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Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is set to travel to Los Angeles in September for a high-dollar fundraiser with Hollywood celebrities, according to a report. Politico reported that "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof and his wife, Heidi, will host a fundraiser for Talarico in Brentwood on Sept. 10. Tickets for the event start at $500 and go as high as $13,500, according to the outlet. This will be Talarico’s second Hollywood fundraiser in a few months. The first was held in June and was described by Page Six Hollywood as a "glitzy Dem fundraiser" at the home of Hollywood producer Peter Chernin.
Meanwhile, Talarico’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, will gather in Dallas for the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention, along with President Donald Trump and other Republicans. The same night Republicans rally in Dallas, former President Barack Obama will headline a Democratic House fundraiser in New York, according to The New York Times. The events put prominent Democrats on the coasts while Republicans gather in Texas.
Fox News Digital previously reported that donors from outside Texas accounted for roughly 50% of the funds raised by Talarico, according to first-quarter campaign finance records. Talarico is taking heat from Republicans for his out-of-state fundraising. RNC spokesperson Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that "it is no surprise that James Talarico feels more comfortable in crazy liberal California than when his handlers force him to wear a fake cowboy hat and rent a pickup truck to pretend to be a 'real' Texan."
Despite the attacks, Talarico and Paxton are running a tight race, and many Democrats believe this could be the year Texas finally flips blue. A Fox News poll from July gave Talarico a 3-point edge over Paxton, 51% to 48%, which was within the survey’s margin of sampling error. Paxton, meanwhile, has told Fox News Digital that Talarico’s lead is not surprising given his head start in the general election following his particularly messy primary runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Speaking with Fox News on Sunday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said that "money is an issue" in the race.
"Mr. Talarico has been raising bucketloads of money from California, Hollywood," he said. He called on Trump to help Paxton with cash, saying, "We in the Senate don’t have the money budgeted for Texas; we need help from the president." For his part, Trump has promised: "I’m going to help Ken Paxton, and I’m going to spend a lot of time in Texas." Touting his history of winning the state three times on the presidential level, he said, "I’ll be going to Texas, and we’re working really hard. We want to win that race." Trump called Paxton a "very good candidate," while taking a jab at Talarico, saying, "‘Talafreako,’ they call him, because he is a little freaky."