The long list of scandals that will dog Texas’ Ken Paxton from now until Election Day
Democrats made little effort to hide the fact that in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, they much preferred to run against Ken Paxton, the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general, than incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. They got their wish: In Tuesday’s primary, Paxton, who was bolstered by a late endorsement from Donald Trump, crushed Cornyn in their GOP primary by roughly 28 points.
The landslide results set the stage for one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races, in a red state that Republican officials, who spent tens of millions of dollars trying to defeat Paxton, hoped to take for granted.
Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who’ll face the state attorney general in the fall, responded to the GOP primary by describing Paxton as “the most corrupt politician in America.”
Soon after, the Democrat’s campaign unveiled its first post-primary ad, highlighting just how many devastating scandals Paxton has been embroiled in during his tenure in statewide office.
What’s more, it’s not just Democrats who’ve noticed. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said Paxton “could reasonably be indicted for a felony.” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine described Paxton as “an ethically challenged individual.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina added, “To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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