Ken Paxton’s Glass House

Ken Paxton wants you to join him on his high horse. 

Since announcing his run for the U.S. Senate seat held by four-term incumbent Senator John Cornyn last April, Paxton has held two roles: Texas Attorney General and firebrand candidate. Using the official trappings of the powerful AG’s office, Paxton has spent the past year broadcasting strong, overtly political messages to Texans. Among them: You should be scared, and you should be disgusted. (You should also be impressed by all that he’s doing to protect you from all of it.) 

In a rigorous journalistic endeavor, the Texas Observer looked at every single press release Paxton’s office has put out from April 2025 through April 2026. We wanted to see how he was using his official AG communications—those presumably tailored to influence the media narrative, with bombastic quotes packaged for reporters to reprint—as his Senate campaign grew more contentious and voters indicated they needed more convincing. These press releases have helped serve as useful chum to throw out to his party base as he, first, navigated a three-way primary that included Congressman Wesley Hunt, and now, a ruthless runoff with Cornyn that will come to a head later this month. These communiqués have also helped create a constant stream of free media, which is especially helpful given his struggles to fundraise for expensive ad buys(while Cornyn has a massive money machine).  

With the guidance of a rhetoric expert, and stubbornly without the use of artificial intelligence implements, we analyzed hundreds of these documents, paying special attention to word choice, the impetus behind each missive, and who, if anybody, was the target of his vitriol. 

The AG’s office sent out nearly 300 press releases in the past year, and the overwhelming majority were negative in tone, even those lauding his office’s “major victories” in court. In these announcements—a mixture of bombthrowing office PR and turn-of-the-screw legal and investigative updates—he used strong language, replete with moralizing and name calling. 

His favorite targets were companies he accused of having unethical business practices or ties to China, immigrants, and trans people. His most fervent month was August 2025, when Texas House Democrats broke quorum for two weeks to forestall a vote on a Trump-ordered congressional redistricting map and Paxton’s office sent out 37 releases. The following month, Paxton sent out one of his longest releases, which was a laundry list of his accomplishments securing “victory after victory” in the AG’s office. His second most prolific month was February of this year—during which he sent 34 press releases—the month ahead of the heated March primary contest.  

He seems particularly proud of his expansive use of consumer protection law. He’s come after Kellogg’s and other cereal companies for using artificial dyes. He helped “protect our kids” by forcing Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble to agree to depict smaller dabs of toothpaste on their packaging, lest children be tempted to use more fluoride than necessary. He publicly investigated fast-fashion retailer Shein and athleisure brand Lululemon over concerns about the safety of their materials (and in the case of the former, sued them over ties to China). 

Ahead of the runoff on May 26, Paxton’s office sent significantly more releases this April (23) than it did last April (16). That month, he highlighted in particular his efforts to enhance consumer protections, to combat “viewpoint suppression,” and to attack immigration from multiple angles.

Texas is one of five states with “resign-to-run” laws, which force some officials to give up their current seat before they can run for a new one. But in Texas, this applies mostly to local offices like county judges, district attorneys, and sheriffs. The law acknowledges the threat that someone could leverage their current office to aid their campaign for a new one.

But the Texas Attorney General—and all other state offices—is notably not required to give up their seat when running for another office. So, under the Seal of the State of Texas, Paxton is free to take swings at his opponents. 

He has used the powers of his office to directly target Cornyn, undoing some of the legal frameworks that the former AG enacted when he was in office from 1999 to 2002. In January, Paxton issued a sprawling legal opinion overruling Cornyn’s 1999 opinion that gave room for demographics to be considered in higher education. Paxton’s opinion took aim at the broader framework of DEI. In a press release after this action, he accused Cornyn of “mudd[ying] the waters.” 

The following month, Paxton withdrew a 2001 opinion by Cornyn that made room for noncitizens to get licences by not requiring they have a social security number. Paxton accused Cornyn of making decisions that “put Texans last by rolling out the red carpet for the invasion of our State.” 

