James Talarico has an obligation to win

Ken Paxton is a terrible candidate, but don’t take anything for granted.

Senate candidate James Talarico speaks to supporters at a campaign event on March 3, 2026. (Photo by John Moore)

Ken Paxton defeated incumbent John Cornyn last week to become the G.O.P. nominee for a Texas U.S. Senate seat.

This was one of those races where I wasn’t sure which outcome I was hoping for. Operatives at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Majority PAC could hardly contain their enthusiasm for the Paxton win since he is clearly the weaker candidate.

On the other hand, the two candidates are really not the same on the merits.

Cornyn is a conservative Republican. I don’t agree with him on public policy issues and I would not vote for him. But Texas is a conservative state, and it is what it is. Paxton, by contrast, is an election denier who tried to help Donald Trump stay in office after he lost in 2020. Beyond that, Paxton is an actual criminal. He simultaneously claimed three different homes as a primary residence on mortgage documents and, as we’ll see below, that’s not even the main financial scandal that got him in trouble. He’s the kind of Bible thumper who ended up in a messy divorce after it came out that he was cheating on his wife.

Team Cornyn@TeamCornyn

Ken, when this over, you will have nothing.  Which turns out to be the same thing you offered to give Angela in divorce proceedings. This after you cheated on her multiple times. #txsen

Attorney General Ken Paxton @KenPaxtonTX

Cornyn's career is done and everyone knows it. He's stolen $50+ million from races in NC, ME, MI, and GA and what does he have to show for it? He's stuck in the mid-20s, doesn't even know if he'll make the runoff, and is set to lose by huge margins even if he does. "Some

2:51 PM · Feb 4, 2026 · 886K Views

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But the real scandal there wasn’t the affair so much as the fact that Paxton got his affair partner a job working for a guy named Nate Paul so that she could move to Austin. Paul and Paxton also jointly had a secret Uber account that was used for Paxton’s assignations. And Paul wasn’t doing that just because he’s a nice guy; he was doing it as part of a corrupt scheme with Paxton:

But in 2019, the F.B.I. and U.S. Department of Treasury agents raided Paul’s home and business offices. Additionally, Paul filed for at least 18 bankruptcies. Soon after, Paul’s complicated history with Paxton came to light.

Before the F.B.I. raid, Paul made a $25,000 political donation to Paxton in October 2018. Following the donation, multiple senior aides in Paxton’s office accused the attorney general of using his office to help Paul’s business interests, investigate Paul’s adversaries, and to help settle a lawsuit. In filings, the former aides described Paxton’s motivations as a “bizarre, obsessive use of power.”

If you’re a right-wing attorney general of a red state and your subordinates blow the whistle on you to the F.B.I. because you’ve been helping a criminal in exchange for him facilitating your affair, what’s supposed to happen is you leave office in disgrace.

That almost happened to Paxton, who was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives despite a strong Republican majority.