After years of skipping debates in statewide campaigns, Attorney General Ken Paxton says this time will be different.
Paxton's campaign confirmed Thursday that the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate plans to debate Democratic challenger James Talarico, just hours after Talarico publicly challenged him to appear on stage.
Talarico announced Thursday morning that he had accepted invitations from three Texas media organizations to participate in televised debates and called on Paxton to do the same.
"I'll be on that debate stage because I answer to the people of Texas," Talarico said in a statement. "Ken Paxton answers to his billionaire mega-donors. We'll see if they let him show up."
The Paxton campaign quickly responded, saying the attorney general intends to debate, although it did not commit to any specific event.
"Of course we are going to debate James Talarico and we look forward to engaging with potential debate hosts," Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux said in a statement. "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."
Talarico has already accepted invitations from Nexstar Media Group and KXAN News, NBC News/NBC Universal/Hearst Texas, and WFAA/Tegna.
If Paxton follows through, it will mark a break from how he's handled past statewide campaigns.
The attorney general has repeatedly won elections without debating his opponents. Earlier this year, he defeated Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt in the Republican Senate primary without a single debate. He also declined debates during his attorney general campaigns in 2022, 2018 and 2014.
That history has become part of Talarico's campaign message.
He said Paxton "won't answer the public's questions because he's not a public servant — he's a puppet."
The two campaigns are already making it clear what they want to talk about if they do share a stage.
Talarico says he'll press Paxton on his impeachment trial, the wealth he's accumulated while in office and the plea deal offered by the attorney general's office in a recent child sex abuse case.
Paxton's campaign, meanwhile, says it plans to challenge Talarico on his positions involving transgender athletes, a state income tax, and comments he's made about Christianity and the oil and gas industry.
"James Talarico isn't just out of touch," Maddux said. "He's a dangerous radical whose record and agenda is so toxic and extreme that he has to hide it behind carefully scripted lies. We look forward to voters getting to learn about the real James Talarico."
The Senate race is expected to be one of the most expensive and closely watched elections in the country this year. Democrats are trying to win their first statewide race in Texas in more than three decades, while Republicans are looking to keep the seat in GOP hands.
Recent polling has shown little separation between the candidates, with most surveys since the primary runoff finding the race essentially tied.
