Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General now running for U.S. Senate, went on Fox Business this week and decided the best way to defend his own record was to compare himself to Donald Trump. Not in a flattering way. In the actual way.
When Maria Bartiromo pressed him on being described by the Wall Street Journal as “scandal-plagued,” Paxton didn’t deny it. He pivoted. “They could say the same thing about Donald Trump,” he said. “When you’re fighting the fight, unfortunately, you get attacked and you have to defend yourself.”
The comparison is technically accurate. Both men have faced multiple criminal and ethics investigations. Both have claimed the accusations are politically motivated. Both have survived impeachment proceedings. The difference is that one of them is running for Senate in a Republican primary, and the other is the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Paxton just volunteered to tie his own anchor to Trump’s, on camera, in a state where Trump remains deeply popular but where Paxton’s legal troubles have already cost him establishment Republican support.
What’s actually going on
Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 by a vote of 121–23. The charges included abuse of office, obstruction of justice, and misuse of taxpayer resources. He was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate, but the impeachment left a mark. Before that, Paxton had been under indictment for securities fraud since 2015. That case finally closed in 2024 when he agreed to a settlement: $300,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service, and 15 hours of legal ethics education.
Now he’s running for U.S. Senate, and his opponents are reminding voters of all of it. So is the Wall Street Journal editorial board. So, as of this week, is Ken Paxton himself.
The absurdity Paxton just invited
Paxton’s defense rests on the idea that accusations don’t mean guilt unless proven in court. “They have to prove these things in our country,” he said. “That they did not do with President Trump and that they did not do with me.”
Except they did prove it with Trump. A New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. A separate civil jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll case. Trump has been convicted, held liable, fined, and ordered to pay damages. He is also still facing federal charges in two jurisdictions and state charges in Georgia.
Paxton, meanwhile, settled his criminal case and was acquitted in his impeachment trial. The two records are not identical. But by linking them, Paxton has now made it easier for his opponents to do the same. He volunteered the comparison. On Fox Business. In front of Republican primary voters who will now have to decide whether they want a senator whose best defense is “I’m scandal-plagued like Trump.”
What we’re watching
Paxton is betting that Texas Republican voters will see his legal troubles the same way they see Trump’s: as proof of persecution, not corruption. That bet has worked for Trump nationally. It has not worked as cleanly for other Republicans who have tried to borrow the playbook. Paxton’s impeachment acquittal came from a Senate controlled by his own party, but the vote was closer than it looked, and several Republican senators made clear they were voting to avoid a constitutional crisis, not to endorse his conduct.
Now Paxton is running statewide, and his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has already begun using Paxton’s own words against him. The comparison to Trump may energize part of the base. It will also give every Texas Republican who already had doubts about Paxton a reason to stay home or vote elsewhere.
Paxton’s campaign strategy appears to be: if you can’t separate yourself from the scandal, own it by tying it to someone more popular. The risk is that Texas voters may decide they already have one Trump. They don’t need another one in the Senate, especially one whose legal ethics education is still pending.
The question is whether Paxton just neutralized his biggest liability or whether he just handed his opponents the centerpiece of every attack ad between now and November.
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