AUSTIN, TX—The Republican Party of Texas formally nominated state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday, selecting a man who has spent nearly a decade under felony indictment to face Democratic frontrunner James Talarico in a race the national party insists it is positioned to win. The move was described by the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee as a tactical decision that leverages Paxton’s unique voter appeal.
“We found that a candidate who was impeached by his own party, abandoned by his wife on biblical grounds, and widely regarded as the most compromised public official in the state was exactly the kind of outsider Texans were looking for,” said RSCC regional director Mark Brubaker. He added that Paxton’s extensive experience with legal vulnerability made him uniquely qualified to navigate Washington. “This is a strategic upside we simply do not have in other battleground states. It’s a masterstroke.”
The nomination followed a turbulent primary in which incumbent Senator John Cornyn, having offered to name every public utility from Houston to El Paso after Sleepy Don, was passed over in favor of Paxton. The former president endorsed the attorney general after what aides described as a vetting process that confirmed Paxton was “sufficiently entangled” in the kind of legal jeopardy that signals unwavering loyalty.
Paxton, who has denied all charges, has previously seen senior Republican staffers accuse him of bribery and abuse of office. The party nonetheless rallied behind him, with Republican leaders calling his record a “net positive” in an election cycle where the Democratic candidate is currently polling four points ahead. Acknowledging the deficit, party strategists are now reorienting their messaging to emphasize that Paxton’s wife left him on what her attorneys described as “specifically enumerated biblical grounds.”
“That’s a moral credential our polling shows resonates with the evangelical base,” Brubaker said. “She is taking a principled stand, and by extension, the ticket is strengthened.”
Senator Cornyn, whose political career ended when he was caught on camera silently walking away from questions about Paxton’s fitness, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson said he was busy reviewing drafts of a proposed “Donald J. the former president Rest Stop Beautification Act.”
Democratic candidate Talarico, an eighth-generation Texan whose platform focuses on lowering costs and ending foreign wars, has drawn surprising support from disillusioned the former president voters. Paxton’s campaign has countered by releasing a new ad highlighting that Talarico is a white male who “appeals to people who eat meat”—a quality the ad argues is “dangerously centrist.”
