Early in-person voting begins in Texas as Democrats hope for major Latino shift

On the campaign trail

• All eyes on Texas : Early in-person voting opens today in the Lone Star State, home to marquee races for US Senate and governor. Democrats are hoping they can break through statewide for the first time in 32 years. Follow CNN’s early voting tracker here .

• The Latino shift : Polls suggest the nation’s 36 million Latino voters are shifting in significant numbers in Democrats’ favor. If that mirrors election results, Latinos could be responsible for handing Democrats control of the House and Senate.

• Trump across the country : The president plans to headline rallies every day this week, starting today in Kansas, home to another surprisingly competitive Senate race. CNN’s Manu Raju spent time with both candidates in that race – watch his report here .

Texas Senate candidates Paxton and Talarico hold dual rallies ahead of early voting

Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

The candidates vying to represent Texas in the US Senate, Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, drew stark contrasts between each other in dual rallies yesterday as they both sought boost turnout ahead of the first day of early voting in the Lone Star State.

This year’s contest in Texas has become one of the marquee races in the fight for control of the chamber, a leading example of how Republicans are scrambling to defend deeply red terrain.

Paxton, the state’s attorney general, claimed Talarico was “most radical Democrat ever to run statewide in Texas.”

“While Talarico fights for his radical agenda, we fight for the simple things of faith, family and freedom,” Paxton told a crowd in San Antonio. “He wants to transition our kids. He wants to transition Texas off of oil and gas. How about we transition him and his crazy ideas right out of Texas?”

Meanwhile, Talarico, hundreds of miles away in Plano, described Paxton as a corrupt politician who is unfit for office. He pointed to the 2023 impeachment trial of Paxton, and insisted that billionaires are attempting to install “their puppet” in the critical Senate seat. (Paxton was later acquitted in the trial.)

“Republicans know just as well as Democrats that there is no place in Texas for guys like Ken Paxton,” Talarico said. “It was a sobering experience, and at the end of it, Democrats and Republicans alike came to the same conclusion: This man is unfit for public office.”

Falling Republican support from Latinos could have impact in midterms

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Two years ago, aircraft worker Mayumi Castro Fernandez voted for Donald Trump. But on Friday afternoon, she was canvassing a Miami neighborhood for the Democrat challenging an incumbent House Republican in a district where Latinos souring on the president could hand Democrats a win in next month’s midterms — and help propel the party to congressional majorities.

“All the prices go up — the gas, the food, the health insurance,” said Castro Fernandez, a Cuban American who identifies politically as independent and was canvassing with her union, which has backed the Democrat. By the end of the month, she said, families don’t “have all the money we need.”

“We need a change,” she said. “I change my mind. They can change it too.”

Latinos have emerged in recent years as perhaps the biggest group of swing voters in the United States. And if results next month mirror polls that suggest the nation’s 36 million Latino voters are shifting in significant numbers in Democrats’ favor, those voters could be responsible for handing the party control of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

Traditionally a Democratic-leaning portion of the electorate in most of the nation, Latinos swung heavily toward Trump in the 2024 election — igniting Republican dreams of a long-term political realignment that could remake the American political map, particularly across the growing South.

But the economic frustrations that helped propel Trump to victory are now fueling dissatisfaction among many of those same voters with Republicans who fully control the federal government.

Here's what happened on the campaign trail this weekend

Welcome to our coverage. Our reporters are on the ground in key states as we enter the final stretch of the midterm election cycle.

Here’s what we covered this weekend:

• Trump’s red-state rallies: President Donald Trump plans to headline midterm rallies all week . He’ll be in Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Florida and Georgia. These are states Trump won in 2024, where Republicans are competing in surprisingly competitive races. On Saturday, he was in Kentucky, where he promised his latest gift to voters if Republicans are victorious in the midterms: a $100 million investment in a pharmaceutical plant in the Bluegrass State.

• Tight Texas contest: Today is the first day of early voting in the Lone Star State. GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton and his Democratic opponent, James Talarico , drew stark contrasts between each other in dual rallies yesterday. Paxton said Talarico was “most radical Democrat ever to run statewide,” while the Democrat described his opponent as corrupt and unfit for office.

