Sharron Albertson, a longtime Republican activist, has been exchanging text messages with her old friend Ken Paxton, and she is not happy with his answers. Among the topics: the welfare of his estranged wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the recent ones was, \u2018People are thinking that Angela\u2019s getting a bad deal in the divorce.\u2019 He wrote back, \u2018She\u2019s getting a better deal than I am,\u2019\u201d Ms. Albertson said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has been accused of adultery by his wife of 38 years, Angela Paxton, who last year filed for divorce \u201con biblical grounds.\u201d He\u2019s been indicted on charges of felony securities fraud, and he\u2019s been impeached, too \u2014 with votes from members of his own party \u2014 on allegations of bribery, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice and abuse of the public trust, and other misdeeds.<\/p>\n
But none of that has stopped him from shaking up the U.S. Senate race in Texas, where he is battling Senator John Cornyn, the four-term incumbent, in a runoff later this month despite being outspent by tens of millions of dollars in the Republican primary. Characteristically, Mr. Paxton may be his own most formidable opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he loses,\u201d said Ms. Albertson, who has known him for decades, \u201cit will be his own doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe, though, it won\u2019t be hers. \u201cI can\u2019t really go against Ken,\u201d she said. \u201cI cannot do John Cornyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conundrum of Ms. Albertson underscores the strange state of a high-stakes race that could determine the partisan balance of power in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mr. Paxton, 63, has, in his quarter-century of public life, never lost an election. Despite his failures and faults, and in some ways because of them, he\u2019s won crowded primaries and make-or-break runoffs \u2014 and polls show he could win this next one as well. In November, the winner will face an ascendant and cash-flush Democrat<\/a>, James Talarico.<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton keeps getting elected in spite of it all because of his lifeblood bond with a core group within the Republican base \u2014 conservative acolytes who actually show up to vote in the state\u2019s historically low-turnout primaries. His hero\u2019s journey, or villain origin story, depending on one\u2019s perspective, relies on a narrative of political persecution, the notion that he is hounded by a cabal of old-school Texas Republicans clinging to outdated values \u2014 a cabal, Mr. Paxton\u2019s backers believe, that includes Mr. Cornyn.<\/p>\n Mr. Cornyn has called him \u201cflawed, self-centered and shameless.\u201d Mr. Talarico once described Mr. Paxton as \u201cthe rot at the core of our broken political system.\u201d Both campaigns believe a reckoning is, at long last, nigh.<\/p>\n Regardless of the outcome, Mr. Paxton stands as one of the most important and instructive figures in American politics today. He\u2019s manifestly less showy and far less ideologically malleable than President Trump. And he\u2019s something short of Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201ccentral casting\u201d \u2014 he has a past-middle-age paunch, a slightly lopsided smile and one eye with almost perfect vision and another in which he\u2019s nearly blind. Still, Mr. Paxton is as indicative of this era as perhaps anybody this side of the president himself.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was Trump before Trump was Trump,\u201d said Michelle Smith, a longtime Paxton aide.<\/p>\n \u201cHad Trump not been normalized by the party, Paxton would never have had a chance,\u201d said Stuart Stevens, the anti-Trump former adviser to Mitt Romney, John McCain and George W. Bush. \u201cBut now that he has been normalized, he\u2019s the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, after a standing ovation at the potluck supper of the Republican Party of Victoria, a small South Texas city, Mr. Paxton, a better small-talker than speech-giver, lingered in a meet-and-greet queue, shaking hand after hand. On his way out, he stopped in a hallway for a 10-minute interview with The New York Times.<\/p>\n Why does the base stick with him, he was asked, when he\u2019s been indicted and impeached \u2014 when he\u2019s been accused of adultery?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy does the base stick with President Trump,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen you can say all those same things?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Do Not Underestimate Him\u2019<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton came of political age in the primordial ooze of this destabilizing time.<\/p>\n In the 1990s, he was just another 30-something will-and-trust attorney in the swelling suburbs of Collin County, north of Dallas. He and his guitar-picking, home-schooling wife traveled in intersecting business, social and political circles with megachurch evangelicals and grass-roots anti-abortion activists \u2014 steeped in an inchoate, Christian nationalist, proto-Tea Party energy and budding establishment-doubting discontent.<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton, though, was not an obvious contender for even down-ballot office. He had been involved in student government in high school in Lawton, Okla., he was the student body president at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and he had a law degree from the University of Virginia. But he was, as one Baylor buddy put it, more a \u201cblender\u201d than a big man on campus.<\/p>\n When he decided to run for state representative in 2002, even supporters questioned his chances. But he had an odd, unimposing charm and a knack for names. He was receptive to the point of pliant. \u201cHe listened,\u201d said Ms. Albertson, who was a leader of an influential club of local Republican women called the Golden Corridor, \u201cand did the stuff that we suggested.