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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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A number of Dallas’s most prominent buildings were lit up on Monday in teal to support the Alzheimer's Foundation of America's (AFA) annual "Light the World in Teal" campaign.
However in photographs shared on social media some of the buildings looked blue and platform users jokingly linked this to Tuesday’s midterm election campaign, when the Democrats are hoping to win a Texas Senate seat for the first time since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.
An AFA spokesperson told Newsweek some buildings were lit up in colors other than teal—a blue-green color—because it wasn't in their lighting systems, in which case they used the closest available color.
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Polling suggests Democrat James Talarico has a slim lead over Republican rival Ken Paxton, the current Texas attorney general. Winning a Texas Senate seat would be a major victory for the Democrats who are hoping to flip the upper house, a move that would significantly restrict Trump’s freedom of action in the final two years of his second term in the White House.
Dallas Lit Up
Some of Dallas’s most notable large buildings including Reunion Tower, Bank of America Plaza and Omni Dallas Hotel were illuminated with teal lighting on Monday.
This was in support of the AFA's campaign, an annual event the nonprofit said it expected to beat the world record for "sites all lit in one night for a single cause."
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However in some photographs shared on social media the lights appeared quite blue, sparking comments about Tuesday’s crunch midterm elections in Texas.
On Threads Morgan, a Dallas based Democratic supporter, shared a photograph showing buildings including the Bank of America Plaza, Reunion Tower and Omni Dallas Hotel lit up with teal-blue lighting.
They wrote: "Dallas’ skyline is solid blue tonight. TEXAS LET’S GOOO [face with steam from nose emoji] TIME TO FINALLY FLIP THIS STATE." The post received over 590 shares from other Threads users and was liked more than 8,300 times.
On Twitter a Texas-based user called ‘RexValchorum2,’ who shares anti-left wing content, published a photograph showing the Bank of America Plaza and Reunion Tower lit up, adding: "Tomorrow is Election Day.
"Dallas skyline today at 5:35 AM. Very subtle, Democrats. Very subtle. [Face with rolling eyes emoji]"
On Threads another Dallas based user also shared video showing prominent buildings in the city lit up on Monday. They wrote: "Dallas skyline blue & beautiful tonight."
Speaking to Newsweek, AFA spokesperson Sandy Silverman said: "We ask sites to light up in the color teal, which is our Alzheimer’s awareness color. We had more than 1,780 sites around the world participate. Unfortunately, not all sites have the color teal in their lighting systems/gels/filters, so they use the color closest to teal that they have."
Newsweek contacted Reunion Tower, Bank of America Plaza and Omni Dallas Hotel for comment on Tuesday via email outside of regular office hours.
Texas Senate Race
Texas has been the venue for a bitterly fought Senate race between Paxton, who unseated incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in a primary contest, and Democrat Talarico, currently a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
An AtlasIntel poll of 1,678 Texan likely voters conducted over October 28 to November 1 gave Talarico a 5.9 percentage point lead, with 51.3 percent of the vote against 45.4 percent for Paxton. This was outside the survey’s two percentage point margin of error.
Separately a New York Times/Siena College poll that took place between October 27 and November 1 gave Talarico a seven-point lead, with 50 percent support to Paxton’s 43 percent. For this survey 1,215 likely Texas voters were polled and it has a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.
Speaking to supporters on Monday at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Collin County Paxton said: "Texas has never been this close to slipping away. If Texas falls, we don't have another Texas to move to. Every poll shows that this is going to come down to the wire."
Separately during a rally in Austin Talarico said: "There's that moment in every game, the last play of the last drive, when you have to leave it all on the field. Austin, we are in that moment."
AFA Campaign
The AFA’s 'Light the World in Teal' campaign takes place each November as part of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month to "raise awareness and show support for the millions of people affected by Alzheimer’s" according to the organizers.
On Monday the AFA said it expected "over 1,780 sites across America and around the world" to take part in its "Light the World in Teal" initiative, up from 1,583 and making it the most "sites all lit in one night for a single cause."
Skyscrapers the AFA said would take part on Monday included One World Trade Center in New York, Willis Tower in Chicago and the Columbia Center in Seattle.
Also due to participate were over 150 government buildings, nearly 100 bridges, more than 25 airports and at least 40 major league sport stadiums and arenas.
Senate Contests
There are currently 53 Republican senators in the Senate against 47 who caucus with the Democrats.
Democrats are hoping to take control of the chamber on Tuesday and need a net gain of four seats as Vice-President JD Vance could break a 50-50 tie.
Democrats are targeting Republican-held seats in Texas, South Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa and Alaska. They are also battling to hold a Michigan Senate seat with their candidate, physician Abdul El-Sayed, facing off against former House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers.
On Monday Silver Bulletin, an election analytics website run by Nate Silver, gave Democrats an 81.5 percent chance of winning control of the Senate giving the party an average projection of 53 seats.
Decision Desk HQ, another website following midterm election polling, projected the Democrats to have a 65 percent chance of flipping the Senate with a projected 52-48 chamber.
Dallas Blue Light Campaigns
Prominent buildings in Dallas have previously been lit up in blue as part of a number of different initiatives.
In 2021 Reunion Tower, the Bank of America Plaza and the AT&T Discovery District were lit up in blue to mark the 125th anniversary of Volunteers of America, one of the nation’s largest nonprofits.
The following year buildings in Dallas put on a blue and yellow light display in support of Ukraine, using the colors from the country’s flag, following the Russian invasion in February.
The Dallas skyline was also lit up in blue in October 2023 as a statement of solidarity with Israel following the Hamas attack of October 7 which left around 1,200 Israelis dead, sparking the Gaza War.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and Rebecca Flood
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