James Talarico challenges Ken Paxton to Fox News debate

With just over three weeks left before early voting, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Thursday challenged his GOP opponent Ken Paxton to a debate moderated by Fox News’ Bret Baier.

“Texans deserve to make an informed choice in this really critical race, so I’m challenging Ken Paxton to a game on his own turf,” Talarico said during an interview at The Texas Tribune Festival. “He’s been running from accountability his whole life. It’s time to stop running.”

In July, Paxton’s campaign said, “of course we are going to debate James Talarico,” after Talarico announced he had accepted invitations from Texas media groups for three televised debates.

“We look forward to engaging with potential debate hosts,” Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux said at the time. “Talarico is a serial liar who has spent his entire campaign shamelessly deceiving Texas voters about his radical record with[out] answering the hard questions.”

But Paxton had not committed to any debates as of Thursday. WFAA, whose debate invitation Talarico accepted, reported Tuesday that Paxton’s campaign had not responded to messages since Aug. 24 after communicating with station management “for weeks to organize a potential debate.”

On Sept. 2, Talarico accepted another debate invitation from CNN. In response, Maddux said, “no Texan wants to watch James Talarico and two of his fellow far-left activists posing as moderators spew left-wing talking points in a ‘debate,’ or what they would try to turn into a CCP-style struggle session.”

Talarico on Thursday said he wanted to debate and was “willing to go anywhere to make that a reality,” adding that his campaign had been communicating with TV stations and hosts about the prospect for months.

“I am proud of my record, and I’m not afraid of hard questions,” he said before referencing a running attempt by Republicans to cast him as unmasculine and lacking in testosterone. “Ken Paxton is running from the fight. That sounds like low-T behavior to me.”

Paxton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Paxton had been invited to participate in the Tribune festival.

Talarico and Paxton are locked in an intensely competitive Senate contest. Polls have found the race within the margin of error, with Talarico leading in the polling average and in every public poll conducted this month. 

National Republican groups have poured over $160 million into advertising and campaign material on Paxton’s behalf, a staggering sum that has rapidly overtaken Talarico’s previous spending advantage, according to media tracking firm AdImpact.

Asked about the influx, Talarico argued that the GOP was dropping “unprecedented money” in Texas “because the people at the top were terrified of this movement.”

“They are terrified of people coming together across party and across race and gender and religion and culture to take on the people at the top,” Talarico said. “Big money is powerful. I don’t want to sugarcoat it. But it’s nothing compared to people power.”

The Republican spending is fueling efforts to define Talarico as a “radical liberal,” citing his opposition to various GOP bills in the Texas House, including bans on certain foreign agents purchasing land in the state and restrictions on transgender athletes.

Talarico defended his record on those bills, saying the legislation was too broad and extreme. He said he supported amendments to ensure that law-abiding, ordinary immigrants — not foreign agents — from nations like China would not be prevented from purchasing land, as well as amendments to ensure local communities and officials had power over trans athlete eligibility decisions.

“The legislative process is complicated, and there’s ways you can twist it to tell a story on one side,” Talarico said. “This is just what happens in campaigns. People take a little bit of information and they try to distort it.”

In an election cycle where Republicans have sought to paint all Democrats as Democratic Socialists or communists, Talarico rejected the attack and offered the populist economic message unifying working Texans against billionaire political influence.

“I’m a capitalist: I believe in free enterprise, I believe in competition, I believe in free markets and growth,” he said. “This system we have now is actually not capitalism. This system only works for those who can afford to buy politicians like Ken Paxton.”