\u201d<\/p>\n He had assets in his four young kids and his wife, who was an ebullient partner in his political efforts. He got the most votes in a five-person primary and then bested an older, establishment-backed attorney in a runoff \u2014 part of a new class of elected officials that gave Republicans total control of state government for the first time since Reconstruction.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just so unimpressive,\u201d said Chris Oldner, a former Collin County judge who is no friend of Mr. Paxton. \u201cBut after that race, I\u2019d tell everybody I talked to, \u2018Do not underestimate him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As a state legislator, during a decade in which Mr. Paxton\u2019s most ardent supporters became disenchanted by the presidency of George W. Bush, enraged by the election of Barack Obama and primed for the rise of Donald J. Trump, Mr. Paxton earned top ratings from conservative watchdogs.<\/p>\n He worked to prevent undocumented students from getting in-state college tuition. He favored public school curriculums that instilled a \u201csense of pride in our country\u201d rather than \u201ca source of shame.\u201d Most significantly, he mounted a campaign to become speaker of the Texas House, challenging the incumbent, Joe Straus, whom he considered too willing to work with Democrats. Mr. Paxton\u2019s push failed \u2014 he dropped out just before the vote \u2014 but only in the most technical sense.<\/p>\n \u201cIt branded him,\u201d said Brendan Steinhauser, an Austin-based Republican strategist, \u201cas a guy willing to take on the establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n And it set him up to run for State Senate in 2012 \u2014 and then for attorney general two years later. During his bid to be the state\u2019s top law enforcement official, however, he was found to have flouted the law.<\/p>\n In the spring of 2014, Mr. Paxton was fined $1,000 for violating state securities laws by soliciting investors in the company of an associate without being registered with the state and without letting them know he was taking a cut.<\/p>\n The election established a pattern: The legal transgression did not get in the way of the campaign, he emerged from a primary to compete in a runoff against a more traditional Republican and he weathered opposing ads painting him as an untrustworthy lawbreaker. And he won.<\/p>\n Then, his first summer as attorney general, he was indicted on three felony fraud charges related to the securities case. He was arrested, fingerprinted and booked.<\/p>\n For critics, including the anti-Paxton protesters who gathered at the Collin County courthouse, it confirmed his reputation as a legislator who was more focused on making money than making law \u2014 a workaday attorney enamored by the ambient wealth of the lobbyists of Austin and the oil-rich donors of West Texas. For supporters, though, the indictment reeked of political payback.<\/p>\n Years before Mr. Trump sat for a mug shot and scowled, Mr. Paxton sat for a mug shot and smirked.<\/p>\n The booking photo taken of Mr. Paxton after he was indicted on felony fraud charges.Credit…Collin County, via Associated PressLawsuit After Lawsuit<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton used the office of the attorney general to build his political prospects while simultaneously tempting political fate.<\/p>\n He sued President Obama a lot \u2014 \u201c27 times\u201d in two years, he says in speeches. \u201cI\u2019m a pistol-packin\u2019 mama, and my husband sues Obama,\u201d Angela Paxton liked to sing on the stump.<\/p>\n Abortion and guns, environmental regulations and other culture-war cudgels \u2014 Mr. Paxton filed suit after suit, creating headline after headline.<\/p>\n In 2018, a difficult year for Republicans, Mr. Paxton was re-elected \u2014 beating a former Supreme Court clerk for Sandra Day O\u2019Connor despite ads against him that included an \u201cindictment explainer\u201d and a reminder of the time Mr. Paxton was caught on a security camera at a courthouse checkpoint pocketing a $1,000 Montblanc pen that wasn\u2019t his (he gave it back).<\/p>\n Angela Paxton ran and won, too, taking the State Senate seat her husband had once held.<\/p>\n But the most significant challenge to Mr. Paxton\u2019s ascendant political career came in 2020. That fall, eight of his top deputies accused him of bribery and abuse of office, asking federal law enforcement officials to do something. Mr. Paxton had improperly aided a real estate developer who was also a campaign donor and the employer of a woman with whom Mr. Paxton was cheating on his wife, they told a Texas House investigative committee. The staffers then quit or were fired; those who had been fired sued Mr. Paxton, claiming whistle-blower retaliation.<\/p>\n He also was investigated by a grand jury for self-dealing in a land development in Collin County (he was cleared) and for bribery related to a campaign contribution from a donor his office had investigated for fraud (the investigation was dropped). The securities fraud case, meanwhile, languished \u2014 getting delayed, getting moved, getting old.<\/p>\n In 2024, he cut a deal to drop the fraud charges in exchange for performing community service and paying restitution. He did not admit guilt.<\/p>\n All along, Mr. Paxton kept getting richer. When he first won public office, he listed his assets as less than $200,000. Two decades later, on an annual state salary of about $150,000, he reported a net worth approaching $8 million with residential properties in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Hawaii. Mr. Paxton has been secretive about the source of his wealth, creating a blind trust and then failing for years to disclose to regulators the assets in that trust as required by state ethics rules.