{"id":311335,"date":"2026-05-27T20:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311335\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:32:08","slug":"james-talarico-ken-paxton-launch-texas-ads-in-u-s-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311335\/","title":{"rendered":"James Talarico, Ken Paxton launch Texas ads in U.S. Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Attorney General Ken Paxton clinching the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, the general election has officially begun \u2014 and both sides are moving rapidly to establish their pitch to voters.<\/p>\n

The moment the Republican runoff was called Tuesday night, state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee and a Presbyterian seminarian, released his attack in a video<\/a> titled: \u201cThe People vs. Ken Paxton,\u201d tying the scandal-plagued attorney general<\/a> directly to the Austin Democrat\u2019s broader campaign message against \u201cthe billionaire megadonors and their corrupt political system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico launched a five-stop \u201cThe People vs. Ken Paxton Tour\u201d of Texas this week, starting with Houston on Wednesday \u2014 the first full day of the general election, and the third anniversary of Paxton\u2019s impeachment by the GOP-dominated Texas House on charges of corruption and abuse of office. Paxton<\/a> was later acquitted by the state Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate,\u201d Talarico said in a video<\/a> posted to social media. \u201cFor 50 years, megadonors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us, with their bribes, bailouts and billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it \u2014 they\u2019ve all gotten away with it. But that ends this year, in this state, in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans, meanwhile, quickly united against their common enemy, taking aim<\/a> at Talarico<\/a> for what they describe as outlandishly progressive positions on issues ranging from gender and race to climate change, veganism and Christianity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas is Trump country and won\u2019t break a 32-year streak for a woke freak like James Talarico, who thinks there are six genders,\u201d Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement. \u201cTalarico will regret running for Senate by the time Republicans are done with him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Both sides will fuel what is likely to be a staggeringly expensive general election ad war that will bombard Texans for months. The primary and runoff elections already established themselves as the highest-spend on record across the country, according to media tracking firm AdImpact, with over $168 million dropped on airtime across both rounds.<\/p>\n

Paxton and his allies are activating around several key moments<\/a> from Talarico\u2019s archives in an attempt to define him early in the race as an out-of-touch liberal. <\/p>\n

Examples include when he said \u201cGod is nonbinary,\u201d during a House debate over legislation requiring students to play on K-12 sports teams matching their biological sex; when he said there were six biological sexes, referring to people with chromosomal variations, during a committee debate over a similar bill; and when he said in during his 2022 House reelection bid that he was running a \u201cnon-meat\u201d campaign because it was \u201cexistential that we try to reduce our meat consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s first ad<\/a> of the general election Wednesday also featured those moments and cast Talarico as antithetical to Texas values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Texas,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator says as a photo of Paxton with President Donald Trump flashes on the screen. \u201cThis is not,\u201d the ad continues, dubbing Talarico \u201cradical\u201d and \u201ctoo low-T for Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Club for Growth, a deep-pocketed and influential conservative group, also launched an ad<\/a> Tuesday clipping together those moments and labeling him a \u201ccrazy person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his victory speech Tuesday, Paxton declared Talarico the \u201cmost extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated.\u201d After workshopping nicknames for Talarico on the campaign trail over the last week, Paxton rolled them out again in his remarks, referring to his opponent as \u201cTofu Talarico,\u201d \u201cSix-Gender Jimmy,\u201d \u201cJames Tala-freak-o,\u201d and \u201cLow-T Talarico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump derided Talarico on Truth Social<\/a> Tuesday as possibly \u201cthe worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA strong Open Borders advocate, he is WEAK ON CRIME, believes there are 6 genders, is insulting to Jesus Christ, will never support the Military, was a big Mask Wearer until recently, and is a Vegan who dislikes meat, not exactly a good way to be if you\u2019re wanting to win an Election in Texas,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

Talarico, who is not vegan and has rebutted the claim by releasing photos of himself on the campaign trail eating a turkey leg and grabbing tacos with former President Barack Obama, pointed to his record in the Legislature of supporting additional funding for law enforcement and emphasized his support for immigration policies<\/a> that secure the border and, in a biblical reference, also \u201cwelcome the stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n

On CBS News, Talarico said that<\/a> some of his previous comments \u201cmissed the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some statements that I\u2019ve made that I certainly regret,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cBut Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record \u2014 I have a legislative record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf all they have is lying about me being a vegan,\u201d Talarico added, \u201cI feel pretty good about our chances this November.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first digital ad<\/a> of the general election, titled \u201cMeet Ken Paxton,\u201d sought to reintroduce voters to Paxton\u2019s long list of since-resolved civil and criminal accusations, including his impeachment and felony fraud charges the Justice Department later declined to prosecute. At one point in the ad, Paxton\u2019s mug shot fills the frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaxton is a repugnant character,\u201d former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Virginia, is shown saying during a CNN interview in the ad. \u201cKen Paxton is an extremely flawed candidate and I sense the worst is yet to come about his background,\u201d Fox News presenter Brian Kilmeade adds in the next clip.<\/p>\n

The subject line attached to pro-Talarico Lone Star Rising PAC\u2019s election night statement captured how the group plans to prosecute the case: \u201cFaith vs. Fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe matchup is now locked in: James Talarico, a leader grounded in faith and service, against Ken Paxton, an immoral politician shadowed by fraud, corruption, theft and years of infidelity,\u201d the group said in a statement just minutes after the race was called, adding that it \u201cwill make sure Texans know exactly what\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garry Jones, Lone Star Rising\u2019s director, added in a memo<\/a> distributed Wednesday that \u201cPaxton\u2019s vulnerabilities from the primary will continue to haunt him in the general election, notably that he is corrupt and can\u2019t be trusted to do the job or hold public office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones pointed to Paxton\u2019s personal enrichment<\/a> while in office, his impeachment<\/a> and the sum his scandals have cost taxpayers: $6.6 million to his former senior staff<\/a> who reported his conduct to the FBI and later argued he improperly fired them in violation of state whistleblower law, and $5.1 million for the trial<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n

The Democratic attacks on Paxton echoed those that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> buried the attorney general under<\/a> during the runoff with a roughly $100 million ad campaign. Despite that spend and after nearly two decades in Washington, Cornyn lost the GOP nomination to Paxton by nearly 28 percentage points.<\/p>\n

\u201cKen Paxton is morally unfit for office,\u201d Talarico said on MS NOW on Tuesday<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019ll lie to you with a straight face. He\u2019s failed the character test. He\u2019s the most corrupt attorney general of our lifetime, and he puts the interests of himself over the laws of Texas. Those aren\u2019t my words. Those are the words of Ken Paxton\u2019s fellow Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Cornyn did before him, Talarico seized on a plea deal Paxton\u2019s office offered to Adam Hoffman<\/a>, a Waco man charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy, that would have let Hoffman plead guilty to two misdemeanors, serve a total of just one day in jail and avoid registering as a sex offender.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles,\u201d Talarico said on CBS<\/a>. \u201cKen Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America, and it is costing Texans, it\u2019s endangering our children and it must end. The Epstein class has no place in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,2133,288,2135,1967,2424,27,4479,29,1862,293,28,2134],"class_list":["post-311335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-elections","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-republicans","tag-texas","tag-texas-attorney-general","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}