Ken Paxton

Early life and education

Paxton was born on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where his father was stationed while in the United States Air Force. His parents and their three children lived in a trailer parked outside wherever his father was temporarily stationed. They lived in Florida, New York, North Carolina, California, and Oklahoma. He spent much of his childhood in California before graduating from MacArthur High School in Lawton, Oklahoma.

At the age of twelve, Paxton nearly lost an eye in a game of hide-and-seek; a misdiagnosis led to long-term problems with his vision. As a result, his good eye is green; his damaged one is brown and droopy. He further injured his eye while in college.

Paxton received a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1985 and an MBA in 1986, both from Baylor University. He was elected president of the student government. In 1991, he received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduating from law school, he worked at the law firm of Strasburger & Price and as in-house counsel for J.C. Penney. In 2002, he opened his own law practice, specializing in estate planning, probate matters and real estate.

Political career

Texas House of Representatives (2003–2013)

In 2002, Paxton ran in the Republican primary for the Texas House in District 70. He captured 39.45% of the vote and moved into a runoff with Bill Vitz, whom he then defeated with 64% of the vote. He faced Fred Lusk (D) and Robert Worthington (L) for the newly redistricted open seat. On November 4, 2002, Paxton won with 28,012 votes to Lusk's 7,074 votes and Worthington's 600 votes.

Paxton won reelection against Democrat Martin Woodward in 2004, receiving 76% of the vote, or 58,520 votes, compared with 18,451 votes for Woodward. Paxton won reelection in 2006, defeating Rick Koster (D) and Robert Virasin (L). Paxton received 30,062 votes to Koster's 12,265 votes and Virasin's 1,222 votes. Paxton won reelection by again defeating Robert Virasin (L), 73,450 votes to 11,751 votes. Paxton ran unopposed for reelection in 2010.

In 2010, Paxton ran for speaker of the Texas House of Representatives against fellow Republicans Joe Straus of District 121 in Bexar County and Warren Chisum of District 88 in Pampa, Texas. Paxton said that if elected speaker, he would take "bold action in defense of our conservative values". Sensing certain defeat, Paxton pulled out of the speaker's race before the vote. Paxton was endorsed by HuckPAC, the political action committee of Mike Huckabee, and was endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund. Straus was elected to his second term as speaker and was reelected in 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Texas Senate (2013–2015)

After winning the 2012 election, Paxton replaced the retiring Florence Shapiro in the Texas Senate. He served from 2013 until January 2015, when his term as attorney general began.

Attorney General of Texas (2015–present)

Paxton was sworn in as Texas attorney general on January 5, 2015.

Paxton became a candidate for Texas attorney general when the incumbent Greg Abbott decided to run for governor. Paxton led a three-candidate field in the Republican primary on March 4, 2014, polling 566,114 votes (44.4%). State representative Dan Branch of Dallas County received 426,595 votes (33.5 percent), and Texas Railroad commissioner Barry Smitherman polled the remaining 281,064 (22.1 percent). Paxton faced Branch in the runoff election on May 27, 2014, and won with 465,395 votes (63.63 percent). Branch received 265,963 votes (36.36 percent).

In the November 4, 2014, general election, Paxton defeated Democrat Sam Houston, an attorney from Houston.

Paxton took office on January 5, 2015. Paxton's campaign raised $945,000 in the first half of 2016, leaving Paxton with just under $3 million in his campaign account for a potential 2018 re-election bid.

Paxton won the attorney general's election without the endorsement of a single Texas newspaper.

In 2018, Paxton ran unopposed for reelection in the Republican primary. Having received the endorsement of U.S. president Donald Trump, Paxton won a second term as attorney general in the general election on November 6, 2018, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Justin Nelson, a lawyer, and Libertarian Party nominee Michael Ray Harris by a margin of 4,173,538 (50.6 percent) to 3,874,096 (47 percent) and Harris receiving 2.4%. Justin Nelson's campaign ad for attorney general included surveillance video from the Collin County courthouse in 2012, showing Paxton taking a Montblanc pen worth $1,000, which had been accidentally left behind at a metal detector by fellow lawyer Joe Joplin. The pen was later returned "when the error was realized", said a spokesman for Paxton.

The 2022 Texas attorney general election took place on November 8, 2022, with Paxton winning the office for the third time. Paxton advanced to the November 8 general election after winning primary contests on March 1 and May 24.

2026 U.S. Senate campaign

On April 8, 2025, Paxton went on the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Senator John Cornyn. The primary occurred on March 3, 2026. His opponents were Cornyn and U.S. representative for Texas's 38th congressional district Wesley Hunt. Paxton advanced to the runoff against Cornyn after neither received 50% of the vote.

The runoff occurred on May 26, and, having secured President Donald Trump's endorsement, Paxton defeated Cornyn by more than 25 points. Despite being outspent nine to one by Cornyn, Paxton became the first individual in 56 years to win a primary against a sitting Texas senator. He will face state representative James Talarico in November.

Political positions

According to news reports, Paxton and his top donors have been characterized as leaders among the political far right in Texas.

