Ken Paxton is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Attorney General of Texas since 2015. A Republican, he previously served in the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. He has faced legal challenges, including indictments and impeachment proceedings, related to alleged securities fraud, abuse of office, and bribery. Despite these controversies, he has remained a prominent figure in Texas politics, known for his conservative stances and legal battles against the federal government.
On December 23, 1962, Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. was born. He is an American politician and lawyer.
In 1985, Paxton received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Baylor University.
In 1986, Paxton earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Baylor University.
In 1988, after working as a management consultant for two years, Paxton returned to school.
From 1991 to 1995, Paxton worked at Strasburger & Price, L.L.P.
In 1991, Paxton received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
In 1995, Hervis Rogers served a nine-year prison sentence for a burglary conviction.
In 1995, Paxton began working at J.C. Penney Company, Inc.
On November 4, 2002, Paxton won the election for the Texas House in District 70.
In 2002, Paxton concluded his employment at J.C. Penney Company, Inc.
An analysis by KXAN found that 24 of 138 people convicted of voter fraud in Texas between 2004 and September 2020 spent time in jail.
In 2004, Hervis Rogers was released on parole after serving a nine-year prison sentence for a burglary conviction.
In 2004, Paxton won re-election against Democrat Martin Woodward to the Texas House.
In 2006, Paxton won re-election to the Texas House, defeating Rick Koster and Robert Virasin.
In 2010, Paxton ran unopposed for re-election to the Texas House.
In 2011, this is when the crime statistics were supposedly recorded for the undocumented immigrants.
In 2012, Paxton won election to the Texas Senate, replacing Florence Shapiro.
In 2012, surveillance video showed Paxton taking a Montblanc pen, worth $1,000, left behind at a metal detector. The pen was later returned.
In 2013, Joe Straus was re-elected to his second term as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
On March 4, 2014, Paxton led a three-candidate field in the Republican primary for Texas Attorney General with 44.4% of the vote.
On May 27, 2014, Paxton won the runoff election against Dan Branch for the Republican nomination for Texas Attorney General.
On November 4, 2014, Paxton defeated Sam Houston, winning the general election to become Attorney General.
In 2014, Paxton was first elected attorney general of Texas, rising to power as an ally of the Tea Party movement.
On January 5, 2015, Paxton officially took office as the Attorney General of Texas.
In January 2015, Paxton's term as Attorney General began, concluding his service in the Texas Senate.
In June 2015, after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, Paxton offered support for clerks who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, stating he would be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights.
On July 28, 2015, Ken Paxton was indicted on three criminal charges, including two counts of securities fraud, marking the first such criminal indictment of a Texas Attorney General in thirty-two years.
On August 3, 2015, Ken Paxton was arrested and booked following the unsealing of the grand jury indictment. He pleaded not guilty and claimed the case was a political witch-hunt.
In 2015, Joe Straus was re-elected as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
In 2015, Ken Paxton opposed an atheist group's legal action seeking a halt to the reading of religious prayers before school board meetings, criticizing what he calls anti-Christian discrimination in Texas schools.
In 2015, Paxton created a human trafficking unit in the AG office.
In 2015, Paxton was indicted on state securities fraud charges related to activities before he took office; he pleaded not guilty.
In 2015, Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. assumed the role of attorney general of Texas.
In June 2016, U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general Claude Walker dropped a subpoena for Exxon's records after Paxton requested to intervene in the case. Paxton stated that the subpoena was about the "criminalization of speech and thought."
In June 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the Department of Labor's "persuader rule". Paxton called the injunction "a victory for the preservation of the sanctity of attorney-client confidentiality".
In June 2016, the Supreme Court issued a split 4-4 ruling in the case of United States v. Texas, which challenged President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive action. The split ruling left in place a 2015 lower-court ruling that invalidated Obama's plan.
In September 2016, Paxton and his wife had dinner with activist Amber Briggle and her family, including her trans son.
On October 6, 2016, Paxton and then California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that Texas authorities had raided the Dallas headquarters of Backpage.com and arrested CEO Carl Ferrer.
In October 2016, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III conditionally dismissed the SEC's complaint against Paxton, but gave the SEC two weeks to refile an amended complaint, which they did.
In December 2016, Ken Paxton intervened in a dispute in Killeen, Texas, where a middle school principal told a nurse's aide to take down a poster with a quote from Christian scripture. Paxton sided with the aide, who won in court.
By February 2017, as part of his "crusade" against voter fraud, Ken Paxton sought to investigate 2016 Texas voting records to uncover potential voter fraud, such as voting by non-citizens or in the name of the deceased.
In 2016, Ken Paxton sued the City of Austin to allow license holders to openly carry handguns in Austin City Hall. Paxton prevailed in the suit, and the court ordered the city of Austin to pay a fine to the state for each day it prevented investigators from the attorney general's office from carrying firearms.
