Fun fact: It has been more than a decade since the last time that Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas and current GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in the state, stepped onto a stage to debate a political opponent. And Paxton certainly doesn’t look to be ending that particular streak any time soon, given the way he’s spent the last few months continuously dodging and juking any opportunity or outright challenge to debate his opponent in the pivotal, upcoming midterm elections, Democratic nominee James Talarico.

There’s no other way to characterize the behavior Paxton has displayed not just in recent months but over the course of many years: The man is an utter coward, albeit a realistic one who is likely keenly aware that he badly lacks the charisma, charm or genuine platform necessary to perform well in a direct sparring match with a well-prepared opponent. And with so much riding on the outcome of these midterms—including potential control of the Senate—it’s now up to Talarico to make damn well sure that every single Texan voter understands just how cowardly Paxton is, among the incredibly deep laundry list of additional reasons why this man should never be a senator.

Mr. Talarico: Debate an empty chair, if you have to! You wouldn’t be the first to be forced into such actions by an opponent doing everything within their power to avoid publicly discussing the issues of a political race. Regardless, Texans need to see Paxton be held accountable to the most basic expectations of running for office, and be forced to live up to his own campaign’s promises and assurances that of course Paxton would be engaging in traditional debates.

Because rest assured, the mouthpieces speaking for Paxton have repeatedly said, in no uncertain terms, that he would debate against Talarico in this election cycle, before then fleeing every attempt to actually schedule a televised debate. Listen, for instance, to this report from Dallas TV affiliate WFAA, which was attempting to plan for an Oct. 8 debate in Dallas, saying that the Paxton campaign initially agreed, only to then go completely silent, “not responding to messages from WFAA management.” As the WFAA anchor notes, if no debate happens it would be the first time in a quarter century that Senate candidates running in Texas had not come together to debate. In comparison, other hotly contested Senate races like the one between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke in 2018 featured multiple televised debates.

Representatives of the Ken Paxton campaign, meanwhile, have continued to insist in bland, ill-defined terms that the debate would somehow happen, despite the midterm elections now being 40 days away and nothing being scheduled still. Senior campaign advisor Nick Maddux told the Austin American-Statesman in August that Paxton had agreed to debate and that announcements would be “forthcoming shortly,” only for Paxton to then withdraw from a planned debate sponsored by Hearst Newspapers and NBC/Telemundo. Maddux then proclaimed that “What we won’t do is negotiate through Talarico’s press shop or let him hand-pick a moderator whose politics match his own, nor would we expect him to enter a debate with us where a moderator matches our own politics.” What Paxton’s campaign has failed to provide is which venue would possibly be seen as acceptable in their eyes, seemingly in an effort to just run out the clock. This has seemingly become a frequent MAGA strategy for candidates who don’t want to debate in general: Claim that you’re eager to do so, but simultaneously claim that every single possible venue or moderator is heinously biased against you, so it’s not possible. Call it the “I’d love to do it, but I’m so widely hated that no one is capable of being fair to me, but I’m also the voice of the silent majority” strategy, perhaps.

The campaign of James Talarico has rightly drawn attention to Paxton’s abject cowardice in getting in front of a hot mic, but in all truth they should be hammering this point even harder–particularly because even some of the state’s other GOP elected officials have simultaneously criticized Paxton for his failure to schedule a debate. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), in an interview with Nexstar earlier this month, said of Paxton that “I don’t think he can win without the debate,” and that the voting public was right to expect it to happen. As Sessions put it: “They would expect it to be done, and they would expect him to define himself, to stand up for what he believes in, to take the shots at him, and to be able to effectively show the difference between the two candidates. He’s running for a competitive position, he’s going to have to be judged on how well he defends himself, his ideas and then be seen on stage vis-à-vis his opponent.” And judging from the most recent polling in this race in Texas, that lead is increasingly shifting to Talarico.

It has been fascinating to watch the hot-and-cold GOP push toward getting Paxton elected in this cycle, seemingly recognizing his multitude of personal failings and scandals, while also committing vast amounts of money toward the man for TV advertising on his behalf. The Senate Leadership Fund recently pledged to spend more than $51 million on campaign ads for Paxton, while a super PAC supporting him called Lone Star Liberty has likewise chipped in $17.5 million. Even Donald Trump opened up the war chest of his super PAC MAGA Inc. and pledged $10 million for Paxton ads … while Trump simultaneously mocked Paxton’s appearance, lack of charisma, and loser status on stage. Simultaneously, the federal apparatus of the executive branch (in the form of the FCC) has repeatedly targeted and threatened late night TV shows who have booked James Talarico as an interview guest under the guise of the agency’s rarely enforced “equal time” rule. Most recently, Jimmy Kimmel Live! responded by releasing its own Talarico interview on YouTube rather than broadcast airwaves, where it has generated more than 12 million views to date. As Talarico observed in that very interview: “Ken Paxton gets rich on the public’s dime and then he refuses to answer basic questions about that corruption. Literally, anytime someone asks him a hard question, he runs away.”

Which is all to say, Talarico’s campaign should fully commit to going through with one of these televised debates–which would be immune under the law from FCC meddling–whether it’s with the spurned WFAA or another venue. Make it a big deal. Put up billboards advertising the debate, and the question of whether or not Paxton will show up. Turn it into the Texas political event of the season. Is it a stunt? Sure. But if one candidate is willing to speak directly to the electorate and the other one is not, that’s the kind of thing the electorate needs to truly understand and have demonstrated for them.

It would appear Ken Paxton is too chickenshit to debate James Talarico…

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— Mike Nellis (@mikenellis.bsky.social) 11:22 AM · Sep 23, 2026

With that said, I wouldn’t blame anyone for wondering aloud what segment of the Texas electorate even exists that has the capacity to be influenced by anything said during a debate between candidates. With so much intensely partisan political polarization simply baked in to this equation, attempts to earnestly earn the vote of an undecided median voter can seem increasingly pointless–particularly in a state where even the GOP candidate’s ex-wife, who divorced him on “biblical grounds” after alleging years of infidelity, is still begging the state’s women voters to blindly support all Republican candidates “even if we’re mad at them.” But even against that backdrop of absurdity, these elections in purple states are won and lost in small margins, and the recent polling slide against Paxton that has seemingly bolstered Talarico’s support in the last month seemingly indicates that there are people out there still changing their minds. Talarico has effectively nothing to lose, and everything to gain, in simply highlighting his own willingness to talk about the issues facing Texans, and Paxton’s comparative refusal to engage in the same basic expectations of an elected official.

If Ken Paxton wants to be a coward, then let him be a coward on live TV.

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