Abortion

Paxton supports bans on access to abortion. He gave his employees a paid vacation day to celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Paxton has sought to block rules from the Department of Health and Human Services that would require hospitals to provide abortions to women when the procedure is necessary to save their lives.

Paxton sued to block emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Judge James Wesley Hendrix blocked the guidance which was appealed to the Supreme Court in Moyle v. United States.

After Texas judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled that Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus had the trisomy 18 condition, qualified for an abortion under the medical exemption provision in Texas law, Paxton in December 2023 called the judge an "activist" who was "not medically qualified" to make this ruling, threatened to prosecute doctors if they performed an abortion on Cox, and stated that Texas hospitals that allowed Cox's abortion could "be liable for negligent credentialing" the abortion-performing doctor. Paxton appealed Gamble's ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that "how long the child is expected to live" was irrelevant to the case, and that Cox had not proven that the pregnancy threatened her life. The Supreme Court paused Gamble's ruling, leading to Cox leaving Texas to obtain an abortion; later the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Cox, stating that even though her pregnancy was "extremely complicated", even "serious" pregnancy difficulties do not meet Texas's medical exemption provision.

Paxton sued to block the 2024 Privacy Rule, which prohibits disclosing health information to investigate the act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care.

Paxton sued a New York doctor for providing "abortion-inducing drugs" to a Texas resident.

Paxton joined 14 other AG's "urging Congress to consider taking action preempting abortion shield laws".

In 2022, Paxton was sued by Fund Texas Choice, a non-profit organization aiming to prevent Paxton from prosecuting people who assist Texans to receive out-of-state abortions. In September 2022, a process server alleged in an affidavit for the court that when he attempted to serve a subpoena to Paxton at his home, he saw Paxton coming to the door but turning back; Paxton's wife answered the door saying Paxton was on the phone, with the process server stating that he had important legal documents for Paxton; Paxton left the house an hour later but ran back into the house when the process server called his name; minutes later Paxton ran out of the house and left in a truck driven by his wife, ignoring the process server stating his intentions. Paxton responded claiming that the process server "yelled unintelligibly, and charged toward me. I perceived this person to be a threat", while further stating that the process server "is lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force".

Affordable Care Act

Paxton initiated a lawsuit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) ruled unconstitutional in its entirety.

Animal welfare

As Attorney General, Paxton joined an amicus curiae brief at the US Supreme Court opposing California Proposition 12. Proposition 12 regulates the sale in California of animal products from farms that do not meet particular animal welfare standards: for example, farms that do not allow confined animals enough space to turn around, lie down, stand up, and extend their limbs. The amicus brief argued that "California [was attempting] to usurp other States' authority to set their own animal husbandry policies."

Paxton received criticism for a 2015 legal opinion which allowed Texas A&M University to conceal daily care logs of cats and dogs used in research.

Backpage.com

On October 6, 2016, Paxton and then-California attorney general Kamala Harris announced that Texas authorities had raided the Dallas headquarters of Backpage.com and arrested CEO Carl Ferrer at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on felony charges of pimping, pimping a minor, and conspiracy to commit pimping. In a press release, Harris denounced Backpage as "the world's largest online brothel".

The California arrest warrant alleged that 99% of Backpage's revenue was directly attributable to prostitution-related ads and that many of the ads involved victims of sex trafficking, including children. The State of Texas was also considering a money laundering charge pending its investigation. Arrest warrants were issued against former Backpage owners and founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Lacey and Larkin were charged with conspiracy to commit pimping.

Cannabis

Paxton has sued six Texas cities to remove cannabis decriminalization measures adopted by citizens in those municipalities.

Capital punishment

Paxton has supported executing Robert Roberson.

COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxton threatened to file lawsuits against local governments unless they rescinded stay-at-home orders and rules regarding the use of face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus. The city of Austin encouraged restaurants to keep logs of contact information, so as to ensure contact tracing in the event of an outbreak; Paxton described this as "Orwellian". Paxton sued Austin again in December 2020 when the city implemented restrictions preventing indoor dining and drinking on New Years weekend amid surging COVID-19 cases. In March 2021, Paxton filed a lawsuit against Austin and Travis County, this time for the city and county continuing their local mask wearing requirements after Governor Abbott had signed an order ending the statewide mask-wearing mandate.

Foreign affairs

Paxton supported President Donald Trump's strikes on Iran, during the first week of the 2026 Iran war. Paxton said, "I am very glad that he did it. Iran is a great threat to our country."

Paxton visited Israel as part of a 2017 National Association of Attorneys General delegation, reportedly "to promote business development and cultural ties".

As Texas's Attorney General, Paxton has defended the state's anti-BDS law. The Austin American-Statesman described it as a "state law that bars governmental entities from doing business with contractors who support a boycott of Israel". The law was challenged for whether it upheld freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. Paxton said, "The state of Texas has the right to boycott boycotters in this instance. Doing so does not suppress protected speech or expression." In October 2023, following the October 7 attacks, Paxton reaffirmed the state's anti-BDS law. He said "it is more important than ever to enforce public policy supportive of one of America's closest allies and a beacon of freedom in the Middle East."

