The wife of scandal-ridden MAGA candidate Ken Paxton has made a thinly veiled swipe at him during a Republican convention in Texas.
State senator Angela Paxton, 63, is in the process of divorcing Texas’ Attorney General, also 63, on “biblical grounds” amid a wave of controversies that have engulfed his bid for a Senate seat at the Nov. 3 midterms.
She told attendees at a Texas Federation of Republican Women event on Friday, fittingly titled “The Elephant in the Room,” that they should vote for the GOP on principle, regardless of who is actually on the ticket.
“It’s not the people, it’s the seat,” she said. “Because we have more control over that seat, and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family—even if we’re mad at them.”
Paxton has good cause to be “mad” at her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has spent much of the past decade fighting scandals on multiple fronts.
The Republican-controlled Texas House impeached the Attorney General in 2023 over allegations, first raised by senior members of his own staff, that he abused his office to help a friend and donor, Nate Paul.
The Texas Senate later acquitted him, but not before the impeachment saga surfaced further claims that he persuaded Paul to hire a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
Former aides who reported Paxton to the FBI later won a $6.6 million whistleblower judgment against his office. He denied wrongdoing, and federal investigators ultimately closed their corruption investigation without charging him.
None of it stopped President Donald Trump, 80, from giving Paxton his full-throated support in the Senate race against state Rep. James Talarico, a rising star of the Democratic Party, in the November midterms.
That support has held constant even as more details of Paxton’s personal life have spilled into public view. He was filmed sightseeing in London in July while on a romantic getaway with his mistress, Christian influencer Tracy Duhon, 58.
The U.S. tourist who shot the footage later alleged that Paxton confronted him, demanded to see what he had recorded, and lunged for his phone twice. The man’s wife began filming as the confrontation escalated, prompting Paxton to walk away. The tourist said he reported the encounter to the police.
The Daily Beast has contacted Paxton’s campaign for comment on this story.
