In AUSTIN, Texas, late-night television host Stephen Colbert revealed that his planned interview with Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico was axed from Monday night’s show. The decision stemmed from network concerns about potentially breaching regulations set during the Trump administration, which mandate equal airtime for political candidates.

This development unfolded just ahead of Tuesday’s early voting for Texas’ primary elections, where competitive Senate nomination battles are expected within both major parties.

“We had him scheduled, but our network’s legal team made it unmistakably clear that we couldn’t air his appearance,” Colbert remarked on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” He continued, “I was also told, rather ambiguously, that not only could he not appear, but I couldn’t even mention his absence. Naturally, since my network prefers silence on this matter, let’s dive into it.”

Talarico is vying for the Democratic nomination amidst evolving media guidelines, which have become more complex since the Trump administration adjusted how interviews with political figures are handled. His principal challenger, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, like Talarico, has gained national attention through viral social media moments.

Meanwhile, on the Republican front, long-standing Sen. John Cornyn is facing a significant challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. Paxton intensified his campaign efforts with a rally on Monday evening in Tyler, in East Texas.

On the Republican side, four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing the political fight of his career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. Paxton stepped up his campaign with a Monday night rally in Tyler in east Texas.

FCC has warned talk show hosts

Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of his interview with Colbert on X, calling it “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.” He planned to have a Tuesday evening rally in Austin.

“I think Donald Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas,” Talarico said in a statement. “This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”

Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule hasn’t traditionally been applied to talk shows. In January, the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance warning late-night and daytime hosts that they need to give political candidates equal time, with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr questioning the talk show exemption and positing that hosts were “motivated by partisan purposes.”

“The FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” according to the public notice.

In his comments, Colbert noted that the equal time provision applies to broadcast but not streaming platforms. Subsequently, his nearly 15-minute interview with Talarico was posted to the YouTube page for Colbert’s show, with the host noting specifically that the segment was only appearing online and not on broadcast.

Texas voting starts with Colbert on his way out

Neither CBS nor the FCC immediately responded to messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Carr, appointed by Trump to lead the agency last year, has often criticized network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing ABC’s “The View” – whose hosts have frequently been critical of Trump – over the exemption might be “worthwhile.”

Colbert’s days in his host chair are limited, following CBS’ announcement last year that it was canceling his show this May for financial reasons, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape.

But the timing of that announcement – three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story – led two U.S. senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.

Candidates look to avoid runoffs

Meanwhile, Talarico and Crockett are hoping to avoid a May 26 runoff by capturing at least 50% of the Democratic vote in the March 3 primary. Paxton, too, is trying to avoid a runoff, and until Friday, the only ad his relatively low-key campaign ran had attacked Hunt.

Hunt is trying to appeal to voters seeking an alternative to Cornyn but uneasy about Paxton. The Texas attorney general beat a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges and reached a deal to end a long-running securities fraud case but now faces a contentious divorce over allegations of adultery.

Hunt released a new ad Tuesday, with photos of him with Trump, hitting Cornyn over his long political year and declaring, “This is our moment to end the status quo.”

But Paxton’s campaign has been airing its own ad featuring video clips of him with Trump since Friday. The president had not endorsed any candidate as of Monday. Paxton on Monday night portrayed Cornyn as a creature of the Washington establishment, adding, “Well, I’m not their person and I’m never going to be their person.”

GOP fears about Paxton

Early voting began with Paxton looking like the GOP’s front-runner, even though Cornyn’s campaign and allied super PACs had spent more than $54 million on television advertising since last year, according to the ad-tracing service AdImpact. Paxton believes he’s even better known than Cornyn.

Republican Senate leaders in Washington say Paxton as the GOP nominee would require hundreds of millions of dollars more to defend in a general election than Cornyn would – and that the party shouldn’t have to spend in a state Trump carried by over 13 percentage points.

Cornyn hit on those concerns in a Tuesday rally in Austin.

“We’ll pay the price of having an albatross like our corrupt attorney general around their neck,” he said. “It will take a toll on everybody on the ballot.”

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina and, Hanna, from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press reporter David Bauder contributed to this report from New York, and Associated Press reporter Tom Beaumont, from Tyler, Texas.