In 2016, Paxton intervened in a lawsuit challenging school districts that reduced or repealed their local optional homestead exemptions after a 2015 law was passed implementing property tax reductions.
In 2016, Paxton sued the Obama administration over a Department of Labor rule that would have made five million additional workers eligible for overtime pay. He argued the regulations would have disastrous consequences for the economy.
In 2016, Paxton was one of eleven Republican state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in the company's suit to block a climate change probe by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In 2016, Paxton's campaign raised $945,000 in the first half of the year.
In 2016, Volkswagen settled a lawsuit brought by 44 states against the company for using software that allowed its vehicles to circumvent emissions limits. Texas's share of the settlement was $50 million.
In 2016, in response to a lawsuit by three University of Texas at Austin professors who sought to ban concealed handguns from campus, Paxton called the lawsuit "frivolous" and moved to dismiss.
In 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil enforcement action against Ken Paxton, alleging securities fraud related to Servergy investors.
In 2017, the San Antonio Express-News criticized the state's voter identification law, which Paxton seeks to have reinstated after it was struck down by United States District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi, who found the measure to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Paxton's office appealed the decision.
By February 2017, as part of his "crusade" against voter fraud, Ken Paxton sought to investigate 2016 Texas voting records to uncover potential voter fraud, such as voting by non-citizens or in the name of the deceased. Officials in Bexar County said there have been no major cases of voter fraud in San Antonio.
In March 2017, District Judge George Gallagher granted the prosecution's motion for a change of venue in Paxton's trial, moving it to Houston.
In March 2017, Judge Mazzant dismissed the civil securities fraud case against Paxton, ruling he had "no plausible legal duty" to inform investors about commissions. This dismissal was with prejudice.
In March 2017, Ken Paxton told The Washington Times that he was convinced voter fraud exists in Texas, and that local election officials were not vigilant in detecting it.
According to a May 2, 2017, ProPublica article, there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas.
By May 2017, the Office of the AG's "efforts to enact and enforce the strictest voter ID law in the nation were so plagued by delays, revisions, court interventions and inadequate education that the casting of ballots in the 2016 election was inevitably troubled".
In May 2017, Paxton filed a preemptive lawsuit to ascertain the constitutionality of Texas's SB 4 law, which imposes penalties on sanctuary cities. He argued the law is constitutional and vital for securing borders.
In July 2017, Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General and Idaho Governor Butch Otter in threatening the Trump administration with litigation if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.
In 2017, Joe Straus was re-elected as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
In 2017, Paxton defended Texas in a federal lawsuit involving allegations that Texas's congressional districts were gerrymandered, and the state ultimately won on appeal at the Supreme Court.
In 2017, the federal district court dismissed the lawsuit that sought to ban concealed handguns from UT Austin campus. Paxton had called the lawsuit "frivolous" and moved to dismiss in 2016.
In early 2017, Ken Paxton objected to a Texas school's use of an empty classroom to allow its Muslim students to pray, claiming that the room excluded students of other faiths. The school superintendent called Paxton's press release a "publicity stunt".
On November 6, 2018, Paxton won a second term as attorney general, defeating Justin Nelson and Michael Ray Harris.
In November 2018, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals invalidated the trial court's order approving payments of attorneys' fees to the special prosecutors in Paxton's case.
In 2018, Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's wife, won the District 8 seat in the Texas Senate.
In 2018, Paxton falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants had committed over 600,000 crimes since 2011 in Texas, a claim debunked by PolitiFact.
In 2018, Paxton held just under $3 million in his campaign account for a potential re-election bid.
In 2018, the dismissal of a suit seeking to ban concealed handguns from the University of Texas at Austin campus was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ken Paxton claimed his extramarital affair ended by 2018.
Paxton's office spent almost double the time working on voter fraud cases in 2021 as it did in 2018.
In 2019, Paxton convinced Texas lawmakers to more than quadruple the human trafficking unit's annual funding.
In March 2020, Hervis Rogers, a Black man, voted in the Democratic presidential primary election in Harris County, Texas.
In May 2020, Ken Paxton opposed an expansion of absentee voting to voters who lack immunity to COVID-19. He publicly contradicted a district judge's ruling and persuaded the Texas Supreme Court to address the issue.
In June 2020, Hervis Rogers' parole ended.
An analysis by KXAN found that 24 of 138 people convicted of voter fraud in Texas between 2004 and September 2020 spent time in jail.
In October 2020, seven of Ken Paxton's top aides sent a letter accusing him of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery, and other crimes, prompting investigations and the departure of all seven whistleblowers by the end of the month.
In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office accused him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes."
