‘Just Waiting on Paxton to Agree’: Talarico Touts Report Fox News Is Willing to Host Texas Senate Debate

(AP Photo/LM Otero and Eric Gay)

Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D) was happy to share a report by HuffPost Tuesday that amplified his call for his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), to debate him on Fox News.

The Texas Senate race has been a wild roller coaster, capturing national headlines as it’s put Republicans in danger of losing a statewide election for the first time since Ross was first pining for Rachel on our television screens every Thursday evening.

The scandal-plagued Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the primary with the help of President Donald Trump’s endorsement, but the runoff battle left Paxton bruised as it burned through campaign funds and put a spotlight on the series of scandals, lawsuits, a bitter divorce from his state senator wife, and other controversies that have dogged the AG for years.

Cornyn’s warnings about Paxton’s weaknesses have thus far proved fairly prescient, with Paxton lagging badly behind the Democratic nominee, Talarico, in both polling and fundraising.

Paxton had previously said he was willing to debate Talarico, but thus far has dragged his feet about committing to any specific date and time. Recently, Talarico has been publicly calling out Paxton for not debating, including offering to have the debate hosted by Fox News and moderated by anchor Bret Baier.

Mediaite had previously reached out to Fox News for comment on Sept. 25 asking if the network was willing to host such a debate and if Baier was willing to moderate it, but did not receive a reply.

On Tuesday, Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost wrote about the Texas Senate debate kerfuffle, originally reporting that both Paxton and Fox News had been “ignoring [Talarico’s] requests.”

Bendery wrote that her attempts to get comment from either the Republican candidate or the media outlet initially had been met with “crickets,” and the Talarico campaign told her it had “not received any update from Fox News regarding a potential debate.”

Then, Tuesday afternoon, a Fox News spokesperson provided a statement to HuffPost and Bendery updated her article; when Mediaite reached out to Fox News for comment again Tuesday, the same statement was sent:

Statement from FOX News Media spokesperson:

“Debates best serve voters and the democratic process when both candidates participate and voters have the opportunity to compare positions on the issues. We will move forward with the debate if both candidates commit to appearing.”

Fox News did not reply to Mediaite’s questions about if Baier was willing or available to host this potential debate.

Talarico pounced on the HuffPost update, sharing the Fox spokesperson’s statement on his social media.

“BREAKING: Fox News agrees to host a debate between me and Ken Paxton — because the people of Texas deserve it,” wrote Talarico. “They’re just waiting on Paxton to agree.”

“Ball’s in your court, @KenPaxtonTX,” he added.

Mediaite reached out to Paxton for comment but did not receive a reply.

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