In August 2025, Paxton announced an investigation into the Plano Independent School District about allegations of "antisemitic behavior" and anti-Israel curriculum. According to KERA News, this occurred "after teachers allegedly let students walk out to protest Israel's war in Gaza." Paxton said, "Any teacher or administrator that has facilitated or supported radical anti-Israel rhetoric in our schools should be fired immediately." The school district stated that they had been subject to "baseless allegations", but they would cooperate with the investigation.

Guaranteed income

Paxton sued Harris County to block a guaranteed income program.

Human trafficking

Paxton created a human trafficking unit in the Attorney General's office in 2015. In 2019, he convinced Texas lawmakers to more than quadruple the human trafficking unit's annual funding. In 2020 the unit did not secure a single human trafficking conviction and only four in 2021, two of which resulted in deferred adjudications.

Immigration

In 2018, Paxton claimed that undocumented immigrants had committed over 600,000 crimes since 2011 in Texas. PolitiFact said that it had debunked the numbers before, and that the numbers exceed the state's estimates by more than 400%. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Paxton had used consumer protection law to target Annunciation House, a nonprofit shelter that serves immigrants and refugees, calling for the charity to be shut down due to "systemic criminal conduct", and warning other charities serving immigrants they were "on notice".

Paxton led a coalition of 26 states challenging President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive action, which granted deferred action status to certain undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States since 2010 and had children who were American citizens or lawful permanent residents. Paxton argued that the president should not be allowed to "unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people's representatives". The Supreme Court heard the case, United States v. Texas, and issued a split 4-4 ruling in the case in June 2016. Because of the split ruling, a 2015 lower-court ruling invalidating Obama's plan was left in place.

In July 2017, Paxton led a group of ten Republican attorneys general and Idaho governor Butch Otter in threatening the Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by President Barack Obama. (The policy had never been implemented in Texas because of legal action on behalf of the state.)

In 2017, Paxton voiced support for the application of eminent domain to obtain right-of-way along the Rio Grande in Texas for construction of the border wall advocated by President Donald Trump as a means to curtail illegal immigration. Paxton said that private landowners must receive a fair price when property is taken for the pending construction. He said that the wall serves "a public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation. ... I want people to be treated fairly, so they shouldn't just have their land taken from them," but there must be just compensation.

In 2017, Paxton joined thirteen other state attorneys general in filing friend-of-the-court briefs in defense of both Trump's first and second executive orders on travel and immigration primarily from majority-Muslim countries (informally referred to as the "Muslim ban"). In filings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court, Paxton argued that the order—which places a 90-day ban on the issuance of visas to travel from six designated majority-Muslim countries, imposes a 120-day halt on the admission of refugees to the U.S., and caps annual refugee admissions to 50,000 people—is constitutionally and legally valid.

Environment

Paxton was a staunch opponent of President Biden's environmental policies, joining Louisiana v. Biden in opposition to Executive Order 13990. He sued to challenge a requirement that states set goals to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, and also sued the Biden administration for classifying species as endangered claiming the administration was "Weaponizing Environmental Law". Paxton was also part of a joint lawsuit by 23 states to block the implementation of a methane emissions tax created under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Paxton mounted a legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan, which is President Obama's "state-by-state effort to fight climate change by shifting away from coal power to cleaner-burning natural gas and renewable resources". Paxton said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to "force Texas to change how we regulate energy production" through an "unprecedented expansion of federal authority". The Clean Power Plan would require Texas to cut an annual average of 51 million tons of emissions, down 21 percent from 2012 levels. Paxton says the required reductions would cost the state jobs, push electricity costs too high, and threaten reliability on the electrical grid. Paxton says there is no evidence that the plan will mitigate climate change, directly contradicting studies by the EPA that have shown the regulation will reduce carbon pollution by 870 million tons in 2030. He further asserts that the EPA lacks the statutory authority to write the state's policies.

In 2016, Paxton was one of eleven Republican state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in the company's suit to block a climate change probe by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Paxton and the other state AGs filed an amicus curiae brief, contending that Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey used her office to "tip the scales on a public policy debate, undermine the first Amendment and abuse the office's subpoena power". Healey had launched a probe of ExxonMobil's historical marketing and sale of fossil fuel products, requiring the company to produce forty years worth of documents regarding fossil fuel products and securities. Healey said the documents would prove that ExxonMobil "knew about the risks of climate change decades ago and fraudulently concealed that knowledge from the public". The amicus brief supported Exxon Mobil's motion for a preliminary injunction. Paxton questioned Healey's use of law-enforcement authority in an "ongoing public policy debate of international importance". Paxton described Healey's attempts to obtain historical company records for a public policy debate as a threat to freedom of speech, stating: "The Constitution was written to protect citizens from government witch-hunts that are nothing more than an attempt to suppress speech on an issue of public importance, just because a government official happens to disagree with that particular viewpoint." The brief portrayed climate change as an issue that was still a matter of scientific debate, although in fact the scientific consensus is that the earth is warming and human activity is primarily responsible.

