Eye On Politics: Paxton's unanswered questions, Talarico expands outreach

[0:00] Right now, the all-important U.S. Senate race in Texas. This week, we're taking a look at some of [0:05] the issues facing the candidates, from Ken Paxton not taking questions about topics coming up in [0:10] the campaign, to James Tallarico's effort to address concerns in the black community. [0:15] I'm Jack Fink. Get your fix for Texas politics. Eye on politics on CBS News Texas starts now. [0:37] Good morning and welcome to Eye on Politics. Hope you're having a great weekend. And we're [0:41] going to begin with the Texas Senate race, where Republican Ken Paxton made headlines last week [0:47] when he wouldn't answer questions about recent reports and issues that have emerged in the [0:51] campaign against Democrat James Tallarico. It happened in Fort Worth Tuesday during a news [0:57] conference he held to announce that two dozen Texas sheriffs had endorsed his campaign. [1:02] When Paxton opened the news conference up to questions for the room of reporters, [1:07] I started to ask him about a New York Times report that said he had increased the number [1:11] of properties he owned to 15, worth $9 million. He declined to answer. A reporter for the Dallas [1:18] Morning News then asked Paxton about a Texas Tribune ProPublica report that said he voted six [1:24] times in a Collin County location based off an address at which he no longer lived. The reporting [1:30] came after his office released guidance in February that, quote, it is illegal to misrepresent your [1:35] residence on election records. Paxton declined to answer. Here's how it played out in real [1:41] time during the news conference. We're going to do a couple of questions. Jack, do you want to go first? [1:50] General, I wanted to give you a chance to respond to State Representative Tallarico and his campaign. [1:57] They've made a lot about the reports that have come out, one in the New York Times about you acquiring [2:03] properties worth... So, Jack, can we keep this to law enforcement today? Well, I'm giving you the [2:07] opportunity to answer the question. I'd like to, if we're here with the sheriffs, I'd like to keep [2:12] today to law enforcement, so... That's what I might answer, questions about law enforcement. [2:17] Okay. [2:17] Gromer, did you want to go? [2:18] Will you answer a question about why you voted in Collin County? [2:23] So, we're just going to do questions on law enforcement today because we're joined with [2:28] 22 amazing law enforcement officers. [2:30] You guys don't have any. That's fine. I can move on. [2:32] I mean, we can ask questions about this. I mean, you went through a whole list of problems [2:40] that you had with Tallarico, and I mean, what is your main takeaway for voters who are undecided? [2:47] Right now, the polls are neck and neck. So, what is your main message to the voters? Maybe [2:54] some are undecided. What would you tell them? [2:57] I'd tell them there's a clear difference between the two of us. I've supported law enforcement. [3:02] I've supported giving them the resources that they need, protecting them from political [3:09] attacks, which there have been many over the last decade, and he's done everything to take [3:15] that away. He's tried to take away funding. He's supported efforts with his own money to [3:19] defund the police in Austin. His voting record is abysmal as it relates to law enforcement and [3:25] protecting our communities. He's done everything he can to hurt the safety of our communities. [3:31] I've done everything I can to make sure that our communities are safer. [3:35] I have a question. [3:36] We're going to get out of here. Thank you, guys. [3:37] I have a question. [3:39] Yeah, we're going to get out of here. Thank you. [3:41] Can we not have more than one person answer a question? [3:44] What's your question? [3:45] We heard from Tallarico today. He's campaigning on affordable child care. You're talking about [3:56] public safety. What should that say to voters? Is public safety the priority over the other [4:02] issue? Do you have comments on that? [4:03] I'd say they're both important. Just because we focus on public safety doesn't mean we don't [4:08] care about other issues. [4:08] I've requested an interview with him, and I asked his campaign if they had a statement [4:15] or answers to the questions we asked. As of early Friday afternoon, we did not hear back. [4:20] This comes after Tallarico challenged Paxton to three televised debates. While Paxton's campaign [4:26] has said he wants to debate, the two campaigns are still negotiating. In response, the Tallarico [4:31] campaign issued a statement that read in part, quote, [4:33] If Ken Paxton can't answer these simple questions, what is he planning to do in a debate? [4:40] It's not the first time the attorney general hasn't wanted to answer questions about allegations [4:44] surrounding him. Back in February 2022, before the Republican primary and the attorney general's [4:50] race, we traveled to far east Texas to ask Paxton about criticism from his three opponents. [4:57] At the time, the attorney general was under investigation by the FBI after