<\/p>\n After Mr. Trump lost in November 2020, Mr. Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to challenge the results. And on Jan. 6, 2021, he spoke at the rally before the riot at the Capitol.<\/p>\n When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office, Mr. Paxton began suing the federal government in earnest again \u2014 more than 100 times in all.<\/p>\n The party base couldn\u2019t get enough of him. In 2022, Mr. Paxton again topped a primary field and again moved to a runoff, this time against a Bush. \u201cThis race isn\u2019t about my last name,\u201d George P. Bush, the son of Jeb Bush and the grandson of George H.W. Bush, said in an ad. \u201cIt\u2019s about Ken Paxton\u2019s crimes.\u201d Mr. Paxton beat him by better than 2 to 1.<\/p>\n \u201cLike Trump, he\u2019s got a pretty good gut for the base and where the base is,\u201d said Sam Cooper, a consultant to Mr. Paxton \u2014 and, he added, \u201cwhere they\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n Impeachment<\/p>\n The closest Mr. Paxton came to comeuppance was also what cemented his connection to the base.<\/p>\n In February 2023, he settled the suit with the employees turned whistle-blowers for $3.3 million. He wanted the State Legislature to pay the bill. The Republican-controlled House wanted to know more. Three months later, a House investigative committee returned with 20 articles of impeachment.<\/p>\n Republicans held a four-hour hearing to decide whether to proceed. Some heard from Mr. Paxton directly.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was calling a lot of members on the floor right before the vote,\u201d Craig Goldman, a former state representative and current congressman, said in an interview.<\/p>\n The vote was overwhelming \u2014 121 yes, 23 no. Sixty Republicans voted to send the impeachment of Mr. Paxton to the Senate for trial.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump, who had been impeached twice and indicted that March, called the Paxton decision \u201cvery unfair.\u201d Mr. Talarico, then a state representative, went on CNN. \u201cThis all could have been avoided if Paxton just resigned,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he doesn\u2019t feel shame.\u201d<\/p>\n The 10-day trial at the Capitol in Austin presented political peril \u2014 and opportunity.<\/p>\n The prosecution laid out evidence accusing Mr. Paxton of abusing his office to help a donor. But Mr. Paxton\u2019s attorneys played to the cameras and the politics of the moment, portraying Mr. Paxton as a victim of deep-state G.O.P. forces.<\/p>\n State senators felt pressure from Paxton fans. They told Drew Springer, a former senator, in Springer\u2019s recollection: \u201cWe love Paxton. None of this matters. He shouldn\u2019t be getting impeached. This is the same as Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Angela Paxton, barred from voting as a senator because of the conflict of interest, listened during the trial to her husband\u2019s former chief of staff testifying about Mr. Paxton\u2019s alleged infidelity. Ms. Paxton declined to be interviewed for this story.<\/p>\n Seemingly unconcerned, Mr. Paxton ate barbecue during the trial at the home of Bill Miller, an Austin-based lobbyist and friend. \u201cYou\u2019d never know there was an impeachment going on,\u201d Mr. Miller said. \u201cYou know the old saying \u2018as easy as pie\u2019? It was as easy as pie.\u201d<\/p>\n In his closing argument, Mr. Paxton\u2019s top attorney, Tony Buzbee, made the point bluntly. \u201cThis is a political witch hunt,\u201d Mr. Buzbee said. \u201cThe Bush era ends today.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton was acquitted.<\/p>\n Newly emboldened, he sought revenge \u2014 campaigning for primary challengers to the House members who had voted to impeach him. Among the winners was one of his impeachment attorneys, Mitch Little. \u201cI have zero doubt in my mind if that had not happened, I would not be serving in the Texas House of Representatives,\u201d Mr. Little said.<\/p>\n Impeachment, it appears, only made Mr. Paxton stronger.<\/p>\n \u201cThe grass roots were furious,\u201d said Abraham George, the state Republican Party chair. \u201cIt made him more popular and more powerful than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Just a Normal-Looking Guy\u2019<\/p>\n Three days after last month\u2019s potluck in Victoria, Mr. Paxton stood in ostrich-skin boots in a room on the third floor of a furniture store across from a shooting range called the Texas Gun Experience, waiting to talk to the Grapevine Republican Club.<\/p>\n In a quiet conversation with The Times, he said his life had changed at age 12, when another boy accidentally pelted him in the right eye with a chinaberry<\/a>, the size of a marble and nearly as hard. The damage led to surgeries that left his eye with no lens. In a pickup basketball game at Baylor, he took an elbow to the face and broke bones around the same eye.<\/p>\n His healthy left eye is lighter, his wounded right eye darker. The incongruity is distracting to some and disarming to others, and so Mr. Paxton has learned to use what he has, good and bad.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not larger than life,\u201d said Mr. Miller, the lobbyist. \u201cHe\u2019s not got great hair. He\u2019s not good-looking. He\u2019s just a normal-looking guy who can make you like him about as easy as you can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n Approaching the May 26 runoff, polls<\/a> are tight. Mr. Paxton has in his campaign coffers less than half of what Mr. Cornyn has \u2014 but a $70 million onslaught of ads<\/a> for Mr. Cornyn earlier in the primary didn\u2019t prevent Mr. Paxton from getting almost as many votes. In March, Mr. Paxton savvily managed to ward off what many suspected was Mr. Trump\u2019s pending endorsement of Mr. Cornyn.<\/p>\n