Talarico opts out of Sanders rally in Texas as polls narrow against Paxton

Senate Democratic candidate James Talarico on Wednesday confirmed he will not be attending Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) rally in Texas, denoting his campaign’s battle to avoid alienating more moderate voters as he fights to flip the seat in November.Sanders, arguably the most famous progressive nationwide, is rallying in El Paso on Monday as part of an effort to boost Democratic candidates in competitive races in Texas. While former Democratic Senate nominee Beto O’Rourke, who lost his bid to flip the Texas Senate seat red in 2018, and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) will appear at the event, Talarico has chosen to stay away, his campaign told the New York Times. Recommended Stories The development signals the challenge Talarico faces as he seeks to appeal to the broader electorate ahead of the November elections. While popular with progressives in the Sanders coalition, Talarico will need to bring more centrist voters into his camp to defeat GOP rival Ken Paxton in the red state and become the first Democrat to represent Texas in the Senate since 1993. The Washington Examiner reached out to Talarico’s campaign for comment.As of Wednesday, polls appear to indicate the race is very close. Most show Talarico with a slight lead, though they typically fall within the margin of error.While the GOP won the last election for the Senate race by roughly 10 percentage points, Republicans view the seat, held by outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), as vulnerable, with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance seeking to boost turnout in Texas for Paxton ahead of November.Talarico’s campaign recently took a beating from Paxton over the Democratic candidate’s nearly two-week absence from the campaign trail. As rumors grew about why Talarico was not seen in public during one of the tightest campaigns in the country, Paxton suggested that the Democratic hopeful had suffered a nervous breakdown of some kind.REPUBLICAN SUPER PAC PULLS OUT OF TOP BATTLEGROUND IN TEXAS“Jimmy appears to be having a full-blown mental Tala-freak-out on the national stage,” he posted on X. “My campaign has a simple request: proof of life.”After returning to the public arena earlier this month, Talarico pushed back on the speculation, saying he had been staying home to recover from the flu.