How scandal made Ken Paxton a Texas power player against John Cornyn | Opinion

Scandal made Ken Paxton famous.

It took:

• a felony indictment;
• a bribery investigation;
• an impeachment that ended in victory;
• and an affair with a bombshell that led to a divorce.

That’s how Paxton went from obscure back-bench state lawmaker to front-page news and a potential U.S. Senate seat.

When he announced his 2014 campaign for state attorney general, Paxton was a bland suburban church conservative elected without debate or fanfare.

Three-fourths of Texans didn’t know enough to have an opinion for or against him.

Even a year later, after he was indicted in McKinney in a felony securities fraud case — the criminal charge was later dropped when he paid back $271,000 and worked 100 hours for a food bank — more than half of Texas’ voters said they still hadn’t seen much news about the case.

As the case dragged on, Paxton became a favorite of the Republican voter base for suing President Barack Obama’s administration. Paxton ran unopposed in the 2018 primary, but that fall, Democrat Justin Nelson came closer to winning than any Democrat has in 20 years.

Some voters still couldn’t untangle the AG’s last name from that of bombastic radio host Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. More than once, voters sent emails or asked: “That Dan Patrick — why isn’t he in jail?”

Even Paxton’s speech at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally before the U.S. Capitol riot — he told President Donald Trump’s voters to “keep fighting” the election results favoring Joe Biden — was mostly a footnote that day.

By 2022, three Republicans lined up to challenge him from both the center and far right. But Paxton kept his grip on the church/MAGA vote and rode anti-Biden sentiment to easy victory.

By most accounts, that’s when he went rogue in a bitter grudge match against establishment Republicans.

By 2023, he was impeached by Texas House Republicans over abuse of power, unlawful firings and misspent money.

That’s when Texas voters started to remember his name.

Paxton stayed in office, but by only two votes in a private caucus, according to one Texas state senator. Paxton’s approval rate with Republicans dropped below 50%.

But he had become a tough infighter — Texas’ Trump.

Unlike Trump, he was impeached by fellow Republicans. But to his conservative Christian and MAGA voter base, it was still all political.

There is little Austin political news anywhere outside of the capital. So, many Texas voters never really knew much about Paxton bending the law to protect an Austin developer, how he illegally fired staff members who reported him or how taxpayers wound up owing those staff members a $6.6 million settlement.

Voters might know Paxton had a girlfriend and that his wife, the former Angela Allen of Rendon, was divorcing him. But: “Hey, nobody’s perfect.”

Enter U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who had not said whether he would run in 2026.

Unlike Paxton, a former Baylor University student body president originally elected from the Prestonwood Baptist megachurch in Plano, Cornyn doesn’t preach.

Cornyn is from the Church of Christ. That denomination generally believes mixing God and politics is sacrilege. It cheapens faith and damages Christian witness.

As a quieter leadership figure in the U.S. Senate while fellow Sen. Ted Cruz was out front campaigning, Cornyn still held strong sway in Texas.

But after 23 years in Washington, he might not have realized how little Texas voters know about anything in Austin.

Cornyn’s campaign assumes voters know or trust anything out of Austin. They do not.

There is no straight state political news coverage in most of Texas, only political opinion. Voters consume little fact-based discussion of government issues or public policy.

The only TV coverage of Texas is on FOX News and other cable news channels, and that’s about Texas as it relates to national politics or D.C.

So, almost nobody understood the jokes in ads backing Cornyn about Paxton’s girlfriends or his fake name for Uber drivers. Nobody knew the name of Austin developer Nate Paul, whom Paxton was accused of bending his office to help.

I have met Republican activists who argued that the Paxton impeachment was made up and all the news stories were fake. Like people who don’t believe in the moon landing.

But honestly, Cornyn’s campaign came from the other side of MoPac Expressway in Austin. Everyone there is convinced the Capitol is the center of attention.

For many Republicans, all they know is that Paxton battles the establishment and that he had some kind of trouble at home.

He is exactly what those Republicans want in a Senate candidate.

Texas will know him now.