Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is opening the week on offense with two new television ads, one in which he says he called out former President Joe Biden "for failing us on the border" and another going after Republican Ken Paxton over his ties to the data center industry. The spots land days after Talarico came back from a bout of flu that kept him off the campaign trail for more than a week, an absence Paxton and President Donald Trump seized on in recent days. He returned Friday with an unannounced appearance at the Austin City Limits music festival, his first public appearance since September 30.
Taken together, the ads reflect the coalition Talarico needs to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas since 1994: Hispanic voters along the border who drifted toward Republicans during the Biden years, and rural and suburban voters fed up with data centers and their utility bills. Early voting starts in a week, and most polls have him narrowly ahead. Newsweek reached out to Talarico's campaign for comment on Monday.
In the border spot, Talarico stands in front of a Texas flag and speaks directly to the camera. "I'll always put Texas before any political party," he says. "I called out Joe Biden for failing us on the border.
I worked with Republicans to pass the largest property tax cut in Texas history." He has made the argument since July, when he unveiled a border plan in Terrell County and said Biden "and his administration failed us on our southern border." Republicans have questioned when that criticism began. Fox News Digital reported that his campaign could not point to a break with Biden while Biden was still in office, and Talarico has cited a speech from 2022. Republican strategist Mike Madrid told Newsweek in April that the centrist pitch was deliberate from the start.
"His style and his appeal has been to be more centrist from the beginning," Madrid said. "In Texas, you can't do this with just Democrats. You've got to have Republicans." In the second ad, Talarico walks toward the camera as he makes the case against Paxton, the state's attorney general.
"Ken Paxton is selling off Texas, our land, our water, our communities. Anything to make a buck," he says. "He gave data centers billions in special tax breaks and they gave him nearly half a million in campaign contributions." When the campaign posted the ad on X, it added a line of its own: "Data centers bankroll Paxton, they get tax breaks, and you get stuck with the bill." A note underneath said the ad "was made by humans, not AI," a reference to Paxton, whose campaign has aired spots built around an AI-generated Talarico.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
