{"id":154064,"date":"2026-06-08T16:07:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/08\/ken-paxton-cant-even-get-his-own-lawyers-vote\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:07:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:07:47","slug":"ken-paxton-cant-even-get-his-own-lawyers-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/08\/ken-paxton-cant-even-get-his-own-lawyers-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Paxton Can\u2019t Even Get His Own Lawyer\u2019s Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Attorney General turned GOP candidate for Senate Ken Paxton has had a rough go of it when it comes to loyalty from the people closest to him (which, honestly should give anyone considering voting for him pause). His wife is divorcing him, and her endorsement list conspicuously skipped his Senate race.<\/a> And now his own lawyer, the guy who defended him through both his impeachment trial<\/a> and his years-long securities fraud case<\/a>, is endorsing the Democrat.<\/p>\n

Dan Cogdell, a Houston-based criminal defense attorney who has represented Paxton through some of the most legally perilous stretches of his career, told NOTUS<\/a> that his former client \u201chas lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.\u201d Cogdell is backing Democratic nominee James Talarico, saying, \u201cI believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is quite the story, we have Paxton\u2019s own lawyer affirmatively campaigning for the opposition \u2014 and putting his money where his mouth is. Campaign finance records show Cogdell donated $6,500 to Paxton\u2019s campaign last year before cutting a $1,000 check to Talarico in March.<\/p>\n

Cogdell has been making his political views increasingly public. He called Trump \u201cthe greatest threat to Democracy our country\u2019s ever seen,\u201d a quote the National Republican Senatorial Committee actually weaponized in a since-deleted attack ad calling Cogdell \u201ca liberal Trump-hating trial lawyer.\u201d (You\u2019ll recall the NRSC has been furiously scrubbing its anti-Paxton content since the primary.)<\/p>\n

Talarico, for his part, is leaning into it, \u201cIf you voted for John Cornyn, you have a place in this campaign,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cIf you\u2019re a Republican tired of the corruption you\u2019re seeing in government, you have a place in this campaign. Even if you\u2019re Ken Paxton\u2019s impeachment lawyer, you have a place in this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a minor update on the home front: the Paxtons\u2019 June 24 divorce trial has been canceled. Ken Paxton\u2019s attorneys say \u201cthe parties have made substantial progress toward an amicable resolution of all issues and remain engaged in productive discussions,\u201d and are optimistic a final agreement will be reached soon. The spectacular public airing of adultery allegations we\u2019d been promised will apparently have to wait \u2014 or not happen at all, which is very convenient timing for a general election candidate.<\/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 Can\u2019t Even Get His Own Lawyer\u2019s Vote<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas Attorney General turned GOP candidate for Senate Ken Paxton has had a rough go of it when it comes to loyalty from the people closest to him (which, honestly should give anyone considering voting for him pause). His wife is divorcing him, and her endorsement list conspicuously skipped his Senate race.<\/a> And now his own lawyer, the guy who defended him through both his impeachment trial<\/a> and his years-long securities fraud case<\/a>, is endorsing the Democrat.<\/p>\n

Dan Cogdell, a Houston-based criminal defense attorney who has represented Paxton through some of the most legally perilous stretches of his career, told NOTUS<\/a> that his former client \u201chas lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.\u201d Cogdell is backing Democratic nominee James Talarico, saying, \u201cI believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is quite the story, we have Paxton\u2019s own lawyer affirmatively campaigning for the opposition \u2014 and putting his money where his mouth is. Campaign finance records show Cogdell donated $6,500 to Paxton\u2019s campaign last year before cutting a $1,000 check to Talarico in March.<\/p>\n

Cogdell has been making his political views increasingly public. He called Trump \u201cthe greatest threat to Democracy our country\u2019s ever seen,\u201d a quote the National Republican Senatorial Committee actually weaponized in a since-deleted attack ad calling Cogdell \u201ca liberal Trump-hating trial lawyer.\u201d (You\u2019ll recall the NRSC has been furiously scrubbing its anti-Paxton content since the primary.)<\/p>\n

Talarico, for his part, is leaning into it, \u201cIf you voted for John Cornyn, you have a place in this campaign,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cIf you\u2019re a Republican tired of the corruption you\u2019re seeing in government, you have a place in this campaign. Even if you\u2019re Ken Paxton\u2019s impeachment lawyer, you have a place in this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a minor update on the home front: the Paxtons\u2019 June 24 divorce trial has been canceled. Ken Paxton\u2019s attorneys say \u201cthe parties have made substantial progress toward an amicable resolution of all issues and remain engaged in productive discussions,\u201d and are optimistic a final agreement will be reached soon. The spectacular public airing of adultery allegations we\u2019d been promised will apparently have to wait \u2014 or not happen at all, which is very convenient timing for a general election candidate.<\/p>\n

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

Texas Attorney General turned GOP candidate for Senate Ken Paxton has had a rough go of it when it comes to loyalty from the people closest to him (which, honestly should give anyone considering voting for him pause). His wife is divorcing him, and her endorsement list conspicuously skipped his Senate race. And now his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154065,"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-154064","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\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-CZvzfA.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154064","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=154064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}