“David” Democrat faced Republican “Goliath” in Texas

Um “David” Democrat against a Republican “Goliath” faced Tuesday in the election race for the U.S. Senate in the Texan city of Lubbock, where the Democratic candidate invoked biblical history to compare the rallies held almost simultaneously.

If the Republican President, Donald Trump, had a convention center surrounded by police apparatus, Democrat James Talarico opted for a more modest party hall, but for voters, Tuesday's experience was similar: long hours in line to enter, piles of “merchandising” and the certainty that the race will be close.

With polls that put him up to date with Republican Ken Paxton, Talarico wanted to point out that Republicans fear losing one of the senator's seats in Texas and so had to call Trump.

Speaking to more than 2,500 supporters at the Fiesta Center, which had to extend the capacity to welcome all those who came to support it, Talarico assumed himself as the ‘underdog’ of the Texas midterm elections, a term that suggests that he is in the most unfavorable position, since Texas has not elected a Democratic senator for more than 40 years.

For some of Talarico's supporters heard by Lusa, the race in Texas is between the decency of the Democrat and Ken Paxton's lack of character.

Talarico “is true, authentic and never changes, not mind,” said Tanya, a former republican who compares it to former Democratic President Barack Obama: “when they talk, they move my soul, and I only vote for people who move me,” he admits.

“Paxton is a liar and an idiot. He would never vote for him,” he says, holding a poster in which he assumes himself as “Talafreak-o”, a pejorative term used by Trump to refer to the Texian Democratic candidate.

On the stage of the Fiesta Center, which usually hosts parties such as the “quinceañeras” and “Sweet 16” of Lubbock’s teenagers, Talarico waved with the support Ken Paxton received “from the richest man in the world”, referring to the billionaire Elon Musk, as well as other “billionaire pastors”, motivating the audience in a state called “Bible Belt”, with marked influence of evangelical churches.

“Do the right thing and accept the consequences,” he asked the voters, quoting a sentence from Sam Houston, a 19th-century Texas senator who played an important role in Texas’ independence when the state belonged to Mexico.

“ They may have the money, but we have the majority. We will face our Goliaths and we know that their power is real, but ours, too”, declared, alluding to the story of the Old Testament in which a shepherd kills a giant armed with a sling, similar to a sling, with which he throws a stone that hits his opponent on the head.

“David had faith and a slingshot. You are my slingshot and these Goliaths won’t even understand what fell on them,” he said, pulling enthusiastic applause from the audience, to whom the Democratic campaign machine had distributed posters with slogans such as “love your neighbor”, another quote from the Bible.

In a border state where illegal immigration from Latin America is a central theme of the campaign, he said that “anyone can be Texan, even if they arrived yesterday”.

While waiting to enter the rally, Brad Proctor, a “fifth generation Texan,” told Lusa that Texas needs to elect “decent and honest people, not bad people” to Congress.

“Texas and the United States need immigrants. All my life I've lived with them. Paxton has nothing but hate and prejudice. Republicans are only afraid of what they do not know and hate for what they cannot understand”, he argued, stating surprised by the number of people who lined up in the afternoon to enter the Fiesta Center, which spread around several blocks.

Mary, a young math tutor, did not mind waiting for more than three hours without being sure to get into the room, so many were those who appeared, and told Lusa that “it was already a victory for the Talarico”.

“ Now I understand why the Republicans had to call Trump. It is because, now, they are the ones who are afraid”, he considered.

In the November 3 elections all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats of the Senate are in dispute, which may result from the vote a rebalancing of the US Congress, where Republicans have a majority in both chambers.