Ken Paxton

Paxton was born on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Air Force; the family moved frequently, and he graduated from MacArthur High School in Lawton, Oklahoma, according to Wikipedia. His campaign says he is the son of an Air Force veteran.[6][3] He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology (1985) and an M.B.A. (1986), both from Baylor University, where he was student body president, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law (1991).[6][2][3] He worked as an attorney at Strasburger & Price and as in-house counsel for J.C. Penney, then opened his own practice in 2002 focused on estate planning, probate and real estate, according to Wikipedia.[6] He also worked as a management consultant, and his campaign says he spent 14 years building his own law firm in McKinney, Texas.[2][3] Ballotpedia lists his affiliations as including the Allen, Frisco and McKinney chambers of commerce, McKinney Rotary and Stonebriar Community Church.[2]

Paxton represented House District 70 in the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013, then served in the Texas Senate, representing District 8, from 2013 to 2015.[2] He won the 2014 Republican runoff for attorney general over state Rep. Dan Branch and took office on January 5, 2015, succeeding Greg Abbott. He was re-elected in 2018, defeating Democrat Justin Nelson 50.6% to 47.0%, and in 2022.[6][2]

A Collin County grand jury indicted him in 2015 on felony securities fraud charges (accused of selling securities without a license and without disclosing that he was being paid). In March 2024 he agreed to a pretrial intervention requiring 100 hours of community service, 15 hours of legal ethics training and about $300,000 in restitution; his attorney said it was not an admission of guilt, and the charges were dismissed in June 2025 after he completed it.[7] In May 2023 the Texas House adopted H.R. 2377 impeaching him, which suspended him from office. In September 2023 the Texas Senate acquitted him on all 16 articles it considered and dismissed four others.[8][9]

In the 2026 Republican U.S. Senate primary on March 3, Paxton finished second to Sen. John Cornyn (40.5% to 42.0%), then won the May 26 runoff 63.8% to 36.2% (888,196 to 503,438 votes).[1] He received 43.0% of the vote to James Talarico's 55.1%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[4]