AUSTIN, Texas— Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat impeachment. On Super Tuesday, he wants political revenge.
The Republican, who just six months ago was on the brink of removal from office, is charging into Texas’ primaries on a dramatic campaign to oust dozens in his own party. They include rank-and-file legislators, state judges and one of the most powerful figures in Texas: Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, who oversaw the historic vote last year to impeach Paxton on corruption charges.
Paxton’s purge attempt is part of a wild brawl engulfing the state’s dominant political party, where the attacks are blunt and the haymakers personal. Phelan recently punched back with a video reminding voters of Paxton’s extramarital affair, saying Paxton broke an “oath to his wife and God.”
Paxton himself is not on the ballot — he won a third term in 2022 — but the clean-the-House effort by one of former President Donald Trump ‘s most vocal defenders could reshape the Texas GOP for years to come, tilting the deeply conservative Legislature further to the right. “I’ve never see anything like this primary,” said Bill Miller, a longtime Republican strategist in Texas. “The party is at civil war. There’s too much stuff going on to call it anything else.”
Paxton has targeted more than 30 Republican incumbents who drew primary challengers. And he didn’t stop there. Flexing his post-acquittal political muscle, the attorney general is trying to remove three female Republican judges from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, one of the most conservative panels in the country, after it limited the powers of his office in a 2021 ruling.
All the while, Paxton is still in legal jeopardy. He is facing trial in April on felony security fraud charges that could lead to 90 years in prison if convicted. He is also fighting a subpoena for sworn testimony in a civil lawsuit that mirrors some of the impeachment charges. And a federal criminal investigation is ongoing into some of the same allegations.
“By the grace of God I’m here today,” Paxton told a political rally in suburban Dallas last month. “This matters more than anything I’ve ever done, that we win these races and that we win the Texas House.”
Some of Paxton’s endorsements, and the millions of dollars flowing to them from third-party groups, clash with the Super Tuesday agenda of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has his own list of GOP House members he’s trying to throw overboard, angry that they voted against using tax money for private schools.
The double-barreled attacks have put extreme pressure on those lawmakers who happen to have fallen into the crosshairs of both men.
Abbott concentrated on a policy fight, but “(Paxton) is like a rabid dog that simply is angry at a large majority of House members,” said Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones. “He is willing to back anyone who wanted to mount a primary challenge.”
