Amid lines of booths with merchants hawking goods as varied as purses, Tupperware, aromatherapy machines and beef jerky, politicians and local political parties also are making sales pitches.

The Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo in Waco is a chance for politicos and party activists to mingle with and maybe win over all-important undecided voters just weeks before the November election, and less than a week before early voting starts Monday.

McLennan County District Clerk Karen Matkin tosses candy during the HOT Fair parade last week.
Rod Aydelotte / Tribune-Herald

“We’re all just pushing our products,” said Al Landoll, who was volunteering at the McLennan County Republican Party’s booth Sunday.

Landoll said the GOP is having some success, as judged by traffic to its booth.

“Yesterday was just beaucoup,” he said, surmising that the heavy foot traffic was tied to people’s discontent with the direction of the country.

McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest, who faces a Republican challenger in Abel Reyna, manned the Democratic Party’s booth with two volunteers Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve had pretty steady traffic,” he said.

Democratic Party chair Karen Petree said the booth already has been paying off, with volunteers talking to and taking the names of a number of Democratic-leaning voters not already on the party’s lists.

Two candidates, Republican U.S. House challenger Bill Flores, of Bryan, and Will Stevens, a Democratic candidate for county commissioner in Precinct 4, have their own booths.

The Sheriff’s Law Enforcement Association of McLennan County, which is endorsing candidates in the general election, and Pro-Life Waco also had booths.

McLennan County district attorney challenger Abel Reyna puts in time at the county Republican booth at the Heart O' Texas Fair & Rodeo"
Rod Aydelotte / Tribune-Herald

In the corner of the indoor exhibition area, Tom Kilbride was playing solitaire on his iPad as he killed time between visitors at the Libertarian Party booth.

Across from the booth was a big-screen TV showing the Dallas Cowboys football game, which monopolized the attention of passers-by.

Kilbride, who ran for U.S. House in the early 1980s and for Texas House in 2006, said he’d talked politics with several people that afternoon.

Away from the commercial exhibits and booths, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was greeting people at the fair’s main entrances. The congressman then walked the fairgrounds, stopping to talk with a law enforcement officer and a woman who recognized him and wished him good luck in his race.

Reyna, the challenger for district attorney, has done more individual advertising at the fair than any other local candidate.

This year he’s the sole sponsor for the South 40 Committee’s “Locked & Loaded” venue, a Wild West-themed tent with a saloon facade, picnic tables and a bar area.

“It provides a lot of exposure as far as the campaign goes, and they’re raising money for youth scholarships,” he said of the sponsorship, which cost $5,000.

He also predicted the South 40 Committee won’t have trouble finding sponsors for the relatively new tent event in the future — at least during election years.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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