{"id":461267,"date":"2026-10-09T15:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461267\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T15:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:16:20","slug":"trump-wants-talarico-and-paxton-to-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461267\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants Talarico and Paxton to debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Democratic nominee James Talarico<\/a> stopped holding campaign events in the Texas Senate race<\/a>, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton saw an opening to pounce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is James Talarico?\u201d he called out Wednesday during a rally with President Donald Trump in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

But that night, while flying back to Washington on Air Force One, Trump seemed to inadvertently throw Talarico a lifeline. The president said on social media that Talarico \u2014 who has the flu, according to his campaign \u2014 “should immediately report to a Debate Stage\u201d to face off with Paxton.<\/p>\n

It was exactly what Talarico wanted to hear<\/a>, since he had long been badgering Paxton for a debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump just said Ken Paxton should debate. I agree,\u201d Talarico posted on Thursday morning. \u201cBall’s in your court @KenPaxtonTX.\u201d<\/p>\n

No debate has been scheduled so far. Paxton has not publicly responded to Trump’s debate demand.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans, worried Paxton may become the first Republican<\/a> in nearly four decades to lose a Senate race in Texas, have also urged him to debate to help gain ground in an unusually competitive campaign in the Republican-leaning state.<\/p>\n

Talarico publicly challenged Paxton in July to three televised debates. Last month, he invited Paxton to debate him on Fox News, and he posted a video of himself calling Paxton with the invitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey Ken, it’s James,” Talarico said while leaving a voicemail. \u201cTexans start voting in less than a month, and they deserve to hear from both of us before they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if Fox News is where you’ll be most comfortable, I’ll be there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

So far, the campaign has played out almost entirely on the airwaves. The candidates’ campaigns and more than a dozen outside groups have spent more than $247 million on advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The candidates have yet to appear jointly before voters.<\/p>\n

Paxton’s campaign said in July that he would debate his opponent, but later objected to some proposed moderators. Later that month, it suggested an agreement with a news outlet was imminent, though none was announced.<\/p>\n

Without a debate, Paxton has focused on Talarico’s absence, even demanding video proof that he was alive.<\/p>\n

“Low-T Jimmy appears to be having a full-blown mental Tala-freak-out on the national stage. We have a simple request: proof of life,\u201d said Madison Cercy, campaign spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Talarico is expected to resume campaigning this weekend through the Nov. 3 election, aides said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Democratic nominee James Talarico stopped holding campaign events in the Texas Senate race, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1658,2160,557,132,134,133,223,287,27,2053],"class_list":["post-461267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461267","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=461267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}