Instead of funding the payoff, 60 of 86 House Republicans voted to impeach Paxton for bribery, unfitness and abuse of office. He was acquitted by the state Senate in September, and now the attorney general has embarked on a revenge tour aimed at many of the Republicans in the state House who impeached him. Paxton has endorsed 47 candidates in state House primaries on Tuesday.
His top target is Dade Phelan, the House speaker. The attorney general stars in commercials for one of Phelan’s primary challengers, David Covey, and flew to Phelan’s hometown, Beaumont, to campaign against him. Paxton even enlisted Donald Trump to endorse Covey. On social media, the former president blamed Phelan for Paxton’s impeachment, which Trump called an “absolute embarrassment” for “our Great Republican Party.”
Phelan, who hasn’t faced a challenger in a primary or general election since winning his seat a decade ago, has found himself spending millions of dollars to survive in a district along the state’s Louisiana border where only about 20,000 people voted during each of the past two primaries. He told supporters at a recent rally that Republicans have a special responsibility to weed out miscreants because Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.
“When you have one-party rule for three decades, you’ve got to hold each other accountable,” Phelan said. “Or you lose that control.”
Phelan, 48, is no RINO (a Republican in name only). He’s shepherded hard-line laws on abortion, guns and immigration. You will be “absolutely out of your mind if you get rid of Dade Phelan,” said former governor Rick Perry, Trump’s Energy secretary, during a campaign stop with the speaker.
Even so, Covey is clearly to Phelan’s right, if that’s the word for it. He signed a Texas Nationalist Movement petition for a ballot referendum on whether the Lone Star State should secede from the union. He wants to eliminate “gun-free zones” and property taxes. Covey acknowledges this race is a proxy war. “We’re going after the head of the snake,” he says.
He was referring to Phelan, but the real snake in Texas is Paxton. The 61-year-old Republican has long been America’s worst attorney general. Paxton warmed up the crowd in D.C. at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, where Trump incited the insurrection. He also filed the frivolous lawsuit that sought to throw out the votes of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. An unseemly mix of troll and thug, Paxton has used his office to target businesses and groups that won’t kowtow to his agenda.
But Paxton’s personal conduct, not policy, motivated his impeachment. His former chief of staff Katherine Cary testified during the 10-day Senate trial that she warned him he was vulnerable to bribery after he confessed to adultery. She said staff grumbled about having to cover for the attorney general when his wife called to inquire about his whereabouts. (Paxton’s defense attorney Tony Buzbee told senators: “Imagine if we impeached everybody here in Austin that had had an affair. We’d be impeaching for the next 100 years, wouldn’t we?”)
Paxton declined to testify in his Senate trial. After the money for the settlement failed to materialize from the state legislature, the whistleblowers revived their lawsuit. In January, Paxton tried to avoid answering questions under oath from their attorneys by announcing that he wouldn’t contest the facts of their case. A county judge rejected this bid to avert a trial, but the state Supreme Court has stayed the deposition while considering an appeal. Trump has pressed the justices to end the case. Meanwhile, a private firm has charged the state $700,000 to defend Paxton against the whistleblower lawsuit. The lead attorney bills $540 an hour.
Separately, Paxton is set to go on trial next month in Houston nine years after being indicted on two state felony securities fraud charges and failing to register as an investment adviser. The case has been postponed repeatedly since 2015 — by a venue change, a hurricane, covid-19 and endless motions.
Whatever happens in Tuesday’s elections, Paxton threatens to challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) — who is aiming to become the next Republican leader of the Senate — in a 2026 primary. When Paxton attacked his state’s senior senator on social media last week, Cornyn clapped back: “Hard to run from prison, Ken.” The only thing worse than Paxton in Austin would be Paxton in Washington.
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