On December 8, 2020, Ken Paxton sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, alleging unconstitutional actions in their presidential balloting and asking the Supreme Court to invalidate their electoral votes. The case was quickly dismissed.
In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxton sued the city of Austin for implementing restrictions preventing indoor dining and drinking on New Year's weekend amid surging COVID-19 cases.
During the 2020 election season, Ken Paxton sued Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins to block him from sending applications for absentee ballots to the county's registered voters. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately reversed lower court decisions and directed the trial court to enter an injunction against Hollins.
In 2020, Ken Paxton's affair continued and he worked with Nate Paul to hire the woman.
In 2020, Paxton's Human Trafficking Unit did not secure a single human trafficking conviction.
In 2020, after Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election, Paxton aided Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the result by making unfounded claims of election fraud.
In 2020, after Paxton sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Galveston Democrats filed a complaint against Paxton with the State Bar of Texas, alleging professional misconduct.
In 2023, Ken Paxton sued the federal government in Texas v. Garland, asserting that $1.7 trillion federal spending law passed by Congress for fiscal year 2023 is invalid because of the lack of a physical quorum in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time of the bill's passage. Paxton argued that the House's decision in 2020 to allow the use of proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional.
In October 2021, Ken Paxton falsely claimed that Joe Biden "overthrew" Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Ken Paxton faced scrutiny for his attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Ken Paxton's office spent more than 22,000 hours looking for voter fraud after the 2020 election, finding only 16 cases of false addresses on registration forms out of nearly 17 million registered voters.
On January 6, 2021, Paxton spoke at the rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
In March 2021, Paxton filed a lawsuit against Austin and Travis County for continuing their local mask wearing requirements after Governor Abbott ended the statewide mandate.
In May 2021, the Board of Disciplinary Appeals reversed the initial dismissal of an ethics complaint against Ken Paxton and ordered the Bar to investigate a possible violation of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Misconduct.
According to a July 9, 2021 article in The Guardian, "[F]ew prosecutors have pursued election-related crimes more than Paxton."
According to a July 11, 2021 article in The New York Times, even though voter fraud is "very rare in the United States," Ken Paxton has "made it a mission" as attorney general to lay voter-charge charges.
In July 2021, Ken Paxton ordered the arrest of Hervis Rogers, a Black man who voted while on parole, for allegedly violating Texas election laws.
In October 2021, Ken Paxton falsely claimed that Joe Biden "overthrew" Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
In October 2021, the Texas Third Court of Appeals rejected Ken Paxton's appeal, affirming the trial court's order in the whistleblower suit filed by former members of the Texas AG's Office.
In 2021, Paxton's Human Trafficking Unit secured four convictions, two of which resulted in deferred adjudications.
In 2021, Paxton's office spent almost double the time working on voter fraud cases as it did in 2018, recording over 22,000 staff hours but resolving only 16 prosecutions.
In 2021, Paxton's voter fraud investigation unit had a budget of $1.9 million to $2.2 million, and by the end of the year, the office had closed only three cases of fraud.
In early 2021, Ken Paxton's office refused to provide his work emails and text messages sent or received while in Washington on January 6, after Texas news organizations requested them.
In January 2022, the Travis County district attorney gave Ken Paxton four days to comply with the state's open records law regarding his work emails and texts from January 6, 2021, or face a lawsuit.
On February 18, 2022, Paxton issued a written opinion characterizing gender-affirming health care for transgender youths as child abuse.
On March 17, 2022, Paxton made a post on Twitter in which he referred to U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine – a trans woman — as a man, resulting in the tweet being flagged for violating its conduct rules.
In May 2022, the Bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline sued Ken Paxton in Collin County District Court for acting unethically in seeking to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
In June 2022, Paxton stated that he would defend state laws prohibiting sodomy or consensual same-sex sexual relationships if the Supreme Court precedent invalidating such laws, the Lawrence v. Texas decision, was overturned.
On July 11, 2022, a trial was scheduled by a Texas District Court regarding state investigations into families providing gender-affirming medical care for their children.
In September 2022, a process server alleged that Paxton avoided being served a subpoena at his home, leading to a confrontation and claims of perceived threat.
On November 8, 2022, Paxton won the election for the Attorney General of Texas office for the third time. He advanced to the general election after winning primary contests earlier in the year.
In November 2022, officials indicated that Paxton's office had no information about citizens who had changed their gender on their driver's licenses, despite that in August of that year, the data was provided to Paxton's office, after Paxton's office had requested a list of citizens who had changed their gender on their driver's licenses, circumventing the accepted procedure of contacting DPS' government relations and general counsel's offices by instead directly contacting the driver license division staff. No reason was given for this request.
In 2022, Paxton was re-elected as the attorney general of Texas, marking his third term in office.
