Texans will choose a new U.S. senator on Tuesday.
For months, KPRC’s ENOUGH team has been asking voters what matters most to them; Property taxes, education, affordability, immigration, and other issues have repeatedly come up in conversations at the polls.
Since July, the ENOUGH team has tried by phone, email, campaign website forms, and certified mail to schedule an interview with State Attorney General Ken Paxton and State Representative James Talarico.
Talarico made himself available for a few questions after a campaign rally. Despite multiple attempts, Paxton was not made available to answer questions.
The University of Houston Hobby School’s Oct. 10–14 survey of likely voters found Democrat James Talarico at 48% and Republican Ken Paxton at 46%, within a race drawing national attention.
Affordability
Talarico told KPRC 2 that he would seek bipartisan support in the Senate, and he tied affordability to changes in campaign finance, congressional stock trading and other government reforms.
Because Paxton did not sit down with the team, the episode uses remarks from his campaign appearances to outline his approach to affordability and the economy.
Campaign money and super PACs
Talarico was also pressed about Super PACs supporting his candidacy after he criticized billionaire spending that benefited Paxton.
He acknowledged that outside groups support his campaign but emphasized that candidates legally cannot control or coordinate with those organizations. He said he would support banning super PACs if elected.
AI and data centers
Paxton has said he supports continued data center development with conditions, including requirements involving power generation, water use, and the location of facilities.
Talarico told KPRC 2 he is concerned about the influence of large technology companies and the resources required by AI data centers.
Oil and gas
Talarico said he would oppose members of his own party if he believed Democratic policies threatened Texas oil and gas jobs, particularly in the Houston area.
The episode also includes Paxton’s public comments on the industry and his criticism of Talarico’s energy policies.
The ENOUGH team attempted to sit down with the candidates for Texas Governor and U.S. Senate.
Beginning this summer, the team sent certified letters, emails, online interview requests, and made repeated phone calls to the campaigns of Abbott, Hinojosa, Paxton, and Talarico.
Hinojosa agreed to a sit-down interview. Abbott and Talarico answered a limited number of questions during campaign events.
The team also attended a Paxton rally in Conroe in hopes of interviewing him. The team waited about 90 minutes after the event, but Paxton did not answer its questions. His publicly available comments from campaign events and other interviews were used to help show his positions on the issues covered in the episode.
The episode focuses on the Republican and Democratic nominees. Libertarian Pat Dixon is also running for governor, and Libertarian Ted Brown is also running for the U.S. Senate.
Election Day is Nov. 3
The goal of the extended episode is not to tell Texans how to vote, but to put the candidates’ positions and answers in one place before ballots are cast.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters can find polling locations and other election information through the Texas Secretary of State’s VoteTexas website.
