Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton was supposed to make the final stand of his campaign at the Texas landmark around which his “Come and Take It” bus tour was centered: The Alamo.
But on Saturday, two days before his final rally was scheduled to take place on the eve of Election Day, Paxton appeared to abandon those plans.
Instead, his campaign added Monday events in Conroe and Allen. The event in Conroe is scheduled for 11 a.m., while Allen’s is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., at a restaurant 300 miles from the Alamo.
The only events listed Monday by Paxton’s campaign on Eventbrite, where she posted her tour stops, were for Conroe and Allen. Its website does not list any events for Monday.
His campaign did not immediately respond to questions about what prompted the change in plans. His campaign also did not respond to requests for logistical information about the Alamo event.
When Paxton’s campaign initially announced its get-out-the-vote campaign, it announced that it would end the bus tour at The Alamo. He used the milestone of resistance – despite the outcome of the Battle of the Alamo, a defeat in 1836 during the Texas Revolution – to drive home his final message to Texans: “When they go after the Texans, Ken Paxton goes after them. »
The Alamo Trust, which oversees the monument, told Texas Public Radio on Friday that it was not aware of Paxton’s plans to hold an event on the grounds. Alamo rules generally prohibit political events on the grounds.
Paxton is in a neck-and-neck race against Democrat James Talarico. Paxton introduced himself to Texans as a conservative fighter who would preserve the state’s conservative tradition in defiance of the “radical left.” He attended several rallies in Texas, headlined by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, in an effort to drum up enthusiasm among Republican voters.
Talarico crisscrossed the state in his own get-out-the-vote sprint, dubbed the “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” tour in a nod to the TV series “Friday Night Lights,” based on a book about West Texas high school football.
Paxton’s final effort was also peppered with other cancellations and rescheduling, including events in El Paso, Tyler, Texarkana and Mission, prompting Democrats to declare a “Paxton bus tour crash.”
“No one goes to Ken Paxton’s rallies, so he cancels them and hopes Elon Musk buys him that seat,” Talarico said in a statement Friday, referring to the more than $200 million Musk has invested in the race on Paxton’s behalf. “Texas deserves a senator who shows up – not a senator who hides behind a pile of money.”