his top handpicked [5:03] lieutenants in his office went to the agency, alleging potential bribery and other crimes [5:08] against him. [5:09] How do you respond to your Republican challengers who openly criticize your ethics and integrity? [5:15] Let me just say we're going to keep this to the topic at hand. I'm not going to talk [5:20] about my campaign. I'm not going to talk about campaign issues. Literally, this is part of [5:24] my job. This is an important issue for the state of Texas. [5:26] Then in May 2023, after a Texas House committee recommended Paxton be impeached, the attorney [5:32] general held a news conference at his office at the Texas Capitol. He read a statement, but [5:37] before reporters could ask him any questions, he walked out. [5:44] Paxton was acquitted and cleared of any wrongdoing in a trial held by the Texas Senate. The Biden [5:50] administration ultimately dropped its FBI investigation without filing any charges against Paxton. [5:56] So today I'm going to ask, you guys are going to, I'm going to ask you guys questions. [5:59] While Ken Paxton has previously answered a limited number of campaign related questions [6:04] at his events, he does not sit for extensive interviews with local reporters, [6:10] only conservative media. We have requested interviews with him multiple times [6:14] that have not been granted one. I asked SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson about [6:20] Paxton and whether last week's news conference could impact his campaign. [6:23] I don't think that particular incident in and of itself hurts him a lot politically, [6:28] but clearly there will be pressure going forward for him and for his campaign to speak to some of [6:35] these issues surrounding his voting residents, surrounding his property acquisitions. He'll have [6:41] to provide a response. I understand him not wanting to get into a back and forth about that at an event [6:47] that he wanted to be tightly focused and scripted about law enforcement. But that said, we know that [6:54] voters have some ethics concerns surrounding Attorney General Paxton and that he'll have to speak to those [7:02] questions at some point. [7:03] He has a history of not sitting down with local reporters. He goes on conservative media [7:10] a lot, but to sit down and have an extensive interview with local reporters is not something [7:16] that he has done. And I'm wondering at some point, do you think he is going to have to do that? [7:23] Yeah, I think the lesson that he has drawn from his previous campaigns [7:27] is that he can largely avoid doing that. That is, he's run multiple times statewide and prevailed in [7:34] both primaries and general elections since the ethical cloud started to surround him. [7:40] And he looks back and says, look, I didn't have to get into the weeds of these issues [7:45] with either local or national reporters in these previous campaigns. I still prevailed. [7:52] And so I think that's the playbook that he will largely try to stick to, because I think that [7:56] Ken Paxton realizes that people's perceptions of his ethics are largely baked in at this point. [8:03] So I think he will largely continue to try to avoid that and to focus, frankly, much more attention [8:09] on James Tallarico than on rebutting even new ethics charges against him. [8:16] Could that strategy, though, impact him in this race against Democrat James Tallarico, [8:22] which is neck and neck when you look at all the independent polling out there? [8:26] This is the strongest challenge that he has faced. And so it is possible that a strategy that has [8:33] availed him in the past could see him come up just short this time. That would be the worry. That would [8:39] be the concern. And in fact, most of the polling shows him running five or six points behind [8:45] other statewide Republican candidates. So he certainly is in a real race. [8:51] He has been challenged by the Tallarico campaign to do three televised debates. And his campaign [8:58] advisor wrote very publicly that, yes, you know, the attorney general does want to have a debate [9:05] with the with Tallarico. And so do you think that this is going to happen? [9:11] Well, I would be surprised, frankly, if we get three debates. I think the bigger question is, [9:18] do we get at least one debate? And what do you think about that? [9:22] I think a lot depends on where Paxton feels like his campaign stands come Labor Day. Does he feel like [9:31] he's got a small but reliable lead? Or does he feel like he truly is in serious danger of losing this [9:39] race? Does he feel like he's a little bit behind? If he feels like he's a little bit behind, it [9:43] probably increases his willingness to debate. Coming up, Democrat James Tallarico answered [9:49] reporters questions on a variety of topics while here in North Texas and across the state. And they [9:54] include some tough issues. An eye on politics on CBS News Texas comes right back. Welcome back to [10:01] Eye on Politics. We continue our talk about the Texas Senate race this November's marquee political [10:07] contest here in the Lone Star State. Democrat James Tallarico continues to campaign across the