Paxton divorce won’t matter in Senate primary vs. Cornyn. Here’s why it should | Opinion

The question of whether voters will tolerate adultery by candidates they otherwise support was largely settled 30 years ago, with the election and re-election of President Bill Clinton.

Any lingering doubt is long gone after Republicans nominated Donald Trump for the presidency three times.

So, don’t expect huge political fallout from Thursday’s announcement that state Sen. Angela Paxton is divorcing Attorney General Ken Paxton. She’s ending a 38-year marriage, she wrote online, based in part on “recent discoveries.” Ken Paxton has previously acknowledged an affair that happened years ago, so most read her message to say that it had happened again — though it’s important to note that we don’t know that for sure.

The sordid details of Ken Paxton’s affair and attempts to cover it up were made public in his 2023 impeachment trial. He was acquitted and suffered no political consequences; in fact, he’s now the odds-on favorite to beat four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary and head to Washington.

Voters forgive sexual misconduct, but with Paxton, there’s a pattern

Voters seem willing to separate personal foibles — particularly in the sexual realm — from their judgment of a candidate’s fitness for office. In Paxton’s case, that’s a mistake, because a long pattern demonstrates that he treats the public trust every bit as shabbily as he did his marriage vows.

There are apparently few limits to what Paxton will do to get what he wants. And he’s brazen about it, oath or no oath.

The voters who’ve made him attorney general three times? Paxton showed what he thought of them when he abused the power in his trust to help a friend and donor, developer Nate Paul. Some Republicans apparently think the Senate acquittal cleared him.

In terms of political consequences, it did. But it also revealed the extent that Paxton involved himself and his office — excuse me, the taxpayers’ office — to help Paul, who also happened to be renovating Paxton’s Austin house. He was willing to insert the attorney general’s clout between Paul and a federal investigation. How many Texans could get that kind of treatment from the AG — or even get a phone call taken?

Then there’s his oath of office. Each time he was sworn in, Paxton pledged, as do all statewide officeholders, to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state.”

But recently, Paxton engaged in a depraved scheme to wipe a duly passed law off Texas’ books. The Legislature voted nearly 25 years ago to let people in the country illegally pay in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges, providing they met certain conditions. Even as seething anger over illegal immigration has built, lawmakers have declined to remove that law from the books.

Paxton decided he knew better. The state’s lawyer agreed to basically strike the law when the U.S. Justice Department sued in what a federal official has since acknowledged was a pre-arranged plan to usurp the people’s representatives in Austin.

Ken Paxton isn’t the conservative his voters think he is

Much of Paxton’s continued political potency derives from his status as a so-called conservative warrior. Because he took Joe Biden to court so often, the theory goes, Paxton is the type of “fighter” the hard right craves.

But what about good stewardship of taxpayer money, also a conservative value? Paxton’s office has been shabbily run, with considerable turnover. And he’s spent precious resources trying to cover up his misdeeds, to the point that he recently acknowledged that, yes, the state should pay whistleblowers who suffered retaliation when they raised alarms about Paxton’s behavior to the feds.

Paxton has also defrauded investors, the case that hung over his head for most of his term as AG.

So, it’s not that Republican voters should reject him on Angela Paxton’s behalf. She can clearly take care of herself. They should consider how casually he’ll betray anyone who places their trust in him. Loyalty to Ken Paxton, it seems, is always a one-way transaction.

Will voters connect these dots? Probably not. The primary is more than seven months away, and if Cornyn’s campaign is tempted to dwell on Paxton’s divorce, it will probably be dismissed as political point-scoring.

Clinton and his aggressive deputies won the argument over infidelity by persuading voters that personal misdeeds, particularly involving sex, did not mean he wouldn’t serve them well in office. Voters believed that he was on their side, even when he wasn’t by his wife’s side. And they thought the legal and political pursuit of him was overkill, even when his skanky behavior took place in the White House with a young intern.

In other words, for plenty of Americans, it really was about sex, not character.

Paxton is the reverse. The sexual indiscretion is a window into his overall character — whether voters see it or not.

Ryan J. Rusak

Opinion Contributor,

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7015

Ryan J. Rusak is opinion editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He grew up in Benbrook and is a TCU graduate. He spent more than 15 years as a political journalist, overseeing coverage of four presidential elections and several sessions of the Texas Legislature. He writes about Fort Worth/Tarrant County politics and government, along with Texas and national politics, education, social and cultural issues, and occasionally sports, music and pop culture. Rusak, who lives in east Fort Worth, was recently named Star Opinion Writer of the Year for 2024 by Texas Managing Editors, a news industry group.