Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s estranged wife, Angela Paxton, addressed the “elephant in the room” in a new advertisement and urged Texas Republicans to vote for the GOP ticket regardless of who is on the ballot.
“I’m Texas Senator Angela Paxton,” she says in the new ad, which began airing on Saturday. “People have asked my thoughts about this election, and turns out, I have some… 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. Either we hold every Republican seat, or we hand the future of Texas to the other team. That’s why I’m voting for the Republican ticket on Nov. 3. Let’s hold the line together.”
Paxton’s implicit support for her former husband was on display at a Texas Federation of Republican Women event in September, when she similarly said “it’s not the people” but rather the need to retain the up-for-grabs seats that should motivate GOP voters. She filed for divorce last year on “biblical grounds” and alleged her then-husband had committed adultery during their 38 years of marriage.
“We have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” she joked. “But if we lost it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back,” she said.
“The reality is, while we are the party of values, we have some vulnerabilities on our ballot. And I’ll be honest with you, I think Republican women will decide this election, because some of those vulnerabilities, I think, have been particularly alienating to women that hold our values,” she said. Her framing reflects much of President Donald Trump’s perspective on November’s midterm elections, as he told voters at a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday night they should pretend his name is on the ballot, rather than the respective actual candidates.
TRUMP RALLIES SUPPORT FOR KEN PAXTON IN TEXAS CAMPAIGN STOP
Paxton is struggling in public polls against Democratic state representative James Talarico despite Texas’s long-standing status as a Republican stronghold and Trump having won the state in the 2024 presidential election by over 13 percentage points. Trump notably endorsed Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican primary, a decision that drew criticism from Republicans who believed Cornyn was more likely to win.
Texas PAC, which funded the ad, is a political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and other leading Senate Republicans. Paxton herself is a Republican state Senator who is not up for reelection this fall. She has otherwise largely stayed out of her ex-husband’s race, according to the Texas Tribune.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
