Paxton Teaser on Cornyn Challenge
Could Be Governor Bid Trial Balloon
Capitol Inside
September 21, 2023
Attorney General Ken Paxton floated a test balloon on Wednesday when he suggested that he might run for U.S. Senator John Cornyn's seat in 2026 just four days after his acquittal in the Texas Senate on an array of charges that House Republican leaders failed to sell in a historic impeachment bid.
Paxton said that "everything's on the table" in an interview with Tucker Carlson on X. But the teasing of a campaign to unseat Cornyn could an attempt to test the waters as well for a race for governor instead that year.
Paxton accused President Joe Biden's administration of choreographing the impeachment in a collaborative conspiracy with Texas House Republican Speaker Dade Phelan, Democrats who helped him win the gave and the Bush family. The AG revealed the initial list of retaliation targets with marquee names from Karl Rove to Comptroller Glenn Hegar.
Paxton gave pollsters rich material with the threat of a challenge to Cornyn. They would be wise to include questions on hypothetical primary fights in three years with Cornyn and Governor Greg Abbott as well. Cornyn would be the most vulnerable of the two on paper - having posted the lowest approval ratings by far among the state's top leaders in recent years.
The polls should also add a question on a possible fight between Paxton and Patrick in 2026. Paxton has been unhappy with the lieutenant governor for the Senate impeachment rules that barred his wife - State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney - from voting. The AG may come to realize if he doesn't already that he owes Patrick an enormous gratitude for an outcome that never appeared to be in doubt beyond misleading coverage and editorials in the state's largest newspapers.
Paxton would have been a candidate for re-election at best in three years if not for the failed impeachment attempt. But Paxton has name identification in the same league with the third-term governor now as one of the impeachment efforts most significant consequences. Abbott never acknowledged publicly that fourth impeachment in Texas history was ever under way. But the governor has to be concerned by the threat of a Paxton challenge - especially if Paxton's most valuable ally Donald Trump happens to be the president at the time. .
Paxton has been tested in a GOP primary and the governor has not beyond a pair of challengers who had no realistic chance of beating him in 2022. has to be worried as well even though he
Paxton said the impeachment opened his eyes to the state's senior U.S. senator and why he should be ousted at the GOP primary polls. “Now that I've been through this and I've seen how guys like John Cornyn have represented the state of Texas, or not represented us, I think it's time somebody needs to step up and run against this guy and do the job the right way," Paxton said.
The Paxton revenge list is expected to grow exponentially at a fast pace with most if not all of 60 House Republicans who voted to chase him out of office with an impeachment that cratered in the Senate due to massive gaps in the prosecution's evidence. Paxton prefers to view the targeting of enemies as a day of reckoning crusade than a quest for vengeance.
Paxton told conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan in a separate interview on Wednesday that he believes the Biden administration hatched the impeachment as payback for all the lawsuits he's filed against the president and the federal government on behalf of the state as an AG in his third term.
“I think the Biden Administration was tired of being sued,” Paxton theorized. He depicted Phelan as a pawn of Democrats who were really pulling the strings. The House speaker was "directed by the Democrats,” the state lawyer added.
That appears to be a stretch based on the same kind of assumptions that proved to be the impeachment prosecution's undoing. The fact is that the impeachment was a Republican production from its conception to a verdict that the House managers and their lawyers failed to anticipate.
Paxton's allies on the right have Phelan as the crown jewel on primary hit lists with high-ranking GOP lieutenants like State Reps. Andrew Murr of Junction and Dustin Burrows of Lubbock among the highest priorities in bids for re-election in 2024. Murr chaired the House investigating committee that launched the Paxton probe and waited to make it public two days before the impeachment vote transpired two days before the regular session in adjourned in May.
Burrows is a major leader team enforcer as the chairman of the powerful Calendars Committee. GOP State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen can expect to be a significant target as well next year after a closing argument that some Republican senators saw as a thinly-veiled and offensive end-around a woeful lack of evidence.
more to come ... |
