
The Democratic candidates rallied voters at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Centre on Thursday, with early voting due to end on Friday ahead of election day on Tuesday, November 3.
Talarico is challenging Republican Ken Paxton for a US Senate seat, while Hinojosa is seeking to unseat Republican governor Greg Abbott. Recent polling has shown Talarico with a narrow advantage over Paxton, while Abbott retains a small lead over Hinojosa.
A victory for either Democrat would mark a major breakthrough. Republicans have held every statewide elected office in Texas for more than three decades.
Democrats make final appeal in Dallas
The rally formed part of Talarico’s final campaign tour and was among the candidates’ last major attempts to energise supporters and persuade undecided voters.
Hinojosa described the closing stretch of a year-long campaign as “bittersweet” and said the result could influence the direction of national politics.
“The stakes could not be higher in this fight,” she told the crowd. “If we choose to forge a new way forward together, then because we are Texas… the rest of the nation will follow.”
Both candidates focused their speeches on public education, the rising cost of living and allegations of political corruption. Talarico said families across the state were struggling to keep pace with higher costs.
“Over the past year, I have travelled to every corner of the state, from Beaumont to El Paso, from Amarillo to Brownsville, and everywhere I go, I meet Texans who are drowning,” he said. “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.”
Billionaire spending becomes central campaign issue
The Democrats also attacked the influence of wealthy donors, singling out Elon Musk’s financial support for Republican campaigns and the wider spending operation backing Paxton.
Campaign finance filings reported by The Texas Tribune indicate that Musk has directed nearly $190m towards the Senate contest through Republican-aligned political groups. Republican-backed organisations have spent more than $200m on advertising supporting Paxton and attacking Talarico.
“In the final days of this election, they are coming at us with everything they’ve got,” Talarico said. “The billionaire megadonors and their super PACs are spending more than $200 million to try to stop us.”
Hinojosa has separately pursued access to communications between Abbott’s office and Musk. A lower court briefly granted her access, but the Fifteenth Court of Appeals later ruled that the governor was not required to comply. Abbott’s office has dismissed the case as “a sham lawsuit in a rigged district court”.
Hinojosa accused the governor of fearing what the correspondence might reveal, saying: “I think Greg Abbott’s embarrassed that those emails are going to show he sold us out.”
Paxton has continued campaigning across Texas during the final days of the race. He held a rally in Beaumont on Thursday as part of his “Come and Take It” tour, following two appearances with President Donald Trump earlier in the week.
Closing the Dallas rally, Talarico cast the contest as an uphill battle and called on supporters to vote before the polls close at 7pm on November 3.
“This is the last play of the last drive, Dallas,” he said. “This is the moment we leave it all on the field. We are the underdogs.”
