Keith Self Town Halls Texas

Keith Self Was Asked Whether He'd Debate His Opponent. 'This Is My Seat,' He Said.

On national TV at the State Fair of Texas, Rep. Keith Self wouldn't commit to debating Democrat Evan Hunt, who says he has been asking for a debate for over a year. Instead Self called the 3rd District 'my seat,' and said Republicans need more time to fix inflation.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 12, 2026

Keith Self was handed a simple question on national TV last Friday: will you debate your opponent? He didn't say yes. He said the seat was his.

"This is my seat. I'm going to win it," Self said, and a moment later said it again: "I think this is my seat. I'm gonna win it."

Self, who has represented Texas's 3rd Congressional District — part of Collin County and all of Hunt County — since 2023, was appearing on NewsNation's Morning in America at the State Fair of Texas, TX3DNews reported. His Democratic opponent, Evan Hunt, appeared on the same show separately. The host played Hunt's debate challenge for Self. The interview ended with no agreement to debate.

"I've been calling for a debate for over a year"

Hunt hasn't been quiet about wanting one. "I would ask you to ask him if he's gonna debate me, because I've been calling for a debate for over a year," Hunt said. "I've sent a letter to his office. We talked to his staff."

Self's answer was that nobody had properly asked. "No one, no organization has said, 'Let's have a debate,'" he said. He said a "viable organization" would need to propose a forum — but he didn't say which organizations would count.

That is a standard he set himself, on the spot, and it lets him decide which invitations are real. His opponent was on the same program asking for a debate on air.

Hunt's reply went straight at the "my seat" line: "No member of Congress owns their seat. It belongs to the voters," he said, and "anyone who wants to keep it should have to stand on a stage and earn it."

He isn't the only one

Self is part of a pattern. With him, we've now counted twenty-three Republicans on this site who have refused to debate their opponents this year — one of them turned down four invitations. At the top of Texas's ballot, Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton still hadn't agreed to a single debate five weeks before Election Day.

To be fair to Self, he has faced his voters before. In March 2025 he held a town hall in Collin County — and a crowd of more than 300 booed him as he talked up the House budget and DOGE's cuts. That's on the record too. But a town hall is the congressman's event, on his terms. A debate is the one place where his opponent gets equal time to answer him. That's the one he won't commit to.

"We've only been at this for 20 months"

What Self did talk about on the show is telling. He admitted this year is different. "Normally my race is in the primary," he said. "But this year, I'm running a strong general race just to make sure that we take care of this."

He said he's "running against a general environment, because there's unease out there." He named gas prices, groceries and the war in Iran. "People are unsettled," he said.

Then he asked for patience. "We've only been at this for 20 months, and it takes a while to fix things like inflation," Self said. Asked what his party was doing wrong, he answered: "We're not telling our story."

But Self has a record on what he's describing:

The war in Iran. In July, the House voted 214–208 to order U.S. forces out of Trump's unauthorized war with Iran. Self was one of the 207 Republicans who voted to keep us in it.
Tariffs. The Dallas Fed found 76% of affected Texas manufacturing and retail firms planned to pass tariff costs on to customers. His constituents are the customers.
The budget. Self calls the national debt "an existential threat," yet he voted for Trump's $3.4 trillion budget bill — then introduced a bill to stop bills like it.

When Self says "we're not telling our story," the problem isn't the telling. His voters have already seen the story at the gas pump and the grocery store. A debate is where he'd have to explain it, with someone standing next to him who can answer back.

He described his role in Congress in his own words: "The president calls us the 3 a.m. crowd," he said, adding "we are the ones that push all of the bills toward the America first agenda." Hunt called him a "rubber stamp in Congress for the president."

What we know

Keith Self has not agreed to debate Evan Hunt, who says he has been asking for over a year, by letter and through Self's staff. Asked about it on national TV, Self said no "viable organization" had proposed a debate and called the 3rd District "my seat" twice. In the same interview he said voters are uneasy about gas prices, groceries and the Iran war, and asked for more time — after voting to stay in that war and for Trump's $3.4 trillion budget bill.