Labor lawsuits

Paxton sued the Obama administration over a 2016 rule by the Department of Labor that would have made five million additional workers eligible for overtime pay. The rule would have meant workers earning up to an annual salary of $47,500 would become eligible for overtime pay when working more than forty hours per week. Paxton has said the new regulations "may lead to disastrous consequences for our economy". Along with Texas, twenty other states joined the lawsuit.

Paxton is involved in a legal challenge to a rule by the Department of Labor which forces employers to report any "actions, conduct, or communications" undertaken to "affect an employee's decisions regarding his or her representation or collective bargaining rights". Known as the "persuader rule", the new regulation went into effect in April 2016. Opponents of the rule say it will prevent employers from speaking on labor issues or seeking legal counsel. In June 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the rule. Paxton called the injunction "a victory for the preservation of the sanctity of attorney-client confidentiality".

LGBT rights

As attorney general, Paxton appointed several social conservatives and prominent opponents of LGBT rights to positions in his department.

In June 2015, after the issuance of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Paxton offered support for clerks who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His statement said, "I will do everything I can from this office to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights."

In 2016, Paxton led a coalition of 13 states that sought an injunction to block a guidance letter issued by the Department of Education and Department of Justice that interpreted Title IX to require public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms that accorded with their gender identity. Paxton submitted court filings alleging the Obama administration had "conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment" and termed the directive a "gun to the head" that threatens the independence of school districts. In September 2016, Paxton and his wife had dinner with activist Amber Briggle and her family, including her trans son. The states dropped the suit after the directive was revoked by President Donald Trump.

On February 18, 2022, Paxton issued a new interpretation of Texas law in a written opinion that characterized gender-affirming health care (such as hormone treatments and puberty blockers) for transgender youths as child abuse. Established medical practice allows for puberty blockers to be explored after initial signs of puberty, although evidence for their use is still evolving. On February 28, Amber Briggle was notified that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services had opened an investigation into her family. On March 11, a Texas District Court issued a temporary injunction, which temporarily stopped state investigations into families who provide gender-affirming medical care for their children, and scheduled a trial for July 11, 2022.

In June 2022, Paxton said he would defend state laws prohibiting sodomy or consensual same-sex sexual relationships if the Supreme Court precedent invalidating such laws, the Lawrence v. Texas decision, was overturned. On March 17, 2022, Paxton made a post on Twitter in which he referred to U.S. assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine – a trans woman — as a man. Twitter flagged the tweet for violating its conduct rules, but did not remove the post. The following day, Paxton tweeted a statement in which he again referred to Levine as a man, and stated that he was "exploring legal options" against Twitter. During that same month, Paxton's office requested a list of citizens who had changed their gender on their driver's licenses, circumventing the accepted procedure of contacting DPS's government relations and general counsel's offices by instead directly contacting the driver license division staff. No reason was given for this request. In August, the data was provided to Paxton's office, despite that in November 2022, officials indicated the office had no such information.

Volkswagen, Apple, and MoneyGram lawsuits

In 2012, Paxton was part of a lawsuit by 33 state attorneys general against Apple, charging the company with violating antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to artificially raise the prices of electronic books. Apple was ordered to pay $400 million to U.S. consumers who paid artificially inflated prices for e-books, and $20 million to the states in reimbursement for legal costs.

In 2016, Volkswagen settled a lawsuit brought by 44 states against to the company for using software that allowed its vehicles to circumvent emissions limits. Texas's share of the settlement was $50 million.

Paxton is part of a 21-state lawsuit against the state of Delaware, alleging that MoneyGram gave uncashed checks to the state of Delaware instead of the state where the money order or travelers check was bought. The case, Delaware v. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, went directly to the U.S. Supreme Court because it was a dispute among states.

Lawsuit over homestead tax exemptions

In 2015, the Texas State Legislature passed a law implementing property tax reductions by increasing the homestead exemption to $25,000 and prohibiting localities from reducing or repealing any local option homestead exemption already on the books. After this law was passed, 21 school districts reduced or eliminated their local optional homestead exemptions.

In 2016, Paxton intervened in a lawsuit challenging the practice of school districts reducing or repealing their local optional homestead exemptions.

Second Amendment lawsuits

In 2016, three University of Texas at Austin professors sued in an effort to ban concealed handguns from campus, blocking the state's campus carry law. Paxton called the lawsuit "frivolous" and moved to dismiss. The federal district court dismissed the suit in 2017, and the dismissal was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018.

In 2016, Paxton sued the City of Austin to allow license holders to openly carry handguns in Austin City Hall. Paxton prevailed, and the court decided not only that the city of Austin must allow such carry, but also ordered it to pay a fine to the state for each day it prevented investigators from the attorney general's office from carrying their firearms.

Voting rights

In March 2017, Paxton told The Washington Times that he was convinced that voter fraud exists in Texas, and claimed that local election officials in Texas were not on the lookout for fraud. According to a July 11, 2021, article in The New York Times, even though voter fraud is "very rare in the United States"—most cases are minor errors on the part of a voter—Paxton "made it a mission" as attorney general to file voter-fraud charge. According to a July 9, 2021, article in The Guardian, "[F]ew prosecutors have pursued election-related crimes more than Paxton."

