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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won with 68% of the votes the Republican Party nomination to seek reelection on November 8. Paxton beat George P. Bush and will now face Rochelle Garza, who won the Democratic primary.
Texas is one of the most important states for the Republican Party particularly as no Democrat has won that seat since 1994.
“We have to sweep, and we have to control these elections because going forward, I promise you this, it is Texas that’s going to decide the future,” said Paxton, who has been endorsed by former President Trump.
“When they write the history books about this period of time, I believe they’re going to write about Texas, and they’re going to talk about how Texas stood strong, led the rest of the country, fought back the Biden administration, saved the Constitution and saved the country,” he added.
Finally, Paxton thanked Texas for the trust: “I want to thank each and every one of you who supported my re-election campaign. I am truly humbled by the faith you’ve shown in me. I have no doubt that with a unified conservative movement we will win in November and continue our efforts to defend the greatest state in our union,” he said on his social media.
Ken Paxton: a controversial prosecutor with good results
Paxton secured his victory with 630,064 votes and must now prepare for the race on November 8.
The Republican was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2002 and represented House District 70 for 10 years. In 2012, he was elected to the Texas State Senate, representing Senate District 8 in Collin and Dallas counties; and since 2015 he has held the current office to which he seeks re-election.
His first major initiative as attorney general was the formation of a special unit dedicated to combating human trafficking in Texas. During its first year of existence, the Human Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime (HTTOC) section helped arrest the CEO of Backpage.com, the largest online sex trafficking marketplace in the United States.
Under Attorney General Paxton’s leadership, the agency’s Child Support Division is recognized as the most successful and cost-effective program in the nation. In the fiscal year 2016 alone, the division collected $4.096 billion for Texas families, an unprecedented amount in one year for any state.
Paxton additionally filed 27 lawsuits against the Obama administration over a two-year period, five of which were heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. During his tenure in office, Attorney General Paxton won major cases for Texas on immigration, school rights, EPA regulations, and religious freedom.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Paxton threatened to file lawsuits against local governments unless they rescinded stay-at-home orders and rescinded rules on the use of facemasks to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
That year, after the presidential election, Paxton helped Trump in his efforts to overturn the outcome, to the point where he led Texas v. Pennsylvania in the Supreme Court.
As of April 28, 2022, Paxton adds up to his 11th court challenge on immigration against President Joe Biden’s administration.
However, the outlook for the Republican is not so easy due to the fact that he faces some accusations of alleged bribery, corruption and abuse of power.
In the summer of 2015, Paxton was indicted on state securities fraud charges. Four different judges have overseen his case and the trial has yet to proceed. Also, in 2020, the FBI opened an investigation into alleged bribery, corruption, and abuse of power, according to The Associated Press.
The Republican has vehemently denied wrongdoing, citing a 374-page report that concludes he is innocent.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo