Texas Senate Race Sharpens: Talarico Attacks Paxton on Child Sex Abuse Plea Deal as Trump Rallies Republicans

Since Ken Paxton's primary runoff victory over Sen. John Cornyn, the 2026 Texas Senate race has moved quickly into general-election combat, with both sides sharpening their lines of attack.

Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Austin state lawmaker, launched his general election campaign before roughly 1,000 supporters at a Houston venue under the theme "THE PEOPLE vs. KEN PAXTON," according to PBS. The framing was deliberate: the rally fell on the third anniversary of Paxton's 2023 impeachment on allegations he used his office to benefit a wealthy political donor. Paxton was acquitted on all 20 articles.

The Waco Plea Deal

The sharpest new line of attack from Talarico is a plea agreement reached by Paxton's office in a Waco child sexual abuse case. According to the Texas Tribune, 49-year-old Adam Dean Hoffman was charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy. The deal his attorneys general negotiated required 30 days in jail, an admission of guilt, and surrender of his law license. Hoffman was NOT required to register as a sex offender.

Talarico traveled to the McLennan County Courthouse steps in Waco and demanded Paxton release internal communications showing how that deal was constructed. "If there's anything that all Texans can agree on — Democrats and Republicans, progressive and conservatives — it's that no one, not even the attorney general of Texas, should be able to cover up crimes against children," he said, per the Texas Tribune.

The Texas Tribune, The Texas Newsroom, and KWBU had previously obtained trial transcripts showing why prosecutors faced a hard choice: the victim refused to testify a second time after a mistrial, and forcing a child back to the stand via subpoena was the only alternative to a deal. Assistant Attorneys General Brenda Cantu and Dorian Cotlar wrote in a May 15 letter to a state lawmaker that the plea "was made entirely in the best interest of the child involved," who said he "preferred to move on with his life."

Paxton's campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy called Talarico's attacks "disgusting," accusing him of intentionally re-traumatizing the victim for political gain. "Every time James Talarico chooses to bring this case up he is intentionally re-traumatizing the child victim for personal gain," Cercy said. The visiting judge in the case, Roy Sparkman, a Republican, had rejected an earlier deal that would have meant just one day of jail time, and flagged a second AG-handled case where he believed the office was again too lenient, raising questions about whether this was an isolated decision or a pattern.

If two separate cases handled by Paxton's office after local prosecutors were recused both resulted in deals that a Republican judge found inadequate, that merits public accounting, regardless of Talarico's political incentives for raising it. The Paxton camp's strongest defense is the prosecutorial reality the Texas Tribune documented: no victim cooperation, no conviction path. But the office has NOT released the internal communications Talarico is demanding, and no explanation has been given for why those records remain withheld.

Trump Moves In

Hours after Paxton's runoff win, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social attacking Talarico, calling him "may be the worst Texas candidate I have ever seen" and claiming he was soft on crime and pro-open borders, according to The Guardian. Trump also went after Talarico for allegedly being vegan. Talarico denied it, telling a podcast, "I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment."

Senate Republicans lined up quickly. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso called Talarico "a far-left extremist." Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio called him a "far-left freak." Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana called him a "commie." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted Paxton would "destroy Talarico."

Ted Cruz, who had not previously endorsed in the race, threw his support behind Paxton after the runoff. Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the Republican primary runoff to Paxton, had himself hammered Paxton over the Waco plea deal during the primary — meaning the attack Talarico is now using was originally Republican ammunition.

The Actual Landscape

Texas has NOT elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988. Talarico's path is genuinely uphill. Republican operatives, per The Guardian, privately worried that Paxton's legal baggage would make him a weaker general-election candidate than Cornyn, and the primary result has locked in that risk.

Paxton's supporters, many of whom see his impeachment and legal troubles as political persecution, have a coherent argument: a Republican-controlled Texas Senate acquitted him on all 20 articles, and he has won statewide office repeatedly despite years of scrutiny. Those voters are not going to be persuaded by Talarico invoking Paxton's scandals. They've heard them all and returned Paxton to power anyway.

The open question is whether there are enough persuadable Texas voters — suburban Republicans, independents, parents of any political stripe alarmed by the Waco case — to close what has historically been an enormous structural gap for Texas Democrats.

The Waco plea deal is the most concrete, bipartisan-validated vulnerability Talarico has. Whether Paxton's office releases those internal communications before November will be a telling indicator of how exposed the attorney general believes he actually is on that question.