AI Brief
- US President Donald Trump campaigned in Texas to support Senate candidate Ken Paxton and prevent a potential Democratic victory in the state.
- Trump announced a proposal to roll back Biden-era methane regulations, aiming to boost energy production and lower costs for oil producers.
- This visit is part of Trump’s wider campaign effort in traditionally Republican states that have become competitive ahead of the November 3 congressional elections.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump campaigned in the traditionally solidly Republican state of Texas on Tuesday (October 27), seeking to boost US Senate candidate Ken Paxton and other party members and fend off what could be the first statewide Democratic victory in 32 years.
With high fuel prices weighing heavily on the campaign for November 3 congressional elections, Trump scheduled a pair of stops at opposite ends of the oil-producing state.
The trip marks Trump's third visit to Texas this month to mobilize support for Paxton, who is locked in a close race with Democrat James Talarico. A loss in Texas next Tuesday would complicate the Republican Party's path to retaining its slim Senate majority.
During a rally in Lubbock, Trump announced an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to roll back Biden-era rules that required companies to fix leaky equipment and regularly check wells for escaping methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the White House official said. The administration is casting it as a way to produce more energy and lower costs.
The plan would give relief to small, low-output wells and end a program that used outside groups to report large methane leaks, the official said. It would also ease rules aimed at phasing out the routine burning off of gas at oil wells.
Trump's repeated trips to Texas are part of a broader push in Republican-leaning states, which were expected to be safely in hand but have instead become midterm battlegrounds. His October campaign blitz has also taken him to Oklahoma, Alabama, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina and Mississippi.
