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TYLER, Texas (AP) — A new chapter unfolded for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday night as he stepped into the limelight at his inaugural campaign rally. The Republican, who declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate nearly a year ago, was greeted with cheers from a crowd of supporters.
Gathering in a bar in the eastern part of Texas, approximately 100 backers witnessed Paxton ramping up his campaign efforts to challenge the long-serving Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton aims to inject a “Make America Great Again” fervor into the Senate, positioning this as one of the year’s most hotly contested GOP primaries.
Prior to this rally, Paxton’s campaign had been somewhat subdued, marked by modest spending and a focus on conservative agendas as the state’s attorney general. However, with early voting commencing on Tuesday for the March 3 primary, Paxton plans a whirlwind tour of Texas. He has also launched advertisements aligning himself with President Donald Trump, as he battles Cornyn and Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Despite facing a barrage of negative ads funded by Cornyn and his supporters, and resistance from Senate Republican leaders who argue Cornyn is better suited for the general election, Paxton strides into the primary appearing as the leading candidate within his party.
Addressing his supporters from the bar’s bandstand, Paxton criticized Cornyn, stating, “His funding stems from the D.C. establishment. That’s how he finances these commercials, and that’s their tactic to persuade us from Washington with their wealth to pick their candidate. I’m not their candidate and never will be.”
The comment sparked a round of applause.
Paxton’s political survival would appear to defy convention, much like Trump’s did. Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and today is shadowed by claims of marital infidelity made by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
The three-term attorney general is betting that his defiance of his own party’s leaders and aggressive litigation for conservative priorities will help him overcome ethical and personal questions that voters in the Republican-leaning state have, at least until now, forgiven.
“They see him as a threat,” said Jennifer Seppi, a 57-year-old homeschool teacher from Tyler, who attended the event and supports Paxton. “He’s definitely a threat to the old-boy system. The impeachment proved that.”
Stepped up campaigning as early voting begins
Paxton kicked off a four-day series of rallies put on by Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC supporting him, to remind people that early voting in Texas begins Tuesday.
His previous campaign stops have been lower-profile events, including county GOP gatherings with other candidates. He traveled to five Texas college campuses in the fall to speak with Turning Point USA chapters after the conservative Christian group’s national founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated.
But until this week, that’s essentially been it for Paxton’s public campaign efforts, outside of a handful of podcasts with friendly hosts.
Until Friday, the only television ad on Paxton’s behalf in Texas was one that cost $674,000 to air, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
That spot attacked Hunt, a two-term House member from the Houston area, not Cornyn. Like Paxton, Hunt is trying to appeal to primary voters looking for an alternative to Cornyn. By criticizing Hunt, Paxton allies are trying to peel off some of his voters in hopes of winning at least 50% of the primary vote — the threshold needed to win the GOP nomination outright. If no candidate receives 50%, the top two finishers would advance to a May 26 runoff.
Paxton’s campaign began airing an ad Friday that features video clips of Trump praising Paxton and images of them together. Trump as of Monday has not endorsed any of the three Republicans in the race.
Retired businessman Vincent Coglin said Paxton reminds him of Trump, someone he views as persecuted by powerful interests but willing to do what he believes is right.
“I like him for the same reasons I like Trump. Paxton says what he’s going to do and he does it,” said Coglin, from Marshall in east Texas. “None of us is perfect. Neither are they. But you know what you’re getting.”
Trump declined to weigh in on the race when asked about it on Air Force One Monday. “I haven’t made a decision on that race yet,” he said. “I like all three of them.”
Paxton’s office promotes conservative goals
Paxton has relied on his office in Austin to remain at the center of conservative efforts.
Last year, he sued Texas physicians over claims they violated the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, affirming a key priority for social conservatives in their opposition to what they call gender ideology.
In October, just weeks after Trump implored pregnant women repeatedly, “Don’t take Tylenol,” Paxton sued companies behind the pain reliever, accusing them of deceptively marketing it specifically to expectant women, asserting unproven claims that early exposure to its active ingredient increased risks of autism.
Most notably, Paxton led numerous legal challenges against the previous Joe Biden administration over immigration and border policies, often succeeding and burnishing his credentials as a conservative crusader. Paxton, who was first elected attorney general in 2014, also sued Barack Obama’s administration regularly in the final two years of the two-term Democrat’s administration.
“He’s just a strong advocate for our values,” said Perry Seppi, the 60-year-old husband of the homeschool teacher Jennifer. “It seems he works pretty hard to keep Texas on the straight path.”
Cornyn, allies spending more than $50 million
The steady stream of litigation has kept Paxton in the headlines as Cornyn and his allies have spent heavily to try to bloody his image among Republican primary voters.
As of Friday, Cornyn’s campaign and allied super PACs had spent more than $54 million on television advertising since last year, according to AdImpact. Much of it was reminding voters of Paxton’s impeachment and his wife’s divorce claim on “biblical grounds,” alleging extramarital affairs. The groups have spent millions more on digital ads, text messaging and direct mail, also attacking Paxton.
In one ad, sponsored by Texans for a Conservative Majority, a narrator says at the outset: “Ken Paxton isn’t just corrupt. He’s weird.”
Republican strategists unaffiliated with any of the campaigns say the spending and months of warnings haven’t significantly hurt Paxton, who projects confidence. No senator in Texas’ storied political history has served more than four terms. And Paxton believes he is better known than almost any statewide elected Republican in Texas, including Cornyn.
Speaking on a December podcast, Paxton said the “only other people with name ID” in the state are Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who are seeking reelection, and Sen. Ted Cruz.
Senate GOP leaders are worried
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, given expected attacks, than Cornyn would. And they say that’s money the party shouldn’t have to spend in Texas, a state Trump carried by over 13 percentage points.
Democrats must net a total of four seats to overtake Republicans’ Senate majority in November. The minority party is expressing renewed confidence in vying for Republican-held seats in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
“Cornyn wins the general election,” the memo states. “Paxton puts the seat at risk.”
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