Paxton has made himself a household name in Texas as one of the most MAGA-aligned Republicans. But he’s perhaps most infamous for surviving numerous scandals and legal challenges over his two-decade career in state politics. He was AG for less than a year before he was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015. He was reported to the FBI by his own employees for alleged bribery and abuse of office in 2020. (He illegally fired those whistleblowers.) He was then impeached by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023, but was ultimately acquitted when the matter reached the Senate. In 2025, his wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” after years of her husband’s admitted infidelity. 

When he’s the defendant, he’s quick to dismiss the allegations. Such claims are merely attempts, he’s said, at “sabotage” and “bogus witch hunts” that ignored “the rule of law, the Constitution, and innocent until proven guilty.”

But as Texas attorney general, he doesn’t hesitate to throw stones relying on the same judicial processes he often claims are compromised. In the past year of press releases, he has threatened 15 times to use the “full force of the law”—against immigrants, Democrats, and China, among others. 

“If you mess with Texas, I will come after you,” he warned tech companies suspected of being affiliated with the Chinese government in a press release last November. 

He calls companies “unethical” for “lin[ing] their own pockets” and pursuing profit at the expense of taxpayers. (Paxton himself has been accused of unethically profiting while in office). 

Paxton’s hypocrisy is well-documented. He’s one of the loudest proponents for requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. He opened up investigations into several school districts he accuses of not following the law, sending out eight press releases in the past year referring to the commandments as the foundation of the country’s “legal and moral heritage” and “ethical foundation.” Yet he’s famously eschewed Number 7 multiple times (thou shalt not commit adultery). 

Paxton’s official office communications can be formulaic at times—“Attorney General Ken Paxton Slams Radical _____”, “Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Victory Against _____”—but the language is anything but dry. He decries a “cabal of abortion-loving radicals,” as well as the “jet-setting runaway” Democrats whom he accused of taking “Beto Bribes” from “repeat loser Beto O’Rourke” when they broke quorum.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, he says, is a “champagne socialist.” Pro-immigration activists are “criminal-loving,” and Gavin Newsom can say all he wants from his perch atop the “failed state of California.” Texans are at the mercy of “Antifa-like groups,” “drug-ridden vagrants,” and “pixel pedophiles.” 

His use of trigger words, or terms that are meant to evoke a strong emotional reaction, are particularly telling in these documents. In the span of a year, Paxton used thousands of negative trigger words in his official communications. His favorite by a wide margin: “radical” (108 times). He also accused many of “deceit” (52 times), of “schemes” (34 times), of being “woke” (20 times). 

Matthew Montgomery, assistant professor of American politics at Texas Christian University, said Paxton has a track record of pushing the boundaries of what people expect to hear from an elected official. He said it’s largely been helpful for him to have such a bully pulpit. “It’s just a matter of motivating people to get out there and vote,” Montgomery said. “So if you can scare people or make them hopeful, it might get them to the polls. And using these kinds of words and language is something that does have a demonstrable effect on the public.”

He leaned on stigmatizing, moralizing, and at times outdated language, calling those he disagrees with “demented,” “lunatics,” “wicked,” “vile,” and “deranged.” He calls political adversaries “losers” and refers to immigrants mostly as “aliens” or simply “illegals.” 

In January, he announced that 50 “illegal aliens” had been rounded up in Houston raids. “My message to the illegal aliens who’ve invaded our country and are now detained is simple: Adios!” he wrote.

In these releases, he consistently referred to transgender women as “mentally ill men” and accused the “radical left” of being “obsessed with crushing the dreams of so many girls by allowing men to compete against women in sports.” 

These rhetorical choices all hew closely to President Donald Trump’s own personal lexicon. Trump is one of the few people consistently positively referenced in these releases, along with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy and “national hero Charlie Kirk.” 

We analyzed the trigger words with positive connotations as well. He vowed frequently to “protect” Texas and its laws (63 times) and called for “accountability” 59 times. His third favorite word was “victory.” 

These strategies—of using extreme language and posturing—have worked for Paxton so far, but it’s difficult to tell how voters will respond to his rhetoric in the primary runoff, or—if he beats Cornyn—against the famously mild-mannered, scripture-quoting Democrat James Talarico in November. 

The AG’s office did not reply to the Observer’s request for comment on its rhetorical practices.

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