The Texas Republican party, as is by now well known, decided to nominate their current Attorney General Ken Paxton to be their candidate to replace outgoing Senator John Cornyn in the Senate. Cornyn has served in the Senate since 2002, and will have served 24 years when he leaves office. He is a mainstream Republican and reported fundraising machine, none of which helped him in his primary effort against Paxton. He will be 74 years old when he leaves office.
Paxton, who has been Attorney General since 2015 (and is this the chief law enforcement officer in Texas) has compiled a rather concerning record of legal troubles and infractions. To wit:
- In 2011 Paxton — then a state legislator — encouraged other legislators to invest in McKinney-based company Servergy without disclosing that the startup was paying him to do so. Subsequently (while running for Attorney General) the Texas Securities Board reprimanded him and fined him $1,000 for soliciting investment clients without being registered as required by law. Paxton admitted wrongdoing but chalked it up to administrative oversight.
- In 2014 there was a minor (but telling) incident when Paxton pocketed a $1,000 Montblanc pen that had been mistakenly left by a lawyer at a courthouse metal detector. Security footage revealed Paxton had pocketed it. After a phone call, he returned the pen.
- In 2015, just a few months into Paxton’s tenure as Texas Attorney General, a grand jury indicted him on felony charges of duping investors in a tech company. He was accused of recruiting more than $840,000 from investors while not disclosing that the startup was paying him to do so. He pleaded not guilty. The case was ultimately resolved through a pretrial diversion agreement rather than a trial verdict.
- In 2016-2017 the U.S. The federal Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil lawsuit against Paxton in connection with the fraud accusations, but that suit was dismissed by a federal judge because of technical defects in the complaint. (The dismissal did not resolve the separate state criminal case, which continued for years afterward.)
- In 2020 seven top employees in Paxton’s office reported him to federal investigators, alleging he had abused his position as Texas AG to assist Austin real estate developer Nate Paul (who had also donated to his campaign). Some deputies resigned; four who were fired later filed a whistleblower lawsuit.
- In 2023 the Texas House impeached Paxton after it unveiled 20 articles of impeachment based on abuse of office and bribery charges. The House voted 121–23 to impeach Paxton — only the third time in history the legislative body had impeached an official — suspending him from office. The allegations centered on Paxton using his office to benefit Nate Paul, interference in federal investigations, and retaliation against the whistleblowers who reported him.
- The Texas Senate subsequently acquitted Paxton 16-14 on most of the articles (a few received less support). Trump had openly pressured senators to acquit Paxton.
- In 2024 his state securities fraud case was finally resolved. A pretrial agreement was entered in March 2024, requiring him to complete community service and pay restitution. Paxton did not have to enter a plea under the deal. Specifically, he was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution and complete 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics education.
- In 2025 a Travis County district court judge agreed the former aides were improperly fired and awarded them $6.6 million on their whistleblower charges.
And that, my friends, is your Republican Senate candidate from Texas.
The Republican party in Texas poured a lot of resources into Cornyn’s campaign, but he got smoked nonetheless. The final tally was Ken Paxton 63.5% and John Cornyn 36.5%. Cornyn tried to curry favor with Trump in the last months of the campaign to no avail. Trump endorsed Paxton, who is his kind of guy.
Now Paxton faces off against James Talarico, a fresh-faced Bible-quoting 37 year old 8th generation Texan, in a race that is likely to be genuinely competitive. The RNC will be pouring a lot of resources into this race, and are already up to their dirty tricks, implying that Talarico is transgender and (gasp!) a vegan. But Texas will be in play for the first time in a long time, so there’s good news in that.