![\"<div>Ken](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ktbc_fox_local_articles_950\/a8090e5cf45def64e14dc6f3875f9c9d.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe Brief<\/p>\n
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico has challenged Republican incumbent Ken Paxton to three televised debates hosted by major Texas media networks.<\/p>\n
Talarico claims Paxton has avoided public debates for over a decade and demands he answer questions regarding his policies, personal finances, and past legal scandals.<\/p>\n
Paxton has not yet publicly responded to the debate invitations or the specific political allegations raised by the Talarico campaign.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas – Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico challenged Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to participate in three televised debates.<\/p>\n
He accuses his opponent of avoiding public scrutiny and calling on him to accept invitations from three Texas media organizations.<\/p>\n
Talarico challenges Ken Paxton to Texas Senate debates<\/p>\n
Ken Paxton (left) and James Talarico (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Local perspective<\/p>\n
In a press release sent by James Talarico, he says he has accepted debate invitations from Nextstar Media Group, KXAN News in Austin, NBC News in Hearst and WFAA\/TEGNA. He urges Republican senate candidate Ken Paxton to accept the invitations as well.<\/p>\n
“Ken Paxton has not debated a political opponent in more than a decade,” Talarico said in a statement. “I’m challenging Ken Paxton to three televised debates. I’ll be on that debate stage because I answer to the people of Texas.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general and Republican US Senate candidate, during a Texas primary election night event in Dallas, Texas, US, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. US Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are heading for a runoff in the Republican primary for the US Senate in Texas, according to projections by DDHQ. Photographer: Antranik Tavitian\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Dig deeper<\/p>\n
In a recent interview, Talarico also said Paxton should answer questions about his personal finances, his policies as attorney general, his 2023 impeachment and a recent plea agreement involving Adam Hoffman, whom Talarico described as an admitted child predator. Talarico accused Paxton of giving Hoffman an “Epstein-style sweetheart deal” and questioned whether Paxton had made agreements with two billionaire political donors during his impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n
Legal scandals and policy issues<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
Paxton has not publicly responded to Talarico’s debate challenge, or the allegations contained in Thursday’s statement. FOX has reached out to Paxton’s team for comment and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n
The three media organizations have invited both candidates to participate in statewide televised debates, according to the Talarico campaign.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information in this article was provided by Talarico Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico has challenged Republican incumbent Ken Paxton to three televised debates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133655,132,21087,2135,1967,27,29,28,1863,44606],"class_list":["post-379348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-adam-hoffman","tag-austin","tag-getty-images","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-senate","tag-us-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379348","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=379348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}