Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Aggressive Tactics Silence Critics as He Wages Legal Battles for Conservative Causes

In the aftermath of Texas House Democrats’ announcement that they would return to the state, effectively concluding their efforts to obstruct Republicans from redrawing the state’s congressional maps, Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated a perceived victory.

Paxton, a staunch conservative ally of former President Donald Trump, utilized his office to wage multiple legal battles against the absent Democrats, attracting significant attention as he challenged Senator John Cornyn in the upcoming Republican Senate primary.

Paxton petitioned the state Supreme Court for the expulsion of 13 Democrats from office, sought assistance from an Illinois court to enforce the Texas House speaker’s civil arrest warrants for the Democrats hiding outside Chicago, and obtained a court order preventing former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke’s political action committee from raising funds to assist the boycotting Democrats. He subsequently accused O’Rourke of violating that court order and sought his arrest.

On Wednesday, Paxton claimed his approach had been successful: the Democrats were planning to end their quorum-breaking effort more swiftly than in previous standoffs, including 2003 and 2021. In a conversation with conservative talk radio host Mark Davis, Paxton stated, “The strategy of applying pressure from various angles seems to have had an impact on them. They’ve certainly returned faster than they have in the past.”

Paxton’s actions and remarks during this interview provided a glimpse into his long-standing methods of operation. He has consistently pushed legal boundaries, stirring up conservatives and leveraging the courts to position himself at the forefront of political disputes with significant national implications, even when his lawsuits have little chance of success.

Over three terms as attorney general, his readiness to engage in these battles has earned him strong support among conservatives — including those in the state Senate who acquitted him two years ago, following his impeachment by the Republican-dominated House over allegations of corruption and bribery.

However, this approach has also antagonized many Democrats and some moderate Republicans, and it’s why Democrats believe the state’s Senate race could become competitive next fall if Paxton defeats Cornyn in the GOP primary. The controversy surrounding Paxton intensified last month, when his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, filed for divorce, alleging infidelity.

As his primary against Cornyn approaches, Paxton has effectively silenced his Republican critics during the party’s campaign to return the absent House Democrats to Texas. He achieved this using tools unavailable to Cornyn — who requested US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the source of the Democrats’ funding but could not launch his own probe.

Paul Nolette, a professor and the director of Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government, stated, “Paxton is one of the most innovative attorneys general in terms of using his office for advancing his political vision.” He added, “What’s new and unusual is that he’s really been the one who has modeled how to use tools that don’t, on their face, seem partisan, for greater partisan effect.”

Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said, “Everyone views Paxton the same way — as someone who will stop at nothing to use and abuse his office to advance whatever he views as the partisan political imperative of the moment.”

“He views himself less as the attorney general of Texas than as the attorney general of the Republican Party,” Vladeck continued. “And that may endear him to the folks who vote for him and who his actions benefit, but it certainly isn’t consistent with his constitutional, statutory, and ethical duties and obligations to all the people of Texas.”

Elected attorney general in 2014 after twelve years in the Texas legislature, Paxton initiated 27 lawsuits against the Obama administration during his first two years in office. He challenged Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, seeking to have it declared unconstitutional — an attempt rejected by the Supreme Court.

Paxton was more successful in battling Obama’s immigration reforms, preventing the implementation of a policy that would have granted deferred action to undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States since 2010 and had children who were American citizens or lawful permanent residents. He also fought Obama’s administration over environmental protections, water regulations, overtime policy, hiring rules for felons, and more.

In 2020, Paxton filed a post-election lawsuit against four presidential battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — where President Joe Biden had defeated Trump. He alleged that those states’ actions to expand voter access during the coronavirus pandemic had cast “a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election.” The Supreme Court quickly dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Texas lacked standing.

During Biden’s term, Paxton continued to challenge the Democratic administration in court. His office boasted in a November 2024 news release that it had filed its 100th lawsuit against Biden’s administration. In a statement at the time, Paxton declared, “The federal government has been ruthlessly weaponized against the American people. But Texas stood in their way.”

He challenged Biden’s immigration policies, including winning a ruling blocking Biden’s “parole in place” policy that granted legal status to certain undocumented individuals who are married to US citizens. He also unsuccessfully challenged the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate and later launched investigations into the pharmaceutical drug makers who manufactured vaccines.

With Trump back in office, Paxton has continued to wage cultural battles by targeting blue states. In December, he sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas — one of the first challenges to shield laws enacted by Democratic-controlled states to protect doctors in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning. Then, in July, he sued a New York county clerk for failing to levy a fine imposed in Texas when that doctor did not appear in court. The suits are ongoing.

He has also returned to an issue Trump raised frequently during the 2024 campaign: allegations of voter fraud. Paxton’s office announced last month it had “launched a sweeping investigation into more than 100 potential noncitizens who cast over 200 ballots in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.”

Nolette concluded, “Paxton has used the very ample tools of the AG’s office to maximum effect.” He highlighted Paxton’s targeting of a migrant shelter in El Paso by demanding its client records, his use of consumer protection laws to probe pharmaceutical drug-makers, hospitals that provided gender-affirming care to minors, and more.

“He’s really been a leader in using those almost bread-and-butter tools of the office, which are typically for run-of-the-mill cases at the state level or noncontroversial, bipartisan issues, and using those in a more sharply partisan way,” Nolette said.