President Donald Trump has canceled a planned appearance in Waco and changed the schedule for his upcoming rally in Lubbock, revising a Texas trip aimed at supporting Republican candidates before the November 3 midterm elections. The updated itinerary for Tuesday, October 27, replaces the Waco stop with a visit to Corpus Christi.
Trump remains scheduled to appear at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center to rally support for Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race. The rally had originally been set to begin at 11 a.m. Under the revised arrangements, doors will open at 2:30 p.m., with the president scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. Information about obtaining tickets is available through the GOP website.
The new evening speaking time puts Trump's appearance an hour before a scheduled rally by James Talarico, Paxton's Democratic opponent. Talarico is due to hold his event on the Texas Tech campus at 7 p.m. Both candidates' efforts to draw support in Lubbock will therefore include events on the same Tuesday evening.
KFYO reported speculation that the Lubbock schedule was changed to give Trump and Republicans an opportunity to compete with Talarico's rally. However, that explanation has not been confirmed. The timing of the two events is established in the announced schedules, but the source did not provide a confirmed reason for moving Trump's appearance from the original morning slot.
Waco, meanwhile, is no longer included in the president's plans for the day. Trump and the vice president are instead scheduled to visit Corpus Christi as part of the push for Republican support ahead of the midterms. The president's appearance there is set for 2 p.m., before his evening speech in Lubbock.
The Corpus Christi stop is intended to support Republican candidate Eric Flores in his race against U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. Although that campaign purpose was given, the decision to substitute Corpus Christi for Waco was not fully explained. The revised visit changes both the location of the president's earlier stop and the timetable for his Lubbock appearance.
As the schedule stood on October 22, Trump's two Texas appearances were set four hours apart: Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. and Lubbock at 6 p.m. The visits will take place one week before the November 3 elections.