Political baggage only seems to make Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton grow stronger

Sometimes getting impeached, getting indicted, being the target of a federal investigation and sundry civil litigations — and having allegations of marital infidelity aired on the public square — can be good for a politician's career.

We're not talking about former President Donald Trump here, although we could be. We're talking about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in the recent Republican primaries came out as well as or better than Gov. Greg Abbott.

Recall that Abbott spent millions of dollars, and an untold amount of his political capital, in the March 5 GOP primaries to help pull eight candidates for the Texas House who support his push to pass school voucher legislation across the finish line. And in the process he waged war with no fewer than 10 anti-voucher Republican incumbents, toppling five of them and sending three others into runoffs that will be decided May 28.

Paxton, who like Abbott is in his third four-year term, also launched primary offensives against Republican incumbents, and not only against members of the Texas House who voted to impeach him on 20 charges, including bribery and obstruction of justice. Three of the attorney general's targets were longtime judges who were elected in statewide races, and all were sent packing by voters.

'Paxton revenge tour'

Paxton launched what has come to be known in numerous media accounts as his "revenge tour" soon after he was acquitted by the Texas Senate, largely along party lines, of his impeachment charges. His chief targets were the Republican House impeachment managers and several rank-and-file GOP members who voted to recommend his removal from office.

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Some of the intended targets, including lead manager Rep. Andrew Murr of Kerrville, opted not to seek reelection. But Paxton's "white whale" was, and remains, Speaker Dade Phelan, who was adamant that Paxton's actions that prompted several of his one-time top aides to file a whistleblower lawsuit against the attorney general made him unfit for office. The impeachment effort gained steam when Paxton would not answer a House committee's questions about the lawsuit at the same time as he was asking lawmakers to fund the $3.3 million settlement agreement that would have made the litigation go away.

Eight Paxton-backed House candidates won their GOP primaries. Another one, David Covey, forced Phelan into a runoff for his Beaumont House district. If Phelan is ousted by his own primary voters, it would probably be seen as Paxton's biggest coup, perhaps even larger than the toppling of the three GOP judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Expanding attorney general power

With the primaries in the rearview mirror, Paxton has been flexing the muscles of his office in different ways. He's filed civil lawsuits against several school districts that accuse officials of improperly trying to influence employees to vote against pro-voucher candidates. And he's seeking to assert authority over local district attorneys around the state, proposing a rule to require prosecutors to submit quarterly and annual reports that contain information about aspects of criminal cases within their jurisdictions.

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The Texas attorney general's office by law is largely a civil litigating entity and has only limited authority to engage in criminal prosecution. Paxton's proposed rule could raise his profile on the criminal prosecution front.

Paxton's success in the recent primaries came during an election cycle in which his name did not appear on the ballot but did appear on more than a couple of court documents. The whistleblowers, whose case remains alive because the settlement was not funded, less than a week before the primary asked for the Texas Supreme Court's go-ahead to force Paxton to submit to a sworn deposition responding to their allegations.

About two weeks before that, a state district judge declined to dismiss Paxton's criminal case, in which he is charged with securities fraud. The case dates back to the early days of his first term.

What's next in Paxton's political future?

The attorney general is openly feuding with Texas' senior U.S. senator, John Cornyn, who had the job Paxton now holds before going to Washington in 2003. Cornyn, citing the ongoing legal difficulties, has called Paxton "a source of embarrassment" for the Republican Party.

Paxton, 61, has signaled an interest in challenging Cornyn in the the 2026 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, even though Cornyn might be the Senate's Republican leader by then after Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced he will step down from the top post later this year.

Of course, that assumes Paxton's state criminal case is off the table by then, and that nothing comes of the ongoing federal investigation that is examining many of the elements that led to his impeachment charges.

Still, even if those matters are put to rest in Paxton's favor, he would be carrying substantial political baggage in his next campaign, be it against Cornyn or for a fourth term as attorney general.

But Paxton has been carrying heavy baggage ever since he arrived on the statewide political scene in 2014, and it hasn't managed to weigh him down in the past decade.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Impeachment charges made Texas AG Ken Paxton stronger politically