In 2022, the charges against Hervis Rogers were dismissed after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Paxton had no authority to unilaterally charge Texans with election crimes.
In February 2023, Ken Paxton reached a tentative settlement with whistleblowers, agreeing to pay them $3.3 million. The settlement, which required state approval for funding, involved Paxton apologizing for referring to the plaintiffs as 'rogue employees' but did not include admission of fault or liability by either party.
In late February 2023, Ken Paxton asked the Appropriations subcommittee of the Texas House of Representatives to provide more taxpayer funds to his office, including the full amount of the intended $3.3 million settlement of the lawsuit brought by whistleblowers from his office.
In March 2023, the Texas House General Investigating Committee began to investigate Ken Paxton.
In May 2023, Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives following accusations from whistleblowers that he abused his power to assist a wealthy donor in exchange for possible benefits.
In May 2023, the Texas House General Investigating Committee stated that the investigation of Ken Paxton was triggered by "Paxton's own request for taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct." A spokeswoman for Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan concurred.
In May 2023, the deadline for payment in the whistleblower settlement passed without the payment being made, causing the settlement to not come into effect.
On May 23, 2023, Ken Paxton accused Texas Speaker Phelan of performing his duties while intoxicated and demanded his resignation and investigation. Phelan responded by accusing Paxton of attempting to save face amidst his own investigation.
On May 25, 2023, the Republican-led House General Investigating Committee unanimously recommended that Paxton be impeached, filing 20 articles of impeachment detailing various allegations.
On May 27, 2023, Ken Paxton was impeached after the Texas House voted 121-23 in favor. As a result, Paxton was suspended from office pending a trial in the Texas Senate.
In June 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned lower courts' rulings and held that the securities fraud case against Paxton should stay in Harris County.
In June 2023, the pro-Paxton "Defend Texas Liberty" gave a $1 million contribution and a $2 million loan to Dan Patrick's campaign
On June 21, 2023, the Senate voted to bar Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's wife, from voting in his impeachment trial, despite her presence being required.
In August 2023, a week before Paxton's impeachment trial, fourteen lawyers filed a complaint with the State Bar seeking to prevent Paxton from practicing law, accusing him of abuse of office and other misconduct.
On September 5, 2023, Ken Paxton's impeachment trial began in the Texas Senate. Paxton pleaded "not guilty", and the Senate voted down the motion to dismiss charges.
In September 2023, the Texas Senate voted to acquit Paxton of all articles of impeachment, ending his suspension from office.
In September 2023, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the attorney general is subject to the Whistleblower Act.
On September 16, 2023, Ken Paxton was acquitted in the Texas Senate of all articles of impeachment, allowing him to resume his duties as attorney general.
In October 2023, the Harris County District Court scheduled Paxton's trial to begin on April 15, 2024.
In December 2023, after a Texas judge ruled that Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus had trisomy 18, qualified for an abortion, Paxton opposed the ruling, threatened to prosecute doctors, and stated that Texas hospitals allowing the abortion could be liable.
In December 2023, the Texas Attorney General's office was sued by Seattle Children's Hospital for having subpoenaed private medical information about any minors of Texas residence who may have received gender-affirming medical care.
In 2023, Ken Paxton sued the federal government in Texas v. Garland, asserting that the $1.7 trillion federal spending law passed by Congress for fiscal year 2023 is invalid due to the lack of a physical quorum in the U.S. House of Representatives. He argued that the House's decision in 2020 to allow proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional.
On January 1, 2024, Ken Paxton and his wife Angela Paxton reported that their home was subjected to a swatting incident while they were not present, and their home address had been improperly released.
On March 26, 2024, Ken Paxton reached an agreement with the special prosecutor's office, allowing him to avoid trial by agreeing to pay restitution, perform community service, and take ethics training.
In December 2024, Paxton sued the NCAA, arguing that allowing trans women to compete in women's sporting events was "false, deceptive, and misleading" to attendees.
In 2024, a unit created by Ken Paxton raided the offices of Latino voting activists, seizing cellphones, computers, and documents as part of a voter fraud inquiry. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) described the raids as an attempt to suppress Latino voters.
Ken and Angela Paxton had not lived together since June of 2024.
On April 5, 2025, Travis County district court judge Catherine Mauzy awarded $6.6 million combined to four whistleblowers.
On April 8, 2025, Paxton announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in the 2026 election.
On July 10, 2025, Angela Paxton tweeted that she had filed for divorce from Ken Paxton on biblical grounds, alleging adultery and stating that they had not lived together since June 2024.
In 2025, the state securities fraud charges against Paxton were dismissed upon his fulfilling a pretrial agreement.
In 2026, Paxton is running for the United States Senate challenging incumbent senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary.
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