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Angela Paxton, a Texas state senator and estranged wife of Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, has appeared in a new campaign ad urging voters to support the full Republican ticket in November. However, she stopped short of naming her husband directly in the ad, which a Texas PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune funded.
In the ad, Angela Paxton told viewers she is “voting for the Republican ticket on Nov. 3.” She also invited viewers to “talk about the elephant in the room.” Yet she never mentioned Ken Paxton’s Senate bid by name. Her office did not respond to questions about whether she personally plans to vote for her estranged husband.
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“In a general election, it’s not as much about the individual players on the team; it’s about getting the whole team across the finish line,” she said in the ad. “Either we hold every Republican seat, or we hand the future of Texas to the other team.”
A Candidate With a Complicated History
Ken Paxton’s political career has faced serious challenges in recent years. Allegations of abuse of office and bribery have followed him throughout his tenure as Texas attorney general. The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives impeached him in 2023. However, the state Senate later acquitted him. The Senate trial also touched on allegations of infidelity, which Paxton has denied.
Angela Paxton filed for divorce from Ken Paxton last year, citing what she described as “biblical grounds.” Despite their separation, she now appears in campaign material aligned with efforts to keep him in office.
Family Members Rally Behind Paxton
The ad featuring Angela Paxton follows a separate campaign appearance by the couple’s daughter, Mattie Hayworth. Hayworth appeared alongside her husband and children in an ad supporting her father. She criticized “liberal politicians” as a graphic displayed images of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., next to Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
“When they come after you, my dad goes after them to bring down prices and stand up for families,” Hayworth said in the ad.
A Surprisingly Competitive Race in Deep-Red Texas
Despite Texas’s strong Republican lean, the Senate race has become unexpectedly competitive. Republicans have not lost a statewide race in Texas since 1994. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate seat in the state since 1988. Nevertheless, Talarico currently holds a slight advantage over Paxton in recent polling.
An NBC5 Dallas/Telemundo Station Group poll conducted in late September showed Talarico at 46% and Paxton at 43%. That gap falls within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. An additional 8% of potential voters remained undecided at the time of the poll. NBC News currently rates the race as a toss-up.
The contest has also become one of the most expensive Senate races of the current election cycle. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn during the Republican primary, has actively campaigned for him. Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has invested millions of dollars into the race. Trump visited Texas twice in the past month — first for the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, then again for a rally in Denton as part of a 17-state campaign blitz.
At a separate campaign event in Alabama on Friday, Trump made clear how much he values a Paxton victory. “Last night, I went to Texas, where we won by a lot, and then I went to Oklahoma, and they said, ‘Why is he going to Texas?'” Trump told the crowd. “Because we have to win that race. Ken Paxton has to win.”
