A little while ago, Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race down in the Lone Star state. He chose Paxton in the GOP primary run off instead of the republican incumbent, John Coryn. This was despite the fact Cornyn was a staunch conservative republican who had been in the Senate long enough he had achieved a good deal of power and influence in the upper chamber.
However, none of that sort of stuff means anything to our man, Donald. He demands complete loyalty, not to just his party, or nation, and most certainly not the people of Texas. He wants utter fealty to Donald John Trump alone--a sort of low-grade Nazi-Hitler thing without the snazzy uniforms. Paxton, who in 2020 sued states like Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin because they harmed Texas by voting for Joe Biden, was just his kind of guy. It didn't matter Paxton's suit was thrown out by the Supreme Court as prima facie bull shit, Trump knew he had a real soldier down in Austin.
This past Tuesday in the GOP primary runoff election Ken Paxton kicked John Cornyn's ass by 27 points. The margin was so decisive it moved Trump to publicly say, "I don't care about the mid-terms. Look what happened yesterday." Indeed, the old man was feeling his oats--or more likely his Egg McMuffins. He had proven once again, he was in total control of the republican party. If you aren't with him 100% start looking for a new job and if you were a big enough irritant, over your shoulder for the FBI.
What was also proven Tuesday is the MAGA wing of the republican party doesn't give a rat's ass about character when it comes to choosing candidates. Of course, Trump's re-election proved it first, but Paxton's runaway win confirmed it with an exclamation point. He is, by any measure the single most corrupt politician and quite possibly the most despicable human being west of the Mississippi.
The list of his malfeasance both in politics and life is breathtaking. Boiling them down, in 2008 Paxton has been accused of voting for state contracts that were awarded to a company he secretly owned stock in. In 2015 he was accused of securities fraud. In 2020 his own staff in the AG's office reported him to the FBI, accusing him of bribery and abuse of his office. The scandal involved a hot shot Austin real estate developer and a woman Paxton had an affair with beginning in 2018. Also, in 2020 he canned the staffers who reported him to the FBI. They sued him for violating the Texas Whistleblower Act. In 2022 the Texas State Bar Association sued Paxton for professional misconduct over that effort to overturn the 2020 election results in other states. In 2023 he was impeached by the republican controlled Texas House of Representatives over the bribery and abuse of office charges, but the state Senate let him off the hook. In 2025, Paxton's wife of 38 years, state Senator, Angela Paxton filed for divorce citing, "biblical grounds." It appears adultery was part of those, grounds. Apparently, her husband's hottie from the 2020 scandal was around even after he told her it was over and asked for her forgiveness.
And just think, I didn't even mention the multiple homes he owns. He has claimed at least three different ones as his primary residence in order to get lower mortgage rates.
Like the man who endorsed him, Ken Paxton has managed to slip the noose on all these alleged crimes and scandals, at least so far. Now he faces Texas State Representative, James Talarico in the general election. Talarico, who has three collegiate degrees, one a Master of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, is scandal free. He is comfortable talking about his faith and is calm under fire. Paxton is already accusing him of being radical leftist. He has even claimed Talarico is running a vegan campaign, whatever that is. (Talarico's response was, "I began eating Texas Bar-B-Q before Ken Paxton was charged the first time.)
Democrats are hopeful the Senate seat can be flipped, however such hope has been misplaced before. There was huge optimism surrounding Beto O'Rourke's run against Ted Cruz. It fell short by three points. We know to win, Talarico has to count on not just democrats, but large numbers of independents and more than a few republicans. The latter will be an especially hard nut to crack no matter how repugnant Paxton's behavior has been. Cornyn ran ad after ad highlighting Paxton's scandals and look where that got him.
If there is a bright spot in all this for James Talarico it is that in the republican runoff, the number of votes cast in total was around 1.3 million. Currently in Texas there are 6.6 million registered republicans. That's a hell of a lot of republicans who chose not to vote at all. In fact, one Texas analyst said that almost everyone who turned out Tuesday was hard core MAGA. It's an easy claim to make considering the outcome.
Another analyst put it this way, "MAGA doesn't care about character or traditional politics. They simply want someone to throw cherry bombs on the floor of the Senate. They want a Maximus who will stand and shout, Are you not entertained?"
And that, ultimately is what James Talarico is up against. He can only hope is there are enough sane people left in the party of Lincoln who will walk away from that peculiar brand of nihilism and if not vote for him, at least sit this one out.
It might not be much of a shot, but at least it is one.
5-29-26
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