James Talarico faces off against Trump in dueling Texas rallies in election’s final days

LUBBOCK, Texas — On the day a sitting president landed in their town for the first time in 34 years, people waited for hours in lines that stretched for blocks in this reliably red city.

But this crowd on the east side of the city wasn’t waiting for President Donald Trump. They wanted to see Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.

“We’re all closet Democrats,” said Dr. Tim Jones, 66, an emergency room physician, laughing and gesturing to a sea of people around him in line before Talarico’s evening rally. “There are a lot of people who are finally upset at gas prices, diesel prices, inflation, lies, the war, all of it. It’s the corruption, tearing down part of the White House to build this vanity ballroom. I mean, it’s just pathetic. So people finally are deciding, ‘We’ll get out to vote.’”

Less than 3 miles away, a similar scene unfolded for Trump, who held a rally at the expansive Lubbock Memorial Civic Center as he sought to boost the Republican Senate candidate, state Attorney General Ken Paxton. In a new move, Trump brought out his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who won one of the biggest rounds of applause of…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business