Ken Paxton told a Texas rally that America had just celebrated its 200th anniversary. It was the 250th, and his opponent immediately reminded everyone that Paxton spent the Fourth of July in England.
Ken Paxton is running for the United States Senate, which apparently does not require passing the portion of the citizenship test involving how old the United States is. At a Corpus Christi rally Tuesday, Paxton proudly reminded the crowd that America had just celebrated its “200th anniversary.”
America, for the record, turned 250 on July 4, 2026. The bicentennial was in 1976, back when Gerald Ford was president and nobody had yet invented a campaign consultant who could text “PLEASE STOP TALKING” in real time.
Paxton was wrapping up his remarks when he called the anniversary “something pretty cool” and supplied the wrong number. Video of the moment spread quickly because the math is unusually easy even by political-fact-check standards: 2026 minus 1776 is not 200.
Democratic Senate opponent James Talarico immediately pounced. He posted the clip with a correction and added the line that turned an ordinary gaffe into a much more Buzzy story: “Not that you would know — you spent it with the British.”
That jab refers to Paxton’s July 4 trip to London, where he was photographed with Christian influencer Tracy Duhon. Multiple outlets have described Duhon as romantically linked to Paxton, although neither has publicly confirmed a relationship.
Paxton’s wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year citing biblical grounds and infidelity. That means his opponent did not have to invent a complicated attack line; he simply had to combine the wrong anniversary with a photograph from England and let American history do the rest.
Spending Independence Day in the country the United States declared independence from is not illegal, scandalous or even especially unusual. Doing it during the nation’s 250th birthday and then later forgetting the number is, however, the sort of accidental political comedy that arrives fully edited.
The irony got even richer because 2026’s semiquincentennial had been heavily promoted all year. There were national commemorations, speeches, events and enough red-white-and-blue branding to make it difficult to accidentally time-travel back to the bicentennial.
Paxton’s campaign did not immediately offer an explanation for the slip. Maybe he misspoke, maybe the number simply came out wrong, or maybe Corpus Christi briefly entered 1976 through a constitutional wormhole.
The mistake would normally be a one-day social-media joke. The London trip gives it staying power because every correction now comes attached to the question of where Paxton actually was while everyone else was marking the anniversary he later misremembered.
Talarico’s campaign is obviously enjoying the combination. A competitive Senate race is rarely handed such clean opposition material: one video, one subtraction problem and one British vacation.
Paxton still has plenty of substantive issues to campaign on, and voters are unlikely to decide a Senate race solely because a candidate flubbed a number. Politicians misspeak constantly, often while standing under giant flags specifically designed to make the moment look more patriotic.
But this particular mistake came with almost cinematic timing. America turned 250, Paxton was photographed in London, and three months later he told Texans the country had turned 200.
If nothing else, the episode proves anniversaries may not be Paxton’s strongest subject. The good news is that America gets another birthday next year, giving everyone plenty of time to agree on 251.
