Politics

Republican Demands MAGA Star’s Records Over Secret Affair Travel

PAX A PUNCH

The election race between Trump-backed Ken Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn is getting sordid.

Texas AG Ken Paxton also shows him alongside President Trump on his website as he mounts a primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn.
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Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s campaign is demanding documents from the state’s Trump-backed attorney general that will prove if he used taxpayer money to fund travel to see his reported mistress.

Politico’s Playbook said Cornyn’s campaign has asked for records of the travel and activities of Tracy Duhon and his U.S. Senate race rival, Ken Paxton.

Duhon is the woman allegedly at the center of an affair scandal with Paxton that has seen both their marriages collapse, the British Daily Mail reported.

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Cornyn has escalated the already bitter GOP primary between the two men. Getty Images

Cornyn’s team is demanding “Paxton’s travel and activities with Tracy Duhon, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s alleged paramour, since March 2024.”

That escalates an already bitter GOP primary between the two men wanting to be U.S senator for Texas.

“These records are not only subject to public information law, but relevant to public interest as made clear in a Sept. 12, 2025, Daily Mail article showing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been traveling “across the country and even overseas” to meet a woman named Tracy Duhon with whom he was having an affair,” the filing states.

The campaign alleged the trips were “essential to keeping the entanglement secret” from Paxton’s wife, which would make them personal in nature. “If Paxton has used official resources to pay for any of these trips, or if the getaways conflicted with responsibilities to the state of Texas, Texans deserve to know,” it continued.

A spokesperson for Paxton declined to comment to Playbook. The Daily Beast has also sought comment.

The Daily Mail reported that Duhon, 57, a Christian influencer and mother of seven, remains based at her millionaire ex-husband Troy’s estate on Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. She and Troy Duhon finalized their divorce just last month.

NASHVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 10:  Tracy, Abigail, and Troy Duhon attend the "I'm Not Ashamed" Movie Premiere at the historic Belcourt Theater  on October 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee.  (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images for Pure Flix)
Abigail, Tracy (center) and Troy Duhon at a film premiere in 2016. Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

The Mail said Paxton and Duhon met at the Kentucky Derby in 2024, and that their relationship ultimately also ended his 38-year marriage to Texas Sen. Angela Paxton.

Multiple sources told the outlet the attorney general’s wife learned of the affair earlier this year. She filed for divorce on July 10, announcing on X, “Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds… in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”

Cornyn, a longtime Senate mainstay, is now fighting off Paxton’s Trump-backed challenge. His campaign has launched a site called KenStoppers.com, which it describes as a real tip line for alleged misconduct.

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 1: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife Angela leave after speaking to pro-life activists outside the Supreme Court after the court heard two challenges to Texass new abortion law on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. (Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Paxton and his now ex-wife Angela pictured together in 2021. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Paxton has been weighed down by years of scandal, but so far, he has managed to shake off everything thrown at him. In 2015, he was indicted for securities fraud and made a $300,000 settlement deal to avoid a criminal trial.

In 2023, he was impeached by the Republican-controlled state House over accusations of corruption and abuse of power connected to his affair, though the state Senate acquitted him.

The FBI has also investigated whether Paxton used his position to secure favors, including home renovations and a job for a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair.

Add in a $3.3 million whistleblower settlement and his failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and Cornyn’s camp is betting voters won’t ignore his travails.

Cornyn, therefore, has framed the race as a referendum on integrity. “This is a test of character, and whether character still matters,” he said earlier this month. The senator must defeat Paxton in the March GOP primary to secure a fifth term.

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