Talarico debates Texas voters in CNN-Jubilee town hall amid tight Senate race

Texas Democrat James Talarico on Wednesday took questions from voters in a town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee, appearing on stage solo as he calls for rival Republican Ken Paxton to debate in their closely watched Senate race.

Talarico, a state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian, argued “we’re all on the same team” and called for politicians of all stripes to “work together” to tackle issues including security at the state’s southern border, the rapid build-out of data centers and pocketbook pressures on Texans.

He also promised to “stand up to my own party” as he fielded questions about his faith, abortion and controversial past remarks. He also tackled conspiracy theories that surrounded his recent absence from the campaign trail due to the flu, railing against a “rage economy” in political discourse.

CNN’s Erin Burnett noted that the outlet offered Paxton the opportunity to appear, and that the invitation still stands. Paxton has avoided Talarico’s calls for a debate , though President Trump encouraged the Texas attorney general to do so.

“You may have noticed that I haven’t talked about my opponent at all tonight because I don’t want people to vote … just against Ken Paxton. I want them to vote for me,” Talarico said at the end of the 90-minute program. “But the last thing I will say is that we are running against the most corrupt politician in Texas.”

Talarico is ahead of Paxton by roughly 2.5 percentage points in the latest polling average from Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). Though Republicans have dominated statewide offices in Texas for decades, this year’s Senate race is rated a toss-up as Talarico fuels hope of a rare flip.

“I think the responsible thing to do when you have something like the flu is to stay at home and not get other people sick,” Talarico told Burnett, when asked about Republican-driven rumors about his recent absence from the campaign trail.

“I mean, that decision to stay home for a week sent my opponent and his conspiracy theorists spiraling. I opened up social media and learned that I apparently had dropped out of the race, had flown to a mental hospital in Ohio, that I had died. This is crazy,” he said.

The Democrat also pushed back against interpretations of some of his past remarks, including a 2020 comment calling capitalism an “oppressive system” in contrast with his current “proud capitalist” stance.

“I was talking about the system we have now, which is actually not capitalism; it’s crony capitalism,” he said.

He also defended his 2021 comments that “God is nonbinary,” which Republicans have seized as an attack line.

“When I said that, I was being provocative,” Talarico said. “But I think what I was saying is actually not controversial theologically. The idea that we can’t define God using human categories-not only did I say that, but the late Charlie Kirk said that, the late Pope Benedict said that.”

Faith was a major topic of the night, with Talarico telling voters that “the cross is the shape of reality … at the center of our shared faith.”

Asked by an independent Texan about his pro-choice stance in the context of his faith, Talarico stressed that voters can find “common ground” on policy solutions even if they come to “different moral and ethical conclusions” about the legality of abortion.

“What I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions, because if we treat this issue as a public health problem and not a culture war problem, then we can actually make progress together,” Talarico said.

And as he runs a blue campaign in deep red Texas, Talarico also stressed that he would buck his party in order to put Lone Star State constituents ahead of Washington interests and say things “a lot of Democrats aren’t willing to say.”

“I am not running for the U.S. Senate to represent New York or California. I’m not running for the U.S. Senate to represent the Democratic Party. I am running for Senate to represent all 31 million Texans, and I will, I will, I will always do what’s best for Texas, even if that means standing up to my own party.”

Republicans have the home field advantage in Texas, which went to Trump in each of his three presidential cycles and where Democrats haven’t won statewide in decades. But this year’s race is considered one of the cycle’s most competitive in the country, putting the GOP on defense in the red stronghold.

Three new polls released this week in Texas show Talarico leading Paxton, who won the GOP Senate nod in Texas over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, in the battleground race. The energy around the campaign has drawn comparisons to Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 bid, when the Democrat came within just a few points of toppling Sen. Ted Cruz (R).

In what some saw as a sign of the high stakes, Republicans held their first-ever midterm convention last month in Dallas, putting a spotlight on Paxton — though the New York Times recently leaked an audio clip in which the Republican Senate hopeful said the convention “dropped our numbers.”

Trump has since made two more visits to the state to stump for Paxton, and Vice President Vance rallied there last week. Trump has also said last week that Talarico “should immediately report to a Debate Stage” to face off with Paxton.

Republicans’ Senate campaign arm swiftly responded to the Wednesday night town hall.

“James Talarico can tell all the tall tales he wants, but Texans won’t believe him,” said NRSC regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell in a statement.