While serving as a Texas state legislator, Ken Paxton persuaded fellow lawmakers and investors to put money into a tech company called Servergy. He did not tell them he was not investing his own money. He did not tell them he was being paid in company stock. In 2015, he was indicted on three felony counts of securities fraud and failure to register as an investment advisor. He was booked and photographed in a mug shot — seven months into his term as Texas's top law enforcement officer.

Rather than face trial, Paxton delayed the case for nearly 9 years. It changed venues. Judges recused themselves. The case never reached a jury. In 2024, he cut a deal — community service, ethics courses, and restitution payments in exchange for the charges being dropped. There was no acquittal.

Public records show that Ken Paxton has claimed three different properties as his primary residence on mortgage documents — while renting them out. A home in College Station is listed for rent on real estate websites even though its mortgage prohibits rentals. A $1.2 million cabin in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, operates as a luxury short-term rental on Airbnb.

Falsely claiming a home is your primary residence on a mortgage is a federal crime. Ken Paxton is the chief law enforcement officer of Texas — the office responsible for prosecuting mortgage fraud.

In 2020, eight of Ken Paxton's most senior deputies — conservative lawyers he hired himself — reported him to the FBI for bribery and abuse of office. Their allegation: Paxton had used the power of the AG's office to benefit his friend and donor, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was under FBI investigation. In exchange, Paul employed a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair. Within weeks of reporting him to the FBI, all eight whistleblowers were fired or forced out.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Ken Paxton gave his employees a paid day off to celebrate. He has sued out-of-state providers who sent abortion medication to Texas patients. He has threatened to prosecute doctors who provided abortions under Texas's own medical exception law. He prosecuted a midwife who served low-income Houstonians, in a case critics called a political power grab.

Ken Paxton has spent his career claiming to stand for family values, traditional marriage, and Christian principles. His personal life tells a different story.

In 2018, Paxton began an extramarital affair. The relationship disrupted the AG's office and required intervention by senior staff. He confessed to his wife Angela — a Texas state senator — and asked for forgiveness. Staff believed the affair had ended. It had not. Paxton later told his chief of staff the relationship had resumed.

The woman was then hired by Nate Paul — the same donor whose businesses were under federal investigation and who received favorable treatment from Paxton's office. The connection between Paxton's affair, his donor's generosity, and his official actions was central to the House impeachment articles.

Then came a second affair. In 2024, Paxton began a relationship with Tracy Duhon, a married Christian influencer and mother of seven. They reportedly met at the Kentucky Derby. Two months later, Duhon filed for divorce from her husband.

When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts launched a climate change investigation into ExxonMobil, Ken Paxton sided with the company and tried to block the investigation. When the U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena for decades of ExxonMobil records, Paxton filed a brief to stop it. Paxton has called climate change "a matter of opinion."

And the industry he protected is now funding his Senate campaign. His top individual donor is Douglas Scharbauer, a Midland oil executive, who gave $750,000. His second-biggest donor is Preserve Texas Inc., a dark money group that was set up shortly after Paxton announced his Senate campaign and whose donors are hidden from the public. Another top donor is Chelsey Milton, who gave $500,000 — the same donor whose husband was pardoned by President Trump earlier in 2025.

The NRA has given Ken Paxton its highest possible "A+" rating — and he has earned it. He defended campus carry, calling a lawsuit against it "frivolous." He sued the City of Austin to force it to allow open carry in city buildings. He threatened to sue the State Fair of Texas for banning guns on its grounds. He has never supported a single gun safety measure.

Meanwhile, in Texas:

Ken Paxton praised DOGE and called Elon Musk "incredible." He applauded the slashing of federal spending as "necessary" and attacked his own fellow Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn for daring to question DOGE's cuts. Then those cuts came for the programs protecting Texas cattle.

DOGE eliminated approximately $382 million in funding for programs run by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization — including programs that had spent decades monitoring the New World screwworm as it moved through Central America toward the U.S. border. At the same time, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which leads domestic screwworm response, lost nearly a quarter of its workforce.

On June 3, 2026, the USDA confirmed the first New World screwworm case in Texas since 1966 — a three-week-old calf in Zavala County. The screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals. Untreated, it kills. Texas has a $15 billion cattle industry.