The Senate Shootout in Texas

Yesterday, I shared a post on Facebook about my disappointment with President Trump’s endorsement of Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race in Texas. Paxton is challenging Sen. John Cornyn, the four-term incumbent, in next week’s Republican primary and President Trump’s endorsement is expected to put Paxton over the top.

In my post, I listed several reasons for my disappointment, and they had a lot more to do with Paxton’s negatives than Cornyn’s positives. For instance, Paxton was indicted by a Texas state grand jury on three criminal charges in 2015, including two counts of securities fraud. After failing to quash the indictments and three changes of venue, Paxton was able to avoid a trial by agreeing to pay $300,000 in restitution, perform 200 hours of community service, and take 15 hours of legal ethics training.

Imagine that… the Attorney General of Texas being forced to take a class on legal ethics.

Then, in 2020, seven of Paxton’s top aides – including the first assistant attorney general and the deputy attorney general overseeing the office’s division for criminal investigations – published a letter in which they accused him of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery, and other crimes. Within a month, all seven of the whistleblowers were gone: three resigned, two were fired, and two were placed on administrative leave.

Move along. Nothing to see here, right?

Among the allegations against Paxton was that he had used his office to illegally benefit a real estate developer who had donated to his campaign. Paxton was also accused of lobbying for the developer’s company to hire a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Court records later showed that Paxton and the real estate developer shared an Uber account under a pseudonym, which Paxton then used to meet with his mistress at her apartment. Paxton’s wife Angela eventually filed for divorce in 2025, citing his adultery as her reason.

Pretty sleazy stuff… but it only gets worse.

Four of his former aides sued Paxton under the state’s Whistleblower Act, including the two who were fired just weeks after bringing their concerns to the FBI and the Texas Rangers. Paxton claimed that the Whistleblower Act didn’t apply to elected executive officials such as himself, but the Texas Third Court of Appeals rejected his argument. With no further legal recourse, Paxton agreed to a tentative settlement in which the whistleblowers would be paid $3.3 million in damages. However, he failed to make the payment by the required deadline and so, the case went before the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled that not only is the attorney general subject to the Whistleblower Act, but also doubled the amount of the settlement to $6.6 million.

One of the allegations made during the case was that Paxton had abused his power and position to assist a wealthy donor in exchange for possible benefits, specifically a home remodel, which is one of the charges that led to his impeachment by the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives in 2023 by a vote of 121-23. Paxton narrowly avoided conviction by a 16-14 vote.

Ken Paxton’s saving grace – at least in the eyes of President Trump – is that he has stood by the president through thick and thin, especially when it came to litigating the 2020 presidential election… and if there is one thing that President Trump values, it is unwavering loyalty.

I will say this about Ken Paxton: I agree with him on virtually every issue. In fact, the only one I could find on which I don’t see eye to eye with him involves animal breeding and research. As Attorney General, Paxton filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court opposing California Proposition 12, which regulates the sale in California of animal products from farms that do not meet certain animal welfare standards such as allowing confined animals enough space to turn around, lie down, stand up, or extend their limbs. In 2015, Paxton also sought to allow Texas A&M University to conceal daily care logs of cats and dogs used in research, a position for which he was widely criticized (and deservedly so).

Now, onto John Cornyn, of whom I am not a big fan either.

First, because I am a strong advocate of term-limits, I believe that Cornyn has been in Washington too long. He is also too moderate for my liking but then again, he did receive an 81.88% rating from the Biblical Business Index and an A+ rating from the NRA. And according to GovTrack.org, which monitors the votes of every Senate and House member, the two Senators whose voting records most closely resemble Cornyn’s are Tim Scott (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), the latter of whom is now serving as Secretary of State in the Trump administration.

Not bad company if I must say so myself.

And speaking of President Trump, Cornyn voted 99.2% of the time to support the president’s policies, so rumors that he is anti-MAGA are categorically false.

At the end of the day, it comes down to electability… and I strongly believe that John Cornyn would stack up better in November against James Talarico, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Two last thoughts...

First, I received quite a lot of blow-back about my Facebook post from people who equated my disappointment with President Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton with disloyalty to him or the Republican Party, neither of which is true. I have repeatedly gone on record stating my support for the vast majority of President Trump’s policies – especially his pro-life, pro-Israel, and pro-traditional family positions. And no one but President Trump could have secured our southern border in such record time.

However, we cannot afford to become a party where a single dissenting voice is considered treasonous, opposing views are shouted down, and people with differing opinions are intimidated and demonized. The party of Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan does not walk in lockstep like German jackboots. On the contrary, we are the party that freed the slaves, granted women’s suffrage, and fought hard for Civil Rights when the Democrats opposed all three.

We are also the party of the moral high ground. That is why we took the aforementioned stands for slaves, women, and minorities – and why we stand united today in defense of precious preborn babies. It is also why it pained me to read the following comment from a poster on Facebook today…

“We don’t care about personal life. We care about results. Business track records! Personal life and wife and all the other stuff is irrelevant.”

Really? Have we sunk so low as a party and a people that a candidate’s character and private conduct, let alone his personal integrity, no longer matter?

When you compromise your principles for political expedience, you have nothing left.

Editor’s Note: I am a realist, which means that I fully expect Ken Paxton – buoyed by President Trump’s endorsement – to win next week’s GOP primary. If I were a registered voter in Texas, I would vote for John Cornyn on Tuesday and then support the winner, whoever that is, in November… because anybody is better than James Talarico, the slick-talking snake oil salesman from Austin who claims to be a Christian while denying the very fundamentals of the faith.