Five years into Ken Paxton’s career as Texas attorney general, the far-right Republican faced devastating allegations from members of his own team. Indeed, high-level aides from Paxton’s own staff came forward to accuse him of a variety of crimes and abuses, including bribery.
When the state attorney general retaliated against his team, his accusers filed suit. Over the weekend, they won: A Texas judge awarded a total of $6.6 million to the four whistleblowers from Paxton’s office.
While Paxton condemned the judgment and vowed to appeal, it was nevertheless an extraordinary development for a Republican whose career has been largely defined by repeated allegations of corruption. In a normal and healthy political environment, the judge’s decision in this case would’ve been a brutal embarrassment for the state attorney general.
Instead, just three days after whistleblowers from his office were awarded $6.6 million, Paxton launched a U.S. Senate campaign. NBC News reported:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a primary challenge against longtime Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday night, setting the stage for a battle between two politicians representing different parts of the Republican Party.
It’s too soon to say with confidence who has the advantage in this GOP fight, but the fact that Paxton has launched such a candidacy is emblematic of a larger phenomenon in Republican politics.
For those who haven’t kept up with the Texas attorney general’s recent career, it almost sounds like a caricature. Last year, for example, Paxton faced felony charges as part of a securities fraud case. As the trial date drew closer, he ultimately agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, take legal ethics classes, and complete 100 hours of community service.
He was no doubt pleased to have the matter behind him, though the case was just part of a larger set of troubles. The criminal allegations, for example, were distinct from the state bar investigation into Paxton’s ridiculous efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
What’s more, the Republican’s securities fraud allegations were also unrelated to the corruption allegations raised by his former aides, which led to a state House investigation, which concluded that the state attorney general repeatedly broke the law by, among other things, abusing his office to hide an extramarital affair, doing special favors for a donor, and retaliating against perceived foes. Though he continued to insist that he’d done nothing wrong, the scandal led to Paxton’s impeachment. He would’ve been removed from office were it not for the fact that he was acquitted by his partisan allies in the state Senate. The idea that such a figure would try to parlay these controversies into a Senate campaign — which might very well prove effective — is a reminder of the degree to which the Republican Party has become a post-scandal party. As for the White House’s possible intervention in the Texas primary, Donald Trump hasn’t yet commented on the Cornyn-Paxton race. That said, the president has been critical of Cornyn on multiple occasions, while Paxton led “Lawyers for Trump” in the 2020 race. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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