Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico held a grocery drive in Dallas yesterday, using the moment to declare that his campaign will never use artificial intelligence in its political advertising. Every ad his campaign puts out, he said, “is made by human beings.”
The pledge came the same day Republicans kicked off their two-day national midterm convention across town at the American Airlines Center, an event featuring President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, according to The Texas Tribune. Talarico, a state representative running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, spoke with FOX 4 reporter Steven Dial about both the convention and AI ads appearing on the airwaves, in an interview aired by FOX 7 Austin Wednesday afternoon. Talarico has accused Paxton of using AI deepfakes to misrepresent his statements, per that same interview.
A Convention Without Precedent
The Dallas gathering marks the Republican Party's first-ever national midterm convention, following earlier Democratic midterm conferences held in 1974, 1978, and 1982, according to The Guardian. National party conventions during non-presidential election years are extremely rare in U.S. political history, and RNC officials have billed the Dallas event as a rally meant to drive conservative turnout. Texas Democrats responded with coordinated counter-programming in Dallas starting Tuesday, led by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and state party leaders, who praised both Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, per the Tribune's reporting.
Paxton became the GOP nominee after defeating incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the May primary runoff with over 63% of the vote, making Cornyn the first incumbent Texas senator to lose renomination since 1970. That upset set the stage for a race the Tribune describes as one of the most competitive and high-stakes midterm battles in the country.
AI Ads and a Regulatory Gap
Talarico's no-AI pledge lands against a backdrop of largely unregulated political advertising in Texas. A proposed state House bill requiring mandatory disclosure labels on campaign ads using generative AI passed the Texas House in 2025 but died in the Texas Senate, the Tribune reported in February, leaving candidates and PACs free to deploy AI-generated content without disclosure. Texas did pass broader commercial AI regulations, known as TRAIGA 2.0, in 2025, but those rules omitted political ad disclosures.
Talarico's campaign has paired its ethics messaging with legal action. On September 2, the campaign filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Paxton and his campaign treasurer of illegally routing $1 million to a pro-Paxton Super PAC, alleging dark-money expenditures that exceeded federal contribution limits, according to CBS News Texas. That complaint followed Hoodline's earlier coverage of a San Antonio Lotería event where Talarico discussed the filing.
Whistleblower Support and Tight Polling
Talarico picked up a notable endorsement on Tuesday from David Maxwell, a former Texas Ranger and top law enforcement official under Paxton who reported the attorney general to the FBI in 2020. Maxwell previously testified against Paxton at his 2023 impeachment trial after being fired from the attorney general's office, according to reporting relayed by the Tribune.
The race remains statistically close heading into the fall. An August Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey found the contest deadlocked, with 47% supporting Paxton and 46% supporting Talarico. A separate University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll from the same month showed Talarico leading Paxton 42% to 39%, with 14% of voters undecided, per the Tribune's analysis. Texas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office in more than three decades, a streak Talarico's campaign is explicitly trying to end.