state, holding [10:14] rallies in town halls and taking reporters' questions on various topics. They include issues he and his [10:20] campaign have had to deal with in a very public way. Last Tuesday, Tallarico toured a child care facility in [10:27] Fort Worth, where he unveiled his proposal for guaranteed universal affordable early childhood [10:32] education and to expand the child tax credit, among others. He also held a town hall meeting in DeSoto [10:39] Monday night. But his town hall in Houston on Sunday made headlines and gained attention online and on [10:45] social media as Tallarico faced some criticism in the black community that he's not doing enough to earn [10:51] their votes. Black Texans are a key constituency for Democrats. In response to the concerns, Tallarico pledged to spend [10:59] $25 million to communicate with their community and to get out their votes, but not before some tense moments. [11:07] So you stay here, you answer our questions, or you suffer the consequences. [11:12] So I'm happy to engage. We'll come to hear him in just a second. I appreciate you being here. And I appreciate you being here. And I'm [11:19] I appreciate you being here. And I appreciate you traveling in. And I appreciate you for my people, [11:25] not for you. Wonderful. That's wonderful. Before that exchange with Tallarico, [11:29] other elected Democrats from Houston spoke on his behalf. They too acknowledged the concerns of black [11:35] voters. Now, I'm not here to hide James from accountability, because the road to victory runs [11:44] through Harris County. But you're not going to win statewide without the black voting. We know that. [11:50] And James knows that too. And if he don't know, but he do know, he going to learn today. [12:03] But State Representative Lauren Ashley Simmons of Houston, who initially supported Congresswoman [12:10] Jasmine Crockett for U.S. Senate, urged supporters to get ready for November and rally behind Tallarico now. [12:17] We have a pathway to victory. We have a community to fight for. And we have people who need us. [12:24] James is the top of our ticket. And I want him to win. [12:28] Crockett endorsed Tallarico the morning after the primary, but she is not actively campaigning for him. [12:34] Tallarico rallied supporters in Houston and acknowledged that he needs to do more to stay in [12:40] contact with elected leaders who call him. But I have to say that the amount of incoming has been a lot, [12:47] and I am doing my best to make sure that I'm returning calls as fast as possible. [12:52] I asked Tallarico about the issue at his campaign stop in Fort Worth. [12:56] So I wanted to ask you about the concerns in the black community that you've heard about in Houston [13:03] on Sunday night that you're not doing enough to gain their support. And so this, I know, [13:10] it's been percolating under the surface for a couple months now. We saw it come out in full view [13:17] publicly on Sunday. And so I'm wondering why is this still an issue, do you think? [13:22] Well, there is no way to win Texas without black Texans. If we're going to do that effectively, [13:30] we have to show up for, invest in, and listen to black communities. And that's what we've been [13:37] doing over the course of this campaign. We have been convening black business leaders, [13:44] black faith leaders, black elected officials all over the state in the big metro areas and in the [13:50] smaller towns. I've been visiting black owned businesses and black churches all over Texas. [13:56] I've been appearing on black media here in DFW in Houston and national black media. And then we've [14:03] been holding these town hall discussions, including in Houston on Sunday and in DeSoto yesterday. We [14:09] are polling better with black Texans than any Democrat in modern Texas history. And so we need to continue [14:17] that progress. [14:17] Tallerico told reporters Monday night what his $25 million pledge will look like. [14:23] You're going to see paid advertisements directed toward black voters. You're going to see organizing, [14:29] folks showing up at the doorsteps, folks showing up at community events, registering voters, [14:35] speaking to voters, listening to voters. [14:37] He said part of his strategy to win is to keep returning to Tarrant County, [14:42] the state's and nation's largest Republican county. [14:45] But Tarrant County is the biggest swing county in the state of Texas, [14:49] and it is a must win for me and my campaign. So you're going to be seeing us in Fort Worth and [14:54] in Tarrant County a lot. [14:55] I interviewed Democrat Jane Hope Hamilton, who served as the Texas statewide director [15:00] for President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign about Tallerico's campaign. [15:04] It is a dead heat. And what we see in Texas is that most times, [15:12] the Republican has to sort of be fired, right? You have this group of people who are unaligned, [15:19] like they're not necessarily Republican and maybe that not necessarily Democrat, [15:24] but they tend to default when they get into those voting booths to Republican, [15:28] unless there's a reason not to. And I think what we're