On other issues, however, Paxton remained supportive of President Donald Trump, and critical of the President Joe Biden administration and of Talarico.<\/p>\n
Data Centers and Immigration<\/p>\n
Paxton reiterated his guardrailed approach to data centers<\/a> and said he supports the continued use of work authorization programs<\/a>, avoiding stringent positions on either issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have a policy that benefits the Americans that are here,\u201d Paxton said of immigration. \u201cAnd that likely means that we have to let people in that can fulfill some of these jobs that we don\u2019t have people for.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton said that American business owners in several industries, including agriculture and construction, have told him they continue to rely on immigrant labor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Asked about data centers<\/a>, Paxton described his response as \u201ca yes, with conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to make sure that the Chinese \u2014 they can have nothing to do with our data centers, because we all know we\u2019re competing against them,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can\u2019t be a no, because we won\u2019t survive that.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton has pledged to author legislation in the U.S. Senate that would ban the use of Chinese technology in American data centers. In addition, he has supported Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s proposals for data center development<\/a>, including a prohibition on development in rural Texas neighborhoods, as well as mandates that data centers fund their own electricity and use closed-loop water systems for cooling.<\/p>\n \u2018Protecting the Texas Promise\u2019<\/p>\n Like Talarico<\/a>, Paxton has taken an economic tack on the campaign trail after kicking off his \u201cProtecting the Texas Promise\u201d tour in August<\/a> with a four-point tax presentation.<\/p>\n When asked about how he could address affordability concerns<\/a> in the U.S. Senate, Paxton reiterated the plan, which calls for a $50,000 deduction for first-time home purchases, a $25,000 deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses, a $5,000 \u201chealthy living\u201d deduction that could apply to expenses such as gym memberships or weight loss drugs, and a doubling of the child tax credit.<\/p>\n In addition, Paxton proposed government deregulation to lower the costs of both energy and health care, elaborating on the latter issue by recounting the eye injury he sustained as a child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took three and a half days to get to an ophthalmologist, and I had to go outside the system. Those three days\u2026 I should have been on my back in a hospital,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also impacted me in understanding a government health system that isn\u2019t really designed to be efficient, cost effective, or effective from a health standpoint. It\u2019s rationed.\u201d<\/p>\n Negative Campaigning<\/p>\n The interviewer, USHBC President Javier Palomarez, gave Paxton a chance to explain a plea deal<\/a> that his office offered to a Waco man charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child \u2014 the subject of several campaign trail attacks by Talarico.<\/p>\n The man, Adam Hoffman, was indicted in 2024 on the charge, which carried a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison. He ultimately served 60 days.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been very misrepresented,\u201d Paxton said of the case, which he has seldom addressed during his campaign.<\/p>\n Paxton said the initial trial resulted in a 7-to-5 jury split, and further litigation would require more testimony by the victim, who was unwilling to take the stand again.<\/p>\n \u201cFive jurors weren\u2019t confident of that testimony for some reason. In some ways, I don\u2019t blame that kid for not wanting to go through that,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t what we wanted, but we did not control that situation. We did our best to present the case. \u2026 It\u2019s more important to make sure that this kid is protected than to get the verdict that we actually want.\u201d<\/p>\n Paxton doubled down on characterizing Talarico as a radical, quoting Talarico\u2019s critique of capitalism as \u201coppressive\u201d and recalling Talarico\u2019s opposition<\/a> to bills that would have required Texas schoolchildren to compete in public school sports according to their physical sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not switched a single view,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n In addition, Paxton pledged to \u201cwork across the aisle\u201d in Washington, citing his experience working with Democratic lawmakers as a member of the Texas Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to get things done, no one gets a hundred percent in the Legislature. No one,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cBut there are fundamentals I\u2019m not going to give in on.\u201d<\/p>\n The USHBC will hold an event with Talarico in McAllen on Wednesday, September 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, went on the defensive at a Fort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2067,2389,5304,116,118,117,8236,155137,1724,2135,155138,1967,1478,32396,13164,24448],"class_list":["post-451033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-affordability","tag-agriculture","tag-data-centers","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-gop","tag-hispanic-business-council","tag-immigration","tag-james-talarico","tag-javier-palomarez","tag-ken-paxton","tag-mcallen","tag-midterm","tag-senate","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451033","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=451033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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