US midterms: Talarico seeks to break Democrats' 30-year losing streak in Texas

Now, one of the states that Republicans are nervously keeping an eye on is Texas. It is a surprising state of affairs, given that Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly 40 years. But things are changing. Democratic candidate James Tallarico has been polling very well against his Republican rival, Ken Paxton. So for more on the campaigning and the voting in the southern state of Texas, we'll cross now to Andres Espinal in Austin. Hi, Andres. So what can you tell us about where the voting stands in Texas thus far? And are there any takeaways? And from this early data. Hi. Yes, we're here in Austin, the capital of the state. And basically, we had a lot of rain this morning. We don't know exactly how much of an impact that had on voting places. But we know that the voting is going as scheduled and as normal from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. tonight. People are voting in the 250 counties in the state of Texas. What we know so far when it comes to the early voting that Which is basically the data that we have available at the moment. According to the Office of the Secretary of State, 7.7 million Texans have already voted, which represents 40% of all voters in Texas. Let's remember that Texas has 19 million people registered to vote. And that number represents an uptick of 40% if you compare it to the same point to the elections in 2022. So what they are expecting today is about two Two to three million people voting in the state of Texas, surpassing the threshold of 10 million people voting. Let's remember that in 2024, during the presidential election, only above 11 million people voted. So that means that there is a lot of enthusiasm. And people are treating this election more as if it were a presidential election and not just a midterm. We have records in Harris County, in the city of Houston, with more than one million votes cast. But let's remember that Texas doesn't require its voters to register for one party or the other, so we don't really know exactly how they're voting. We can only extrapolate from how these people have voted in the past. So we will see if there's enough of that cross party lines of voting that certainly James Tallarico will need if he needs to win tonight. Now, speaking of the Democratic candidate for Senate, then, James Tallarico, last night, Andres, you were, of course, at his final campaign event. What was his closing message to voters, and what do you think the consequences would be if Republicans, or if Democrats, rather, do indeed succeed in flipping Texas? Yes, we were able to go in to his last campaign event here in downtown Austin. It was a very youthful, very energetic event with a concert where he appeared with Gina Hinojosa, the candidate for the governorship here in Texas. Both of them basically talked about the same issues. Data centers came a lot in their discourse. Also, the defense of public education. But the main message on both sides, Gina and James Tallarico, was the fight against corruption that we know that James Tallarico has made the center of his campaign. Basically, his message consists, or his strategy, let's say, consists on making the tent, the possible tent of voters a little bit bigger, not just talking to Democrats. But trying to appeal to Republicans and independents and Latinos and everybody, basically, creating this as a movement in the fight against corruption, because we all know that the cost of living is the main issue in people's minds in this election here in the United States. But for Tallarico, the cost of living crisis is a consequence of a political corruption crisis. So he attacked a lot his main rival, Ken Paxton. He accused him of being the most corrupt politician in Texas, and he attacked a lot also Elon Musk, who let's remember has poured more than $200 million trying to support Republican candidates for Puerto Rico. This is basically Elon Musk is trying to buy the election in Texas, and his message is pretty simple. Texas is not for sale. And we will have to see how much that message goes into people's mind in order for more Republicans to support his candidacy. And for Republicans, losing Texas would mean that they would lose this state for the first time in the Senate race since 1988, since Lloyd Benson. And basically that would be a huge psychological blow because Texas is considered a red state. A solid red state. So that would open all sorts of possibilities for the future, especially when it comes to the 2028 presidential election. Does indeed seem like Texas is one of the states that Democrats are most excited about. We'll see if that optimism was warranted then. And of course, just under 24 hours. Andres Espinal in Austin, thank you very much.