seeing is the beginnings of the holdout [15:36] as it pertains to Paxton. And so what Tallerico has to do is all of the things that he has to do [15:42] to mobilize the base voters, right? That's black voters. [15:47] We saw on Sunday, in a very public way, a town hall in which Tallerico was having in the black [15:56] community in Houston. And one woman, you know, came out and demanded that he stay and answer for [16:02] more questions, because I guess staff had said, you know, one more question. And she wasn't happy [16:08] with that and let him have it. Now, it was one person, but there was tension in that room the whole [16:14] night. What's going on here? We have to really look at this holistically. [16:19] What is happening with black Americans right now in this country, right? Which is, we've had a surge [16:27] since November 2025, 8% in the unemployment rate. We see that home ownership amongst black Americans is [16:36] down. It's fallen in the first quarter of 2025 to 43%. Community development financial institutions, [16:43] CDFIs, have been severely gutted and defunded. That is where black entrepreneurs go to gain capital, [16:53] because traditionally, we don't receive that capital investment from banks, let's say, or traditional [16:59] lenders. And so there's a pain right now in the African American community. There's a lot of angst, [17:06] right now. There's also a situation where at the National Democratic Party level, [17:11] there's a lot of dissatisfaction. So when you have all of these layers in your Tallarico and you're [17:18] running, that means that you got to show up. And he is showing up. He's got to keep showing up. He's [17:25] got to listen. He has to demonstrate that he understands what is on the line for black Texans. We're [17:34] starting to see that there's improvement there. I think it was a rough start in the beginning, [17:41] but we are starting to see that the campaign is beginning to understand how important this all is. [17:48] Polls have showed that he's, and he told me, he's got, he is higher in the polls among African Americans [17:57] than any Democrat running statewide has been. More so than. Beto. Beto. More so than Colin. Right. [18:04] That's right. And, but you're saying it's not just that because of the margins. That's right. [18:11] That's right. So can you explain that? Absolutely. So what we have to remember is this, [18:15] is that, you know, a regular turnout model, let's say in Dallas County, for example, right? [18:21] We need to hit in Dallas County. We need to be in the high sixties. That means that African Americans [18:30] who might not normally get out, right? Who we need to make up that 13% of the total vote. We got to push [18:38] that number. You have to maximize and get as many people as you can in terms of numbers to come out [18:45] and vote and then you have to do everything else. We're just about in August, which means there will [18:51] be another three months of campaigning before the all important midterm election. We're going to take [18:57] a break. Eye on politics on CBS News Texas. We'll be right back. The US House passed a bill placing new [19:06] limits on members of Congress trading stocks, but Democrats are criticizing the legislation for not [19:11] going far enough. Sarah Jenkins now with the brief. The bill titled Stop Insider Trading Act passed 232 [19:18] to 198 this week, with all Republicans voting in favor, as well as 13 Democrats. Among them were [19:25] Texas Democrat representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. The legislation would bar members [19:30] of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying individual stocks and would require [19:36] advanced public disclosure of stock sales and would impose financial penalties for violations. [19:41] The bill was introduced by Wisconsin Republican Brian Steele and co-sponsored by Texas Republicans [19:47] Chip Roy, Dan Crenshaw, Keith Self and Jake Elsie. All Texas Republicans backed the measure. [19:54] Many Democrats opposed the bill, arguing it should require lawmakers to divest existing stock holdings [20:00] and extend the ban to the president and senior administration officials. North Texas Democrats Mark [20:05] Vesey, Jasmine Crockett and Julie Johnson voted against the legislation. For The Brief, I'm Sarah Jenkins. [20:11] All right, thank you Sarah. Tomorrow, Republican State Representative Shelley Luther will host a large [20:17] rally in Sherman featuring the state's biggest names in politics. Luther is calling it the Red River [20:22] Roll Call and Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick are featured along with other statewide [20:28] candidates and members of Congress. It will take place at 7 30 PM at the Sherman Municipal Building. [20:34] And don't forget, you can watch our complete interviews from today's show on our CBS Texas [20:39] YouTube page. And while you're there, go to the Eye on Politics playlist and hit the subscribe button. [20:45] And that's all for Eye on Politics today. I'm Jack Fink. I am listening and we are listening to you [20:51] at CBS News Texas. Thank you so much for watching. And from all of us here, have a great Sunday.