AUSTIN, TEXAS — Former President Joe Biden traveled to Texas Monday to help Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico mobilize the state’s deceased voter base, holding a campaign rally at a local cemetery where the two politicians urged hundreds of tombstones to make their voices heard in the upcoming election.
The early-morning rally, staged in front of a rows of 19th-century tombstones, was billed by campaign aides as a strategic pivot to mobilize one of the Democratic Party’s most reliably consistent voting blocs.
“Every vote counts, folks, and I mean every vote,” Biden told the crowd, gesturing toward rows of headstones as Talarico stood beside him. “Look, here’s the deal. These folks have been through a lot. They’ve paid their taxes, they’ve served their communities, and some of them have been voting Democrat longer than I’ve been alive. We owe it to them to make sure their voices are heard.”
Biden told reporters that he was confident the strategy would pay dividends, noting that many of the voters buried at the cemetery had supported Democratic candidates for generations. He added that Talarico’s message of compassion, inclusion, and progressive change would resonate with voters from every walk of life, including those who had been dead since before the candidate was born.
At press time, Biden had asked campaign staff to locate the cemetery’s voter registration records, while Talarico announced plans to expand his outreach operation to abandoned nursing homes, shuttered polling stations, and any other locations where Democrats suspected untapped electoral potential.
