Paxton Jets Off to Iceland with Influencer
as America Gears for 250th Birthday Bash
Capitol Inside
June 29, 2026
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may have given Republicans the impression that he has the U.S. Senate race locked up during the weekend when he headed to Iceland for a romantic getaway with one of the women with whom he's been linked romantically in recent years while married to a state legislator for the GOP.
The Texas Senate nominee was spotted at Washington Dulles International Airport on Saturday night with a woman who's been identified as Tracy Duhon - a Christian influencer who was married when the pair met in 2024 at the Kentucky Derby in Louisville. The British tabloid the Daily Mail, which had exposed the Paxton affair with Duhon several months later, reported that the two were en route to Reykjavik - the European island nation's capitol city and cultural hub.
Paxton and Duhon appeared to be riding on a shuttle bus in which they were standing in a video that someone who recognize the Texas politician recorded during the ride. The video ends with Paxton glaring at the cell phone camera after realizing it was recording him at a time and location when he'd expected anonymity.
The Texas lawyer's wife - State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney - filed for divorce in July last year on "biblical grounds" amid allegations of adultery that had violated the "sacred covenant" that she believed their marriage of 38 years to be.
But the attorney general's love life outside of wedlock had been common knowledge at that point as a consequence of a separate mistress who'd been at the center of corrupted charges that fellow Republicans in the Texas House lodged against him when they teamed up with Democrats to impeach him in 2023. The ordeal ended with Paxton's acquittal by Republicans in the Texas Senate on all of 20-plus articles of impeachment that 60 House members for the GOP had approved several months earlier.
Paxton's highly-publicized infidelity - coupled with the added shock value of the break up that it spawned and fueled - appeared to put the Senate quest in serious jeopardy in the early stages after a big lead that he had over incumbent John Cornyn began to evaporate in the aftermath of the estrangement. Cornyn attacked Paxton relentlessly for the personal indiscretions - and the AG's status as the favorite for the GOP nomination ended temporarily after he finished second to the incumbent in the primary election in March.
But Paxton trailed the 24-year Senate veteran by less than two points in the first round of voting - and the race remained competitive for three months before President Donald Trump came to the AG's rescue with an endorsement a week before the primary runoff election that he won going away with 64 percent of the vote.
While family values and the bond of matrimony had long been sacred in a party that's controlled by Christian nationalists, the vast majority of GOP voters who turned out for the overtime vote were willing to overlook the Paxton transgressions once he had the president's formal stamp of approval.
The Democrats' Senate nominee, James Talarico, refused to give the attorney general a pass, however, in a speech at the Texas Democratic Convention on Saturday. Talarico portrayed Paxton as a nomad who'd found a gold mine in Texas as a puppet for billionaire contributors.
"Ken Paxton was born in North Dakota, raised in California, and has a place in Hawaii," Talarico told thousands of delegates at the convention in Corpus Christi on Friday night. "Listen, I believe anyone can be a Texan. It doesn't matter if you're an 8th-generation Texan like me, or a California transplant like Ken Paxton. What makes a Texan is not in the boots or in the truck, it's deep in the heart. These billionaires and their puppets have the wrong state of mind. Their hearts and their dreams are just not big enough."
The Texas Democratic Party blasted Paxton's international escapade that would make him a no-show at July 4th celebrations this week.
“At a time when many Texans can barely afford to pay the rent or fill up the tank because of policies Ken Paxton supports, he’s jetting off to Iceland ahead of America’s 250th birthday for a fancy vacation with his mistress," TDP spokesman Ryan Martin said in a statement. "Once again, corrupt Ken Paxton is putting himself first and America last. Paxton shouldn’t worry too much though – he’ll have all the time in the world for luxury getaways with his mistress after he loses in November."
Paxton loyalists might be glad to know that Reykjavík is widely regarded to be one of the "cleanest, safest, and most environmentally friendly cities in the world," according to its Wikipedia page.
more to come ...
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