By February 2017—as part of his "crusade" against voter fraud—Paxton sought to investigate 2016 Texas voting records—such as access to individual voting history and application materials for voter registrations—to uncover potential voter fraud, for example, voting by non-citizens or in the name of the deceased. In February 2017, officials in Bexar County said there have been no major cases of voter fraud in San Antonio. The Associated Press reported that hundreds of people were allowed to bypass the state's voter ID laws and improperly cast ballots by submitting an affidavit instead of presenting a photo ID, even though they possessed a valid ID. The top election official in Bexar County estimates that 'a large chunk' of the nearly six hundred affidavits submitted should have been declined, and the voter should have been required to cast a provisional ballot. Of the roughly 13,500 affidavits from the largest Texas counties that AP analyzed, they found at least 500 instances of improper voting. However, Fort Bend County's top elections official said that these cases are not voter fraud, noting that only those who were registered to vote qualified for an affidavit, and that "poll workers were trained to 'err on the side of letting people use the affidavit instead of denying them the chance to vote.'" According to a May 2, 2017 ProPublica article, there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. In 2017, the Texas Tribune reported that experts had said there was no reliable evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States, and a Texas study of elections over a decade determined that there were about three cases of fraud for every one million votes in the state.

In 2017, the San Antonio Express-News criticized the state's voter identification law, which Paxton seeks to have reinstated after it was struck down by United States District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who found the measure to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and found that it was passed with the intent to discriminate against Black and Hispanic voters. Paxton's office appealed the decision. Appeals continue in the case. By May 2017, the Office of the Attorney General's "efforts to enact and enforce the strictest voter ID law in the nation were so plagued by delays, revisions, court interventions and inadequate education that the casting of ballots in the 2016 election was inevitably troubled".

Religion in schools

Paxton "has often criticized what he calls anti-Christian discrimination in Texas schools". In 2015, Paxton opposed an atheist group's legal action seeking a halt to the reading of religious prayers before school board meetings. In December 2016, Paxton gained attention after intervening in a dispute in Killeen, Texas, in which a middle school principal told a nurse's aide to take down a six-foot poster in the school containing a quote from Christian scripture. Paxton sided with the aide, who won in court.

In September 2025, Paxton published a press release stating "Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth," and that "Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth". He encouraged students in Texas classrooms to recite "the Lord's Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ".

In early 2017, Paxton objected to a Texas school's use of an empty classroom to allow its Muslim students to pray, issuing a press release that claimed that "the high school's prayer room is ... apparently excluding students of other faiths." School officials said that Paxton had never asked them about this assertion, and that the room was a spare room used by faculty and non-Muslim students as well as for multiple activities, from grading papers to Buddhist meditation. The Frisco Independent School District superintendent, in a letter sent in response to Paxton, called his press release "a publicity stunt by the [Office of Attorney General] to politicize a nonissue".

Texas v. Garland

In 2023, Paxton sued the federal government in Texas v. Garland, asserting that $1.7 trillion federal spending law passed by Congress for fiscal year 2023 is invalid because of the lack of a physical quorum in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time of the bill's passage. Paxton argued that the House's decision in 2020 to allow the use of proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional. A similar lawsuit, McCarthy v. Pelosi, had already been rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that decision.

Impeachment

Texas House investigation

In late February 2023, Paxton asked the Appropriations subcommittee of the Texas House of Representatives to provide more taxpayer funds to his office, including the full amount of the intended $3.3 million settlement of the lawsuit brought by whistleblowers from his office. In March 2023, the Texas House General Investigating Committee began to investigate Paxton. The committee in May 2023 stated that "Paxton's own request for taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct" triggered the investigation for impeachment. A spokeswoman for Texas House speaker Dade Phelan concurred, stating in May 2023 that it was due to Paxton demanding taxpayer funds for the settlement "without providing sufficient information or evidence in support of his request".

On May 23, 2023, on the eve of the committee's public release of its report, Paxton accused Phelan of performing his Texas speaker duties the week prior in a "state of apparent debilitating intoxication", demanded that Phelan resign, and demanded that the House General Investigating Committee investigate Phelan. In response, Phelan said that Paxton's statement was "little more than a last ditch effort to save face" given the investigation into Paxton.

Later that day, the House General Investigating Committee revealed to the public its months-long investigation of Paxton and subpoenaed Paxton and his office. The following day, investigators testified to their conclusions regarding Paxton to the General Investigating Committee, alleging that he had committed various crimes, including felonies, while in office. Paxton dismissed the investigators, claiming it was conducted by "highly partisan Democrat lawyers"; the investigative team had in fact served as prosecutors for both Republican and Democratic administrations, and collectively, had contributed "several times more money to Republicans than to Democrats" over the preceding ten years.

Impeachment and suspension from office

On May 25, 2023, the Republican-led House General Investigating Committee unanimously recommended that Paxton be impeached. The committee filed 20 articles of impeachment, with the committee's investigation producing the following allegations:

Paxton ignored his official duty to protect charities when he directed his office to interfere in the Mitte Foundation charity's lawsuit against Nate Paul, a political donor to Paxton.

