Daniel Wolfram
With under a day left before Election Day, the Republican Senate nominee abandoned his high-profile stop at the historic fort after officials revealed the event was never authorized.
Ken Paxton was originally scheduled to finish his Senate campaign at Texas’ most celebrated symbol of resistance.
His “Come and Take It” bus tour centered entirely on the Alamo, promising an electric rally right on the eve of Election Day. By Saturday, those plans vanished.
With just one day before the midterm elections, it appears that Trump’s handpicked candidate for Senate in Texas is done campaigning.
Surrendering at the Alamo
Instead of gathering crowds in San Antonio, the campaign quietly shifted its focus hundreds of miles north. Fresh Eventbrite listings showed new Monday stops in Conroe and Allen, placing his final appearance at a restaurant roughly 300 miles away from the historic fort.
Online campaign calendars offered no explanation, and staff stayed silent when reporters asked what happened.
There was also a glaring administrative hurdle. Officials with the Alamo Trust told Texas Public Radio that they had never heard of any planned Paxton rally on the grounds. In fact, official rules strictly forbid political events at the historic site, according to The Texas Tribune.
A candidate under pressure
The sudden detour arrives as Paxton fights a fierce, neck-and-neck battle against Democrat James Talarico, who has a real chance of being the first Democratic senator since 1993.
To fire up his base, Paxton leaned heavily on high-profile appearances alongside Donald Trump and JD Vance, casting himself as a conservative warrior fighting the political left, hence the name of the tour.
Yet the final stretch has looked distinctly messy. Other tour stops in El Paso, Tyler, Texarkana, and Mission were abruptly scrubbed or moved.
Talarico seized on the cancellations during his own “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” tour across the state. The Democrat took direct aim at his rival’s sudden absence, pointing to the staggering $200 million poured into the contest by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“No one’s going to Ken Paxton’s rallies, so he’s canceling them and hoping Elon Musk will buy this seat for him,” Talarico said in a statement Friday.
