GOP/RALLY/TEXAS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Lisa Brewer wanted to get to President Trump’s rally early. She did, and then some — she and her daughter-in-law set down their chairs in line at 10 a.m. Sunday [10-21-18], more than 32 hours before the president was scheduled to step on stage at a downtown Houston arena on Monday [10-22-18] evening…Thousands of the president’s people converged beneath the downtown skyscrapers of Texas’ largest city on Monday for Mr. Trump’s rally for Senator Ted Cruz and other Texas Republicans…The national image of Texas as a deeply conservative state falls apart in major cities such as Houston, Austin and San Antonio, which lean Democratic. Republicans are in the minority here…The spectacle outside the rally on Monday served as a visual and visceral counterpoint. It was part tailgate party, part Republican campaign rally, part flea market for Trump Country. Red-white-and-blue beach balls bounced atop the line, rock-concert style, as the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd blared through loudspeakers. Men, women and children sat in portable folding chairs and huddled under tents, dressed in layers on an unusually chilly morning.”
–Manny Fernandez, “Line for Trump’s Houston Rally Formed More Than a Day in Advance,” The New York Times online, October 22, 2018