• Flashpoint in Michigan: The war of words between Trump and Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed continued, with the Democrat slamming the president for attacks tied to El-Sayed’s Muslim faith . Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers distanced himself from Trump’s comments in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”.

• Russia sanctions: House Speaker Mike Johnson said there are concerns within his GOP conference about the “unintended consequences” of Trump’s moves to waive sanctions on Russian fuel sales in the final weeks before the midterms.

• In the polls: National polls show Democrats have an advantage. In the CNN Poll of Polls averaging recent “generic ballot” questions — which ask voters which party’s congressional candidate they would support in their district — the Democrats lead the Republicans 54% to 45%, with little variation in the margin across polls.

• Jackson doubles down: Maine Senate Democratic nominee Troy Jackson told CNN he had no regrets telling his Republican opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, to “shut up” at their debate last week. He also stressed his support for ending the war in Iran , but did not appear to have a clear plan on how.

• Protests nationwide: Thousands of “No Kings: Vote Early” events , aimed at promoting mass turnout for the midterm elections, were held . Protests were seen across the country, including in Georgia and Washington, DC , where CNN reporters spoke to first-time voters among the demonstrators.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Manu Raju, Aileen Graef, Katherine Koretski, Molly English, Alison Main, August Phillips, Alayna Treene, Kaanita Iyer, Gloria Pazmino and Aleena Fayaz contributed reporting.

在竞选活动中

焦点聚焦德州：孤星之州德州今日开启提前现场投票，该州将举行备受瞩目的美国参议院和州长选举。民主党希望32年来首次在全州范围内取得突破。点击此处关注CNN的提前投票追踪。

• 拉丁裔选民的转变：民调显示，美国3600万拉丁裔选民正大幅转向支持民主党。如果选举结果与此相符，拉丁裔选民可能将帮助民主党掌控众议院和参议院。

• 特朗普全国巡回演讲：总统计划本周每天都举行竞选集会，首站是今天在堪萨斯州举行的参议院选举，该州的竞争异常激烈。CNN记者马努·拉朱采访了两位候选人——点击此处观看他的报道。

德克萨斯州参议院候选人帕克斯顿和塔拉里科在提前投票前举行了双重竞选集会

乔尔·安赫尔·华雷斯/路透社

竞选代表德克萨斯州进入美国参议院的共和党候选人肯·帕克斯顿和民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科昨天分别举行了竞选集会，两人都力图在孤星州提前投票首日之前提高投票率，双方的竞选策略形成了鲜明对比。

今年德克萨斯州的竞选已成为争夺众议院控制权的焦点之战之一，也是共和党人竭力捍卫其深红地盘的一个典型例子。

德克萨斯州总检察长帕克斯顿声称，塔拉里科是“德克萨斯州有史以来竞选全州公职的最激进的民主党人”。

“塔拉里科为了他的激进议程而战，而我们则为信仰、家庭和自由这些简单的事物而战，”帕克斯顿在圣安东尼奥对人群说道。“他想让我们的孩子堕落。他想让德克萨斯州摆脱对石油和天然气的依赖。那我们何不把他和他的那些疯狂想法一起赶出德克萨斯州呢？”

与此同时，远在数百英里之外的普莱诺的塔拉里科则将帕克斯顿描述为腐败的政客，认为他不适合担任公职。他指出帕克斯顿将于2023年面临弹劾审判，并坚称亿万富翁们正试图将“他们的傀儡”安插到这个至关重要的参议院席位上。（帕克斯顿后来在审判中被判无罪。）

塔拉里科说：“共和党人和民主党人一样清楚，像肯·帕克斯顿这样的人在德克萨斯州没有立足之地。这是一次令人警醒的经历，最终，民主党人和共和党人都得出了相同的结论：这个人不适合担任公职。”