Paxton abused his official power to issue written legal opinions when he directed his office to write an opinion to prevent Paul's properties from being sold in foreclosure, and also had his office reverse their legal conclusions, in an attempt to benefit Paul. To cover up his direction, Paxton arranged for a Senate committee chairperson to seek the above opinion.

Paxton abused his official power by directing his office to violate the law regarding two public information requests, one of which concerned Department of Public Safety records for a criminal investigation of Paul.

Paxton abused his official power to improperly obtain private information in an attempt to release it for Paul's benefit.

Paxton abused his official power by hiring a special prosecutor, Brandon Cammack, to investigate a "baseless complaint" made by Paul; Cammack would issue over 30 grand jury subpoenas to benefit Paul.

Paxton ignored his official duty by improperly firing whistleblowers in his office who had in "good faith" alleged to authorities that Paxton had broken the law; Paxton also privately and publicly tried to tarnish the whistleblowers' reputations and harm their chances of future employment.

Paxton wrongly used public resources by having his office conduct a "sham investigation" into the whistleblowers' allegations, and having his office create a report "containing false or misleading statements in Paxton's defense".

Split within Republican Party

Paxton called his impeachment a "politically motivated sham"; called on his supporters to peacefully march on the state Capitol in protest; and declared that "the RINOs in the Texas Legislature are now on the same side as Joe Biden," characterizing the impeachment proceedings as an attempt to "sabotage [Texas's] legal challenges to Biden's extremist agenda". During the legislative session on impeachment, Charlie Geren, a Republican on the General Investigating Committee who is also speaker pro tempore, said, "several members of this House, while on the floor of this House doing the state's business, received telephone calls from Paxton personally, threatening them with political consequences in our next election."

Paxton's impeachment highlighted increasing rifts within the Texas Republican Party, which has dominated Texas politics for years. Republican hard-liners rallied behind Paxton after his impeachment. Former president Donald Trump, writing on his social media network Truth Social, called Paxton's impeachment "election interference", lashed out against Speaker Phelan, and depicted the impeachment as a plot by "Radical Left Democrats" and "RINOS". Trump said he would fight fellow Republicans who supported Paxton's ouster. Other Republicans who rallied in support of Paxton included Trump's key allies, such as son Donald Trump Jr. and former aide Stephen Miller; U.S. senator Ted Cruz (who called the impeachment a "travesty" and praised Paxton as "a steadfast conservative AG"); and Matt Rinaldi, the state party chair.

Impeachment trial

After the impeachment, the Texas House of Representatives appointed twelve representatives (seven Republicans and five Democrats) to serve as impeachment managers (analogous to prosecutors) at the impeachment trial in the thirty-one-member State Senate. Of the dozen selected, eleven had law degrees. They were led by Republican representative Andrew Murr as chair and Democratic representative Ann Johnson as vice chair. The House Committee on General Investigating also hired attorneys Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin as impeachment prosecutors. Paxton's main defense lawyer was Tony Buzbee.

The Senate appointed a committee to recommend rules and procedures for the impeachment trial to the full Senate, and the committee reported on June 20.

One of the senators was Paxton's wife, Angela Paxton. The two spouses had been involved in each other's political campaigns and careers. Angela Paxton did not say whether she would recuse herself, but the Senate voted on June 21, 2023, to bar her from voting in her husband's impeachment trial. However, Angela Paxton was still required to attend the trial, and because conviction and removal from office require a two-thirds vote, her presence made it more difficult to remove her husband.

Republican Dan Patrick, as lieutenant governor, presided over the trial despite having donated $125,000 — and loaned another $125,000 — to Paxton's close reelection campaign in 2018. A few months before the trial Defend Texas Liberty PAC a political action committee promoting far-right candidates, gave a $1 million contribution and a $2 million loan to Patrick's campaign. The PAC also made known it would politically target Republican legislators who had voted for impeachment. A few days before the trial began, Patrick selected Lana Myers, a retired Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas judge, to serve as his legal counsel during the trial.

At least two additional Republican senators had conflicts of interest or financial connections with Paxton. A legal opinion requested by Republican senator Bryan Hughes at Paxton's behest was central to the second article of impeachment. Under normal Texas rules of court procedure, a material witness may not serve as a juror. Hughes was on list of witnesses whom the prosecutors intend to call to testify during the impeachment trial. Republican Senator Donna Campbell also formerly employed the woman who allegedly had an extramarital affair with Paxton; the woman was also on the list of expected witnesses.

Legal issues

State securities fraud felony indictment

On July 28, 2015, a state grand jury indicted Paxton on three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud (a first-degree felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (a third-degree felony). Paxton's indictment marked the first such criminal indictment of a Texas attorney general in thirty-two years since Texas attorney general Jim Mattox was indicted for bribery in 1983. The complainants in the case are Joel Hochberg, a Florida businessman, and Byron Cook, a Republican and former member of the Texas House of Representatives. Paxton and Cook were former friends and roommates while serving together in the Texas House. Three special prosecutors were trying the state's case.

