Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick touts "revolutionary" campaign ads with Paul Revere spot release June 15
Talarico Will Accept BBQ Debate Challenge
if Paxton Faces Questions on Sex Offender
Capitol Inside June 15, 2026
After wading into an unwinnable fight that could have cleared the way for college players to bet on their own games, U.S. Senate contender Ken Paxton faced a critical decision on Monday night after Democrat James Talarico agreed to accept his challenge to a Texas BBQ debate series with one condition that could derail them.
Talarico said that he would be happy to debate Paxton if he promises to answer questions on his position that turned a life sentence for a convicted child sex offender into a stint in the local jail for less than a month with a plea bargain deal that the attorney general's office offered. Paxton has refused to comment on the case of Waco attorney Adam Hoffman, who faced life without the chance of parole for sexually abusing an elementary school student continuously for three years.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn used Hoffman's liberation Hoffman's behalf as his chief weapon in the closing weeks of a primary runoff battle that he lost to Paxton late last month. But Paxton had the nomination locked up for all practical purposes a week before the overtime election with a glowing endorsement from President Donald Trump. Paxton beat the 24-year Senate veteran with 64 percent of the runoff vote.
Talarico made it clear he plans to pick up where Cornyn left off in the sordid Waco saga with the ultimatum on what it would take to get him to sign on to Paxton's debates that the AG says are designed to give the Democrat an opportunity to prove that he isn't vegan.
"I'll meet Paxton at any time and any place if he will answer Texans' questions about why he let admitted child sex offender Adam Hoffman walk free." Talarico said on Monday in a statement from his campaign.
Talarico has been widely regarded as the Texas House's most eloquent and effective speaker on either side of the aisle during debates on major issues ever since he entered the chamber eight years ago as a representative based in Round Rock. Public speaking isn't one of Paxton's strong points. After Abbott delivered a relatively fiery and polished speech at the Texas GOP Convention in Houston, Paxton spoke to the delegates as though they were sitting across the table in an office - keeping the biggest speech that he's delivered in a long career in politics surprisingly low-key, casual and brief compared to Governor Greg Abbott relatively fiery and polished address to delegates.
Paxton would enter a debate with Talarico as a considerable underdog.. The proposed Texas BBQ series could be a ticket for disaster - as a consequence - if it wasn't intended as a bluff designed to fuel the narrative that Paxton and his allies have created with Talarico as a radical vegan who isn't manly enough to represent the Texas in the Senate.
But Talarico wouldn't want to enter the ring in a debate with Paxton unless the Republican was prepared to tackle any subject that would include Trump's record low approval rates, record gas prices, record inflation, the Epstein files and a deal with Iran that Israel has condemned. Trump's peace pact would pay the Iranians $300 billion for rebuilding as a result of damages the U.S. caused with air strikes and bombing at the president's command.
The attorney general could expect questions at a debate on his surprise intervention late last week on behalf of Texas Tech University and Brendan Sorsby - a quarterback who'd been suspended by the NCAA for gambling on games as a player at Indiana and Cincinnati before transferring to the Red Raiders last year. Sorsby was reinstated by a judge, however, in a ruling that sent shock waves through collegiate athletic circles due to its potential implications on NCAA sports.
Prodded by Cody Campbell, a megadonor who chairs the Texas Tech system board of regents, the Red Raiders moved forward with plans for Sorsby to start as the signal-caller for the team this fall despite an uproar the judge's decision ignited. Campbell vowed to sue the Big 12 conference if it took action to keep Sorbsy off the field - and Paxton's office dove into the fray with a promise to fight the league in court if it pursued sanctions.
Then Tech appeared to leave Paxton hanging out on a limb alone when it backed down on Monday after the Big 12 filed a lawsuit in a federal court to block Sorsby's return to the field. The school announced late Monday that Sorsby would enter the NFL's supplemental draft
Paxton has dodged questions on Hoffman, who'd been sentenced to life in prison before Paxton's office offered a plea bargain arrangement that required him to serve 60 days behind bars instead. Hoffman pleaded guilty in April to a pair of Class misdemeanors - indecent assault and showing pornographic materials to a minor. He was released from the McLennan County jail late last month after spending 29 days there - less than half the time in the original pact with the state lawyer's office. The convicted sex offender moved to Nebraska almost immediately after his release from the local lockup.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn made the Hoffman case the chief weapon in an attack strategy for the closing weeks of a ferocious battle that Paxton won in a primary runoff election on May 26. Cornyn allies like GOP State Reps. Jeff Leach of Allen and Pat Curry of Waco hammered Paxton on the Hoffman case in the stretch before the overtime vote. Leach was a member of the group of House members who represented the chamber and the GOP leadership team in the Paxton impeachment trial in 2023.
Hoffman was ordered initially to spend the rest of his life in a state prison without chance for parole after refusing to acknowledge that he'd been guilty. The attorney general office intervened after the victim's mother indicated she would approve of the dramatically reduced punishment because Hoffman would be admitting his guilt for the first time.
But the criticism and protests over the AG office's position that put Hoffman back on the path to freedom had no discernible effect on the outcome of the Senate runoff that Paxton won with 64 percent of the vote - thanks in large part to an endorsement from President Donald Trump a week before the OT election.
Paxton issued the Texas BBQ debate series challenge to Talarico in a video with far-right commentator Benny Johnson on Saturday at the Texas Republican Convention in Houston. Johnson, who'd served as emcee at a gala at the state convention the night before, suggested it was time for the Democratic Senate nominee to clear the air on whether he loves meat as much a real Texas men.
"James Talarico claims he LOVES Texas BBQ," Johnson said in a post in X with the BBQ challenge video. "But he’s also a vegan? If he wants to prove he’s not a vegan once and for all, now is his chance…"
Talarico is a Texas native unlike the Texas AG, who moved here as young adult to attend college at Baylor University in Waco. The Texas Senate competition marks the first time that the Republicans have made an opposing candidate's diet a paramount issue in a major political campaign. Talarico has posted multiple pictures on social media that show him sinking his teeth into ribs while dining on barbecue. But Paxton and the Republicans who are backing him for the Senate have refused to believe that the Democratic Senate nominee eats meat like he claims.
The attorney general released an advertisement for the Senate race on Monday that features a clip from the covid pandemic when Talarico, speaking behind a mask, said that his campaign for re-election to the House was officially non-meat. But Paxton may not have anticipated that he could be walking into a fire with the attempt to smoke out Talarico's position on the consumption of pork, beef and chicken after labeling him for months as a vegan. The ghost of Adam Hoffman would hover over any potential Senate debate.
more to come ...
We are not backing down. We are not surrendering. And we are not going to let them take Texas.
Together, we are going to defeat James Talarico, save our great state, and save America.
