The campaign of Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico on Tuesday unleashed a new attack ad against his Republican rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, that targeted his long history of outrageous scandals.
The ad, titled “ScanDuel,” is a parody of mobile betting apps such as FanDuel and DraftKings, and it invites viewers to place bets on whether Paxton really engaged in a wide range of scandalous behavior.
In an unsurprising twist, the narrator of the mock ad suggests would-be bettors will always make money if they wager that the Paxton scandal is true.
NEW AD: Introducing SCANDUEL! The only betting app where you can parlay Ken Paxton’s scandals — and get paid! Here’s a tip: Always bet that he did the thing. 💰 https://t.co/Hir2F2UALC
— Team Talarico (@TeamTalaricoHQ) October 6, 2026
The ad starts by touting ScanDuel as “the only betting app where you can parlay Ken Paxton offering a plea deal to a pedophile with Ken Paxton voting to protect puppy abusers.”
The plea deal mentioned in the ad refers to the case of Adam Hoffman, an attorney based in Waco, Texas, who had been indicted on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a minor.
After Hoffman’s first trial ended with a hung jury, Paxton’s office reached a bargain with the accused child molester in which he would plead guilty to lesser charges and serve a single day in prison. Additionally, Hoffman would not have to register as a sex offender.
The judge overseeing the case mandated that Hoffman serve 60 days in jail, but he ultimately served only half that time.
Paxton’s protection of puppy abusers, meanwhile, refers to Paxton’s 2015 legal opinion used by university Texas A&M to deny public records requests from animal rescue organizations about hundreds of dogs that faced abusive treatment at one of its research labs.
As reported by The Houston Chronicle at the time, Paxton’s opinion held that Texas A&M was under no obligation to release its records because doing so would violate “the confidential relationship between the veterinarian and the veterinarian’s client.”
Legal experts raised objections to this reasoning, given that the animals obtained by the research lab came from shelters, and thus had no owners who could give consent for the records’ release.
Other Paxton scandals referenced in the Talarico ad include sworn testimony from a process server who said the Texas AG fled in a truck driven by his wife to avoid being served a subpoena, and Paxton mysteriously receiving regular income cumulatively worth more than $1 million from a cellphone tower located on the property of a hospital where he was previously a board member.
“Here’s a tip,” the ad says. “Always bet that he did the thing.”
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