Republican Senate nominee and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) was pressed on not accepting one of the multiple debate offers extended by his opponent James Talarico (D-TX).
With just under a month until the midterm elections, the Texas Senate race is shaping up to be one of the most-watched races in the country. Democrats need to flip four Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and winning the long-shot Lone Star State could be a game changer.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Paxton, fresh off the fallout from several leaked audio files, was questioned about why he has not debated Talarico yet.
“Well, now look, we’ve been looking on that for months with him and, of course, and we can never quite work out the details because he always wants something we can’t do,” Paxton said.
Paxton pivoted to Talarico’s 13 day absence that caused a whirlwind of conspiracy theories on his whereabouts. Talarico, now back on the campaign trail, said he was recovering from a bad case of the flu.
“So, the reality is the big story is he was missing from the campaign trail, and I know he’d love to change the topic in debates,” he said. “But the big story is two weeks is long time to be away with the flu and is just a very strange time to disappear.”
But Talarico was quick to respond to Paxton’s claims about scheduling issues on their debate, taking to X to clarify.
“Here are the details: literally any time, any place, any network,” Talarico said.
Talarico’s campaign also responded on social media, calling Paxton a “liar.”
“Paxton is lying: he has ignored every single attempt our campaign has made to debate, including a personal call to his cellphone offering a Fox News debate,” said JT Ennis, a spokesperson from Talarico’s campaign.
The two have yet to schedule a debate and remain within one point of each other, according to recent polling.
