Rev. Dr. Eve Blackwell’s Texas Senate campaign said it will not run negative advertising against Senator Royce Whitman, framing the decision as a contrast with ads the campaign says are being funded by Whitman and Governor David Acton.

In a Houston press release, Blackwell campaign spokesperson Karine Jefferson said the campaign would draw “honest comparisons” for voters but would not make its message about attacking Whitman personally.

“This race isn’t about who Royce Whitman is,” Jefferson said. “It’s about who Texas deserves.”

The announcement did not identify particular advertisements or provide details on their spending, content, timing, or the specific claims the Blackwell campaign says have targeted Blackwell’s ministry and record. Whitman and Acton were not quoted in the release.

Blackwell, a Democrat and the leader of Greater Cornerstone Cathedral in Houston’s Third Ward, used the statement to emphasize her work in religious and community institutions before seeking office. Her campaign cited feeding programs for homeless residents, services for families in crisis and mental-health counseling for veterans as examples of that work.

“I have never needed a stage to do the work,” Blackwell said. “Long before my name was on a ballot, I was in the church basement organizing the food line, in the counseling room with a veteran nobody else had called back.”

Blackwell has led Greater Cornerstone Cathedral since the death of her husband, Bishop James Blackwell. She previously served as the church’s first lady and has been a prominent figure in Houston religious and civic life. Her public political positions have included support for housing, healthcare access, criminal-justice reform and working families.

The campaign’s pledge centers on tone rather than a detailed policy agenda. Blackwell said she would focus on her own record and allow voters to compare it with Whitman’s.

“I will tell you what I have done, and let you set it beside what he has not,” she said.

The release also casts the campaign’s approach as a rejection of fear-based messaging. Blackwell said her opponents had spent heavily to make voters “afraid” of her, though the campaign did not provide documentation of the alleged spending or describe the ads in detail.

“Fear is loud. It is expensive. And it does not build a single thing,” Blackwell said. “What I have built, I built quietly, and it is still standing.”

The statement comes as political campaigns operate in a polarized national climate, where disputes over identity, character and institutional trust can draw more attention than policy specifics. Blackwell’s campaign is seeking to make her background in ministry and service a central part of its case to Texas voters while declining, it says, to use personal attack advertising against Whitman.

Blackwell ended her statement with a concise campaign message: “I am Eve Blackwell, and she changes everything.”