The state prosecution against Paxton grew out of Paxton's selling of shares of Servergy Inc., a technology company, to investors in 2011. Prosecutors alleged that Paxton sold shares of Servergy to investors (raising $840,000) while failing to disclose that he was receiving compensation from the company in the form of 100,000 shares of stock in return. Paxton says the 100,000 shares of stock he received from Servergy's founder and CEO were a gift and not a sales commission and that they were given to Paxton long before the sales transactions occurred.

On August 3, 2015, after the unsealing of the grand jury indictment, Paxton was arrested and booked. He pleaded not guilty and portrayed "the case against him as a political witch-hunt". Paxton and his supporters claim that the prosecution has its origin in a dispute among Texas Republicans—with conservatives like Paxton on one side and moderates like Cook on the other—and suggest that Cook's complaint, several years after the Servergy deal, was political payback.

Paxton unsuccessfully sought to quash the indictments. This challenge was rejected by the trial judge, the Fifth Court of Appeals, and the Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas's criminal court of last resort.

Paxton's trial was delayed multiple times over side issues, such as the venue where the trial would take place and the amount of the special prosecutors' fees. In March 2017, District Judge George Gallagher, a Republican from Fort Worth, granted the prosecution's motion for a change of venue, moving the trial to Houston in Harris County. Gallagher also denied Paxton's motion to dismiss one of the charges against him because of issues that arose about the grand jury. In May 2017, the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas agreed with Paxton that the transfer of Paxton's trial to Houston required assignment of the case to a new judge to replace Judge Gallagher, and all orders issued by Judge Gallagher after the change of venue were voided.

Securities and Exchange Commission civil action

In 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil enforcement action against Paxton in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The SEC's complaint specifically charged Paxton with violating various provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and various provisions (including Rule 10b-5) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by defrauding the Servergy investors. Paxton denied the allegations. One of the defendants and Servergy itself reached a separate settlement with the SEC, agreeing to pay $260,000 in penalties.

In October 2016, U.S. district judge Amos L. Mazzant III conditionally dismissed the complaint, finding the SEC had not alleged Paxton had any legal obligation to inform investors that he was receiving a commission, but gave the SEC two weeks to refile an amended complaint. The SEC refiled its securities fraud claims against Paxton, making the additional allegations that Paxton and Cook's investment club required all of its members to accept the same risks on all investments and that it specifically forbade members from making money off investments of other members. The SEC further alleged that Paxton did not properly disclose his Servergy ownership stake on his taxes and that he attempted to conceal the stake by at different times claiming it was his fee for legal services, that it was a gift, and that he had only received it after investing money.

In March 2017, Mazzant dismissed the civil securities fraud case, ruling that Paxton had "no plausible legal duty" to inform investors that he would earn a commission if they purchased stock in a technical company that Paxton represented. With the second dismissal of the case with prejudice, the SEC could not bring new action on the same claim against Paxton. The dismissal of the SEC case did not have a direct impact on the state criminal case.

Whistleblower allegations

In October 2020, seven of Paxton's top aides published a letter to the office's director of human resources, accusing Paxton of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other crimes, and said they had provided information to law enforcement and asked them to investigate. The letter was signed by first assistant attorney general Jeff Mateer, and the deputy and deputy attorneys general overseeing the office's divisions for criminal investigations, civil litigation, administration, and policy. Paxton denied misconduct and said he would not resign. By the end of the month, all seven whistleblowers had left the office: three resigned, two were fired, and two were put on leave.

The allegations included that Paxton illegally used his office to benefit real estate developer Nate Paul, who had donated $25,000 to Paxton's 2018 campaign, and that Paxton advocated that Paul's company, World Class, hire a woman with whom Paxton had had an extramarital affair. Paul acknowledged employing the woman but denied that he had done so on Paxton's behalf.

In 2020, four of the former members of the attorney general's office sued their former employer, alleging that Paxton fired them for reporting misconduct to law enforcement, a form of illegal retaliation under the state's Whistleblower Act. The four ex-employees—who had served as Paxton's deputy attorney general for legal counsel, deputy attorney general for criminal justice; deputy attorney general, and director of the law enforcement division—were fired several weeks after bringing their concerns to the FBI and Texas Rangers. In 2021, the district court denied Paxton's motion to dismiss the suit. Paxton claimed that the Whistleblower Act did not apply to allegations of misconduct by elected executive officials such as himself, and that as an elected official he must have the power to control his top lieutenants, who are high-level political appointees, but in October 2021, the Texas Third Court of Appeals rejected his appeal, affirming the trial court's order.

In early February 2023, following mediation, Paxton agreed to a tentative settlement in which the whistleblowers would be paid $3.3 million. Under the settlement agreement, neither side admitted fault or liability, but Paxton "accept[ed] that plaintiffs acted in a manner that they thought was right and apologizes for referring to them as 'rogue employees.' " The settlement was contingent on securing "necessary approvals for funding" from the state. Paxton then asked the state to use taxpayer funds to pay the settlement. The legislature did not approve the settlement in the 2023 session. The accusations raised by the whistleblowers—that Paxton abused power to assist a wealthy donor in exchange for possible benefits, specifically a home remodel—later led to his impeachment by the Texas House of Representatives in May 2023.

