Trump rally in Texas moved to larger venue

By Brett Samuels - 10/18/18 03:01 PM EDT

President Trump's rally in Houston in support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been moved to a larger venue due to high demand, the president's campaign manager announced Thursday.

Brad Parscale wrote in a tweet that the rally, originally scheduled for the 8,000-seat NRG Arena, has been relocated to the Toyota Center, which holds up to 19,000 people for concerts. The venue is home to the NBA's Houston Rockets.

The Toyota Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump campaign announced on Monday that the president would head to Houston to hold a rally for his one-time rival, Cruz.

The initial choice of NRG Arena was a subject of mockery on social media, as the president pledged in August to hold a "major rally" at "the biggest stadium in Texas we can find."

An aide for the Trump campaign who asked not to be identified told The Dallas Morning News that the arena was the biggest location available on Oct. 22, and disputed that the venue fell short of expectations the president set in his August tweet.

The Toyota Center did not have other publicly announced events scheduled for Monday. Comedian Kevin Hart is set to perform there on Saturday, and a Josh Groban concert is set for Tuesday.

Monday's rally will add to a long list of campaign events Trump has held in recent weeks to bolster GOP Senate candidates. The president has made stops in Tennessee, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and will travel this week to Montana, Arizona and Nevada.

Cruz's race against Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) has drawn national interest as the challenger has garnered significant fundraising hauls in traditionally Republican Texas.

However, polls of late have shown Cruz maintaining a steady lead. A RealClearPolitics average of polls in the race shows Cruz with a 7-point lead in the race.

Trump and Cruz have been publicly supportive of one another after a 2016 presidential campaign in which the two regularly exchanged insults. The president labeled Cruz "Lyin' Ted," and the senator blasted then-candidate Trump as a "sniveling coward" and a "pathological liar."

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...o-larger-venue