Campaign and Election Security

Dallas police arrested Eric Nathanial Simon of Tulsa, Oklahoma, around 5:15 p.m. CT Tuesday outside GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s Dallas headquarters, after officers responded to reports of a “suspicious individual” on the 3000 block of Fairmount Street just before Texas primary polls closed. Officers say Simon entered a vehicle without properly displayed license plates, was stopped for traffic violations, and taken into custody; a subsequent search of the car uncovered ammunition magazines, which were photographed and bagged as evidence. Video from the scene shows Simon in handcuffs and officers placing multiple magazines of ammunition on the hood of a vehicle. The incident, which occurred as Paxton faces Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a contentious GOP Senate primary likely headed for a runoff, comes days after a mass shooting outside an Austin bar that officials are probing as terror-related, and will feed into broader concerns about security around political events in a cycle already marked by heightened tensions.