Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico is facing criticism from a local newspaper in Abilene after attempting to keep a campaign event hidden from reporters.
The incident occurred on Aug. 13 at a roundtable event on the topic of data centers. The campaign billed the event as a “bipartisan” closed door discussion — yet local news noted in their story cameras were seen inside. Later, far-left cable news outlet MS NOW published a glowing report and acknowledged they were present for the duration of the event.
MS NOW’s Chris Jansing was present and featured video from the roundtable in her report on the network.
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Posted by Team Talarico on Wednesday, August 19, 2026
After the event, Talarico held a gaggle with the local reporters who were not allowed inside. He said that it was intended to be a “private conversation” with residents held behind closed doors so “folks can feel comfortable being honest without the need to be worried about cameras in the room.”
That private conversation apparently could still occur with the cameras of MS NOW and his own campaign which would later release a 14-minute video of remarks.
Lauren Dossey, a reporter with the Abilene Reporter-News, questioned Talarico regarding the snub of local outlets:
REPORTER: Hi, Lauren Dossey with Abilene Reporter-News. So in a town where data centers are the number one thing on everyone’s mind, why was this roundtable discussion held behind closed doors?
TALARICO: Well, we wanted to have a time for press to be able to ask these questions of everyone who was here. Obviously we wanted to make sure that folks can feel comfortable being honest without the need to be worried about cameras in the room. So we decided to split them, one into a private conversation so I could hear directly from residents and get their honest feedback, and then a time for us to talk publicly with reporters and folks across the community.
A campaign aide interjected after Talarico’s response, telling the media, “Let’s stick to data center topics.”
The Abilene Reporter-News noted the Talarico campaign’s deception in its story on the event.
“The roundtable discussion, which was held at 1:30 p.m. at the G.V. Daniels Recreation Center, was closed to the press except for MS NOW, a national news outlet. Abilene Reporter-News asked Talarico why this was the case at the follow-up press conference held outside the recreation center,” the outlet reported.
Talarico’s campaign released a slick 14-minute video from inside the roundtable, featuring the city’s residents. Two of the attendees confirmed to be inside the event were Diana Luna and Riley Rodriguez, who are both Democrats running for Texas State House seats.
The “private conversation” is now available to watch on his YouTube page featuring 293,000 subscribers.
Read the full article here