{"id":153135,"date":"2026-05-28T15:03:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/28\/ken-paxton-won-his-senate-primary-and-his-estranged-wife-couldnt-be-bothered-to-endorse-him\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:03:46","slug":"ken-paxton-won-his-senate-primary-and-his-estranged-wife-couldnt-be-bothered-to-endorse-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/28\/ken-paxton-won-his-senate-primary-and-his-estranged-wife-couldnt-be-bothered-to-endorse-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Paxton Won His Senate Primary And His (Estranged) Wife Couldn\u2019t Be Bothered To Endorse Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, as Texans headed to the polls to vote in the Republican Senate primary runoff, state Senator Angela Paxton \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s estranged wife, the woman currently divorcing him on \u201cbiblical grounds<\/a>\u201c\u2013 put out an endorsement list.<\/a> She endorsed a candidate for attorney general, a railroad commissioner, a Court of Criminal Appeals seat. What she conspicuously, pointedly, loudly did not do was mention the Senate race featuring her husband of 38 years.<\/p>\n

Now Paxton went on to beat the incumbent John Cornyn by 28 points anyway, but Angela\u2019s silence is still pretty damning.<\/p>\n

For anyone who needs a refresher on what Susan Collins means when she called Paxton \u201cethically challenged<\/a>\u201c: Paxton was\u00a0indicted on felony securities fraud charges<\/a>\u00a0that he eventually resolved by paying $300,000 in restitution and completing community service. He was\u00a0forced to apologize and pay $3.3 million in taxpayer money<\/a>\u00a0to former aides who accused him of corruption and were fired for their trouble. He was then\u00a0impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House<\/a>\u00a0on 20 articles including bribery, obstruction, and abuse of public trust \u2014 and\u00a0acquitted by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate<\/a>. Oh, and\u00a0the National Republican Senatorial Committee went to town attacking Paxton\u00a0including posts calling him \u201cCrooked Ken,\u201d accusing him of giving a child sex trafficker the \u201ckid-gloves treatment,\u201d and one calling his conduct toward his wife \u201ctruly repulsive and disgusting.\u201d (Since Paxton\u2019s win, the NRSC deleted at least two dozen press releases, digital ads, and statements<\/a> that went after Paxton.)<\/p>\n

But back to the whole \u201cbiblical grounds\u201d of it all. Angela Paxton\u2019s divorce petition, filed in Collin County, listed adultery as the reason for the divorce. Ken, characteristically, put out a statement framing the split as a mutual decision driven by \u201cthe pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny,\u201d which is certainly one way to describe it. Infidelity allegations have followed Paxton around for years. During his 2023 impeachment trial, his former chief of staff testified that Paxton had confessed to an extramarital affair back in 2018. His own lawyers, in one of the more memorable moments of that proceeding, responded to the bribery article, which alleged Paxton benefited from a donor employing his alleged mistress, by arguing,\u201dImagine if we impeached everybody here in Austin that had had an affair. We\u2019d be impeaching for the next 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the cherry on top: the Paxton divorce hearing is currently scheduled for June 24<\/a> in Collin County \u2014 smack in the middle of campaign season \u2014 unless the two reach some kind of agreement before then. But just think of the possibilities! A sitting state senator, estranged from her Senate-candidate husband, potentially airing the details of a scandal-plagued marriage while he\u2019s trying to win over himself to general-election voters? That feels too good for Dems to be true.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Ken Paxton Won His Senate Primary And His (Estranged) Wife Couldn\u2019t Be Bothered To Endorse Him<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, as Texans headed to the polls to vote in the Republican Senate primary runoff, state Senator Angela Paxton \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s estranged wife, the woman currently divorcing him on \u201cbiblical grounds<\/a>\u201c\u2013 put out an endorsement list.<\/a> She endorsed a candidate for attorney general, a railroad commissioner, a Court of Criminal Appeals seat. What she conspicuously, pointedly, loudly did not do was mention the Senate race featuring her husband of 38 years.<\/p>\n

Now Paxton went on to beat the incumbent John Cornyn by 28 points anyway, but Angela\u2019s silence is still pretty damning.<\/p>\n

For anyone who needs a refresher on what Susan Collins means when she called Paxton \u201cethically challenged<\/a>\u201c: Paxton was\u00a0indicted on felony securities fraud charges<\/a>\u00a0that he eventually resolved by paying $300,000 in restitution and completing community service. He was\u00a0forced to apologize and pay $3.3 million in taxpayer money<\/a>\u00a0to former aides who accused him of corruption and were fired for their trouble. He was then\u00a0impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House<\/a>\u00a0on 20 articles including bribery, obstruction, and abuse of public trust \u2014 and\u00a0acquitted by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate<\/a>. Oh, and\u00a0the National Republican Senatorial Committee went to town attacking Paxton\u00a0including posts calling him \u201cCrooked Ken,\u201d accusing him of giving a child sex trafficker the \u201ckid-gloves treatment,\u201d and one calling his conduct toward his wife \u201ctruly repulsive and disgusting.\u201d (Since Paxton\u2019s win, the NRSC deleted at least two dozen press releases, digital ads, and statements<\/a> that went after Paxton.)<\/p>\n

But back to the whole \u201cbiblical grounds\u201d of it all. Angela Paxton\u2019s divorce petition, filed in Collin County, listed adultery as the reason for the divorce. Ken, characteristically, put out a statement framing the split as a mutual decision driven by \u201cthe pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny,\u201d which is certainly one way to describe it. Infidelity allegations have followed Paxton around for years. During his 2023 impeachment trial, his former chief of staff testified that Paxton had confessed to an extramarital affair back in 2018. His own lawyers, in one of the more memorable moments of that proceeding, responded to the bribery article, which alleged Paxton benefited from a donor employing his alleged mistress, by arguing,\u201dImagine if we impeached everybody here in Austin that had had an affair. We\u2019d be impeaching for the next 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the cherry on top: the Paxton divorce hearing is currently scheduled for June 24<\/a> in Collin County \u2014 smack in the middle of campaign season \u2014 unless the two reach some kind of agreement before then. But just think of the possibilities! A sitting state senator, estranged from her Senate-candidate husband, potentially airing the details of a scandal-plagued marriage while he\u2019s trying to win over himself to general-election voters? That feels too good for Dems to be true.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Ken Paxton Won His Senate Primary And His (Estranged) Wife Couldn\u2019t Be Bothered To Endorse Him<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, as Texans headed to the polls to vote in the Republican Senate primary runoff, state Senator Angela Paxton \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s estranged wife, the woman currently divorcing him on \u201cbiblical grounds\u201c\u2013 put out an endorsement list. She endorsed a candidate for attorney general, a railroad commissioner, a Court of Criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-0iwSKC.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}