State bar professional misconduct lawsuit against Paxton

After Paxton sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election to keep Trump in power, Galveston Democrats filed a complaint against Paxton with the State Bar of Texas, alleging that Paxton engaged in professional misconduct by raising a frivolous and unethical challenge. The bar's chief disciplinary counsel initially dismissed the complaint, but in May 2021, that decision was reversed by the Board of Disciplinary Appeals, which found "that the grievance alleges a possible violation" of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Misconduct and ordered the Bar to investigate. Similar ethics complaints against Paxton, seeking disbarment or other sanctions against him, were filed by various others, including Lawyers Defending American Democracy, whose complaint was signed by four former presidents of the State Bar of Texas and a former chair of the Texas Supreme Court grievance oversight committee.

In May 2022, the Bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline sued Paxton in Collin County District Court, asking the court to find that Paxton had acted unethically in seeking to subvert the 2020 presidential election and to impose a sanction ranging from a private reprimand to disbarment. The Bar's filing said that Paxton had made numerous specific "dishonest" representations in his attempt to challenge the election results. In response to the ethics lawsuit against him, Paxton claimed that the bar was controlled by "leftists" and opened his own investigation into the Texas Bar Foundation (which is separate from the State Bar of Texas). He also banned Texas AG's office employees from speaking at any state bar events. The district court denied Paxton's motion to dismiss the ethics complaint against him. Paxton appealed to the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals; he argued that, as Attorney General, he was immune to any discipline by the State Bar of Texas for filing lawsuits based on bogus factual claims.

In August 2023, a week before Paxton's impeachment trial started in the state Senate, fourteen lawyers filed a complaint with the state bar, seeking to prevent Paxton from practicing law. James Harrington authored the complaint, which accuses Paxton of abuse of office and other misconduct, including bribery and organized crime. Three former State Bar of Texas presidents co-signed the complaint.

On January 23, 2025, the Commission dropped its suit because the state's Supreme Court had already ruled in the commission's nearly identical suit against Brent Webster that the state's judiciary lacked jurisdiction over executive branch pleadings due to separation of powers concerns, and the suit against Paxton ran up against the same issue. As the court's finding was jurisdictional, it did not rule on whether Paxton or Webster had engaged in professional misconduct or acted unethically, and there have been no additional updates from the bar association since.

Alleged voter fraud

In 2025 and 2026, Paxton voted using a registration address where he reportedly did not live. He voted in Collin County at his ex-wife's address in Collin County, while he had reportedly moved to Denton County after their divorce. The Texas attorney general’s office provided a legal warning that "You must register to vote using the address where you reside."

Personal life

Paxton was married to Angela Paxton (née Allen) from 1986 to 2025. They have four children and six grandchildren.

Paxton has a reported net worth of nearly $8 million, including residential properties in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah, and Hawaii. His reported net worth increased from less than $200,000 when he first took office, and some assets were held in a blind trust that later raised ethics disclosure questions.

Church participation

When Angela and Ken Paxton settled in Collin County, Texas, after their post-graduate educations, "they quickly became involved in the evangelical Christian community" there. Later, in the 1990s, they would help found Chuck Swindoll's Stonebriar Community Church, a Christian evangelical church, in Frisco, Texas. As of May 2023, the couple were attending Prestonwood Baptist Church.

Swatting incident

On January 1, 2024, the Paxtons said their home had been subject to a prank police report—a crime known as swatting—while they were not home. Police confirmed they had been called. They also said their home address had been improperly released (doxxed). The incident occurred during the 2023 swatting of American politicians when public servants and politicians around the United States were reporting swatting incidents.

Estrangement, affair, divorce

Ken Paxton was reportedly estranged from Angela Paxton. In September 2018, while holding hands with his wife Angela, Ken Paxton "gathered his staff to make a fateful confession... an extramarital affair. He said it was over and swore to recommit to his marriage". The Texas Tribune source reports that the affair nevertheless continued for several years.

Beginning in August 2020, Paxton visited the unnamed woman at her Austin apartment a dozen times, and a personal aide to Attorney General (AG) Paxton "told House investigators that he saw the [AG] and the woman" at a resort and spa.

The allegations were made the more serious by the accusation that the affair was facilitated by friend, donor, and Austin real estate investor Nate Paul. Paul was alleged to have hired the "girlfriend" with whom Paxton was having the affair, and facilitated her move to Austin and Paxton's clandestine meetings with her. The managers of Paxton's failed state impeachment effort contended these were abuses "in exchange for his office... help[ing] Paul ’s faltering businesses..., looming bankruptcies[,] and a litany of related lawsuits". Impeachment managers also contended that Paxton and Paul shared an Uber account under a pseudonym to help Paxton meet with the woman. (In 2018, Angela Paxton won the District 8 seat in the Texas Senate. In September 2023, the impeachment trial concluded in the Texas Senate with a vote short of the 21 needed to impeach, and so in his acquittal by a largely party-line vote, 16-14 [two Republicans voting with the minority], thus allowing Paxton to resume his AG duties.)

On July 10, 2025, Angela posted on X that she had "filed for divorce on biblical grounds". The court filing alleged Ken Paxton was at fault and had a history of serial adultery, and that the couple had not lived together since June 2024.

Electoral history