拉丁裔选民对共和党支持率的下降可能会对中期选举产生影响。

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images

两年前，飞机维修工人玛尤米·卡斯特罗·费尔南德斯投票支持唐纳德·特朗普。但上周五下午，她却在迈阿密的一个社区为一位民主党候选人拉票，这位候选人正在挑战一位现任共和党众议员。在这个选区，拉丁裔选民对总统的态度日益冷淡，这可能会让民主党在下个月的中期选举中获胜，并帮助该党赢得国会多数席位。

“所有东西的价格都在上涨——汽油、食品、医疗保险，”卡斯特罗·费尔南德斯说道。她是一位古巴裔美国人，政治立场独立，当时正和支持民主党候选人的工会一起进行竞选宣传。她说，到月底，很多家庭“就拿不出足够的钱了”。

“我们需要改变，”她说。“我可以改变主意，他们也可以改变主意。”

近年来，拉丁裔选民或许已成为美国最大的摇摆选民群体。如果下个月的选举结果与民调结果相符，即全国3600万拉丁裔选民正大量倒向民主党，那么这些选民可能将决定民主党能否在特朗普总统任期的最后两年掌控国会。

传统上，拉丁裔选民在全国大部分地区倾向于民主党，但在 2024 年大选中，他们却大量倒向了特朗普——这点燃了共和党人对长期政治重组的梦想，这种重组可能会重塑美国的政治版图，尤其是在不断壮大的南方地区。

但正是经济上的挫败感帮助特朗普赢得了胜利，而如今，这些挫败感却加剧了许多选民对完全控制联邦政府的共和党人的不满。

以下是本周末竞选活动中发生的事情

欢迎收看我们的报道。随着中期选举进入最后阶段，我们的记者已深入关键州进行现场报道。

以下是我们本周末报道的内容：

• 特朗普的红州集会：唐纳德·特朗普总统计划在本周举行一系列中期选举集会。他将前往堪萨斯州、北卡罗来纳州、南卡罗来纳州、爱荷华州、佛罗里达州和佐治亚州。这些州都是特朗普在2024年赢得的州，共和党在这些州的选情出人意料地胶着。周六，他来到肯塔基州，承诺如果共和党在中期选举中获胜，他将向选民送上一份“大礼”：向肯塔基州的一家制药厂投资1亿美元。

• 德州选情胶着：今天是孤星之州提前投票的第一天。共和党参议员候选人肯·帕克斯顿和他的民主党对手詹姆斯·塔拉里科昨天在各自的竞选集会上针锋相对。帕克斯顿称塔拉里科是“有史以来竞选全州最激进的民主党人”，而这位民主党人则指责他的对手腐败且不适合担任公职。

• 密歇根州局势再起波澜：特朗普与参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德之间的口水战仍在继续，这位民主党候选人抨击总统攻击埃尔-赛义德的穆斯林信仰。密歇根州共和党参议员候选人迈克·罗杰斯在接受CNN“国情咨文”节目采访时，与特朗普的言论划清界限。

• 俄罗斯制裁：众议院议长迈克·约翰逊表示，他的共和党会议内部对特朗普在中期选举前最后几周豁免俄罗斯燃料销售制裁的举措可能带来的“意想不到的后果”感到担忧。

• 民调显示：全国民调显示民主党占据优势。在CNN对近期“通用选票”问题（询问选民在其选区会支持哪个党派的国会候选人）进行平均后得出的民调结果中，民主党以54%对45%领先共和党，且各民调结果之间的差距不大。

• 杰克逊态度强硬：缅因州民主党参议员候选人特洛伊·杰克逊告诉CNN，他不后悔上周在辩论中让共和党对手苏珊·柯林斯参议员“闭嘴”。他还强调自己支持结束伊朗战争，但似乎没有提出明确的计划。

• 全国各地爆发抗议活动：数千场名为“反对国王：提前投票”的活动举行，旨在提高中期选举的投票率。抗议活动遍及全国各地，包括佐治亚州和华盛顿特区。在华盛顿特区，CNN记者采访了示威者中的一些首次投票者。

CNN 的 Jeff Zeleny、Manu Raju、Aileen Graef、Katherine Koretski、Molly English、Alison Main、August Phillips、Alayna Treene、Kaanita Iyer、Gloria Pazmino 和 Aleena Fayaz 也参与了报道。