Ken Paxton wants Texans to send him to the U.S. Senate. A quarter-million-dollar check behind that bid came with a name that didn't belong to anyone.
Politico reported on October 2 that Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC supporting Paxton, took in a $250,000 donation last year from a "Paul McLaren," listed as an "entrepreneur" living in Plano, Texas.
There is no Paul McLaren living in Plano. The address on the filing is a rented mailbox in a strip mall.
Who really wrote the check
The money came from Ben Pogue, a Texas businessman, and his wife. Pogue told Politico the made-up name was not meant to hide anything. He said he picked it because his middle name is Paul and he owned a McLaren sports car about ten years ago — an "inside joke." He didn't explain the rented mailbox.
The super PAC told Politico the filing should have listed the "Paul McLaren Revocable Trust" and that it would be corrected.
That is the whole point of a campaign finance report: voters get to see who is paying for the ads. A quarter-million dollars sat in public records under a joke name and a mailbox address until a reporter tracked it down. Paxton's spokesperson declined to comment.
The pardon Paxton helped get
The Pogue name isn't new to Paxton.
Ben Pogue's father, Paul Pogue, founded a Texas construction company. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to filing a false tax return after under-reporting his income by nearly $1.7 million over several years, and was sentenced to three years' probation.
In February 2020, Donald Trump pardoned him. The White House said at the time that Pogue's supporters included Rick Santorum and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to the Associated Press.
So the state's top law enforcement officer vouched for a man who had admitted to cheating on his taxes — and that man's family has kept writing Paxton checks.
Years of money and favors
Politico laid out how deep the ties run:
- The extended Pogue family has given $1.5 million to Trump's political committees since 2019.
- They have given around $60,000 to Paxton directly, according to state and federal records.
- In 2017, Paxton disclosed that Paul Pogue, whom he called a "family friend," gave him $10,000 for "legal defense."
- Paxton served as the family's notary when Pogue's son Brandon bought a house in the neighborhood.
Under the "McLaren" name, Ben Pogue and his wife also gave to the Michigan and Georgia Republican parties, Herschel Walker's 2022 Senate campaign, and Ted Cruz's campaign, Politico found in FEC records.
A pattern, not a one-off
Paxton's Senate run has leaned on a small number of very rich backers. Earlier this year, mega-donors turned him down because of his scandals, and the gap was filled by Trump's super PAC and Elon Musk's money.
Now a $250,000 check turns out to have been filed under a fake name, from the family of a man whose pardon Paxton personally backed. The Texas Senate race is already one of the most expensive in the state's history — around $153 million in ad spending, according to AdImpact figures Politico cited — and voters were not told where this $250,000 came from.
What the filings show
A super PAC backing Ken Paxton reported a $250,000 donation from "Paul McLaren" of Plano, a person who doesn't live there, at an address that is a rented mailbox. The real donor is Ben Pogue, whose father Paul Pogue admitted to filing a false tax return and was pardoned by Trump in 2020 with Paxton's support. The Pogue family has given Paxton about $60,000, including $10,000 for his legal defense, and Paxton declined to comment.
