Trump's Durant rally came four days before Texas registration deadline

The Republican National Committee scheduled President Donald Trump to headline a midterm rally in Durant, Oklahoma, on Thursday, Oct. 1. Registration for the Nov. 3 election closes for Cooke County voters four days after that date. The Texas secretary of state's election calendar sets the cutoff for Monday, Oct. 5.

The committee's online listing put the rally at the Choctaw Event Center, 3702 Choctaw Road, with a 6 p.m. Central start. Doors were set to open at 2 p.m., and the listing allowed no more than four tickets per registration. In a second listing, the committee scheduled Trump for a rally in Mobile, Alabama, at 6 p.m. Central the next evening. On the advertised schedule, Durant was the stop just before Mobile.

A separate listing on Mobilize advertised a peaceful counter-rally in Durant on the same day. It ran from 4 to 7 p.m. at 1119 West Main Street. The listing described it as a volunteer-organized event for the Oklahoma Democratic Party.

Under the state calendar, early voting in Texas runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.

Cooke County's certified 2024 presidential results show how far the county leans Republican. According to the county's official summary, Trump and running mate JD Vance beat Kamala Harris and Tim Walz there by roughly five votes to one. The same summary shows that Trump got about 700 more local votes than Ted Cruz, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

Voters across the Red River in Oklahoma follow a different calendar. Oklahoma's state election calendar closes registration on Oct. 9. Requests for absentee ballots are due there on Oct. 19. In-person early voting runs from Oct. 28 through Oct. 31.

Nationally, turnout in the last two midterms was higher than in the two before them. Census Bureau survey estimates show that just over half of voting-age citizens voted in 2018 and 2022, compared with less than half in 2010 and 2014. More voters also vote before Election Day now. The bureau estimated that nearly half of 2022 voters voted early or by mail, compared with fewer than two in five in 2018.

Durant hosted President Barack Obama more than a decade earlier, on July 15, 2015. The White House transcript records that he spoke at Durant High School and recognized Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton. A White House fact sheet says Obama used the visit to launch ConnectHome, a program to bring home internet service to low-income households. According to the fact sheet, the first pilot covered 27 cities and one tribal nation and aimed to reach more than 275,000 households.