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Candidate record

Ken Paxton

Attorney General of Texas since January 5, 2015; previously Texas House District 70 and Texas Senate District 8. Campaign affiliation: Republican.

Voter guide

Background, stated goals, record, and money

Background comes from official records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so; goals are summarized from the campaign's own platform and stay attributed; the record lines are official actions with the government source attached; money is shown as filed, with the filing window and the reconciliation in the note under the table, and is not evidence of why any position was taken.

Ken Paxton

Background

  • Attorney General of Texas since January 5, 2015; his office's own biography records him as the state's 51st attorney general, elected on November 4, 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022, leading more than 4,000 employees in 38 divisions. Office of the Attorney General of Texas
  • Before that he sat in the Texas Legislature for twelve years: the Legislative Reference Library records him in House District 70 from January 14, 2003 to January 8, 2013, across the 78th to 82nd Legislatures, and in Senate District 8 from January 8, 2013 to January 13, 2015, in the 83rd, with McKinney in Collin County as his home city throughout. Legislative Reference Library of Texas

What they say they want to do

  • Carry President Trump's legislative programme in the Senate, naming tax cuts, border security and deportations, ending what he calls the weaponization of government, and draining the swamp. Ken Paxton for Senate
  • Take on pharmaceutical and food companies and widen transparency in food and health care. Ken Paxton for Senate
  • Finish the border wall and deport people he describes as criminal illegal aliens. Ken Paxton for Senate
  • Pass a regulatory framework for digital assets, naming the CLARITY Act. Ken Paxton for Senate

What the official record shows

  • Sworn in as attorney general on January 5, 2015, the 51st holder of the office; his office's biography records the human-trafficking unit as his first major initiative. Office of the Attorney General of Texas
  • Authored 280 bills and resolutions in the Texas Legislature across the 78th to 83rd Legislatures and their called sessions, of which 46 carry a last action recording that they took effect; he sponsored a further 37 as the other chamber's sponsor, 25 of which took effect. Legislative Reference Library of Texas, Legislative Reference Library of Texas
  • The attorney general's numbered opinion series under his name runs KP-0001 to KP-0526, the most recent issued August 26, 2026. An attorney general opinion is a written interpretation of existing law and, in the office's own words, cannot create new provisions in the law and cannot resolve factual disputes. Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas
  • Announced a settlement of over $1 billion with Meta Platforms on August 26, 2026, which his office records as the third settlement over $1 billion it has reached with a technology company, after $1.4 billion from Meta over facial-recognition data and $1.375 billion from Google. A settlement is official action by the office; it is not a vote. Office of the Attorney General of Texas

Campaign money from other committees, by type

Leadership PACs 13 committees$70,000
Party committees 1 committee$62,000
Corporation-connected PACs 8 committees$38,500
Membership organization PACs 4 committees$20,000
Hybrid PACs 2 committees$13,500
Other PACs (no organization type recorded) 1 committee$5,000
Trade association PACs 1 committee$5,000
Other candidates' committees 1 committee$4,000
Committees listed without an FEC id in the filing 2 committees$1,500

Source: Federal Election Commission

Itemized receipts from political committees in the 2025-2026 cycle filings through June 30, 2026, grouped by the FEC's recorded organization type or designation of the contributing committee. The rows sum to $219,500.00, equal to the FEC summary's other-committee contributions of $157,500.00 plus its party contributions of $62,000.00. Not in the table: $6,597.58 of itemized line-12 transfers from two joint fundraising committees, against $6,632.58 on the summary; $83,600.00 of itemized line-11AI receipts from partnerships and limited liability companies, which the filing records as individual contributions; $2,358.55 of itemized line-14 offsets to operating expenditures; and 456 memo entries totalling $3,242,577.43, almost all of them the campaign's own fundraising platform attributing donors above the itemization threshold. A memo entry restates money the report already counts elsewhere, so adding one would count it twice.

Words and record

Where statements meet the record

Each card is labeled narrowly, by rule, and states its own limit.

Ken Paxton

Record in office: the settlements with Meta

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign account says he secured a settlement of $1 billion with Meta in the week before the post, and separately that he secured $1.4 billion from the same company in 2024 over personal data.

“Kids are being exposed to harmful content on social media every day. My mission has always been to protect children and put parents back in control. Last week, I secured a $1 billion settlement with Meta and I’ll keep delivering wins for Texas families as your U.S. Senator. Help me keep fighting for Texas families. Donate today:”

Source: X, X

What the record shows ·

The office's own release of August 26, 2026 says it: "Attorney General Ken Paxton secured over $1 billion as part of a historic settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) to protect Texas children online." The same release records the earlier figure he cites and a third: it calls this "the third settlement worth over $1 billion that Attorney General Paxton has secured from Big Tech companies" and states that he previously secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over facial-recognition data and a $1.375 billion settlement with Google. It also records what the settlement requires of the company beyond money, including age assurance, a daily two-hour limit for teenage users and notifications disabled by default during school hours. This is official action by the office he heads, and it is a settlement, not a vote, a sponsorship or a cosponsorship.

Sources: Office of the Attorney General of Texas

Limit: Both figures he gives are in his office's own release, and the release is the office's account of its own work rather than a court record: this desk did not read the settlement agreement, any court filing, or any docket. What kind of action this was matters for how it is read here. A settlement is an exercise of the attorney general's litigating authority, not a recorded vote or a sponsorship, so it cannot be set beside a roll call the way a legislator's record can. Whether Texas has received any of the money, and whether the safeguards have been put in place, are questions about administration that this card does not assess.

Ken Paxton

Federal litigation: how many suits against the Biden administration

No verdict

What they say

His campaign's issues page and its biography page both give a number for the suits he brought against the Biden administration.

“Attorney General Paxton led the national legal charge against Biden’s radical agenda and sued the lawless Biden Administration over 100 times, including to put an end to disastrous open borders policies.”

Source: Ken Paxton for Senate, Ken Paxton for Senate

What the record shows ·

The Office of the Attorney General publishes no docket and no ledger of the suits it has filed. Its newsroom is the only list it offers and it is a paginated index of press releases, ten to a page, which returned page one unchanged whether a search term or a larger page size was requested, so it cannot be filtered to suits against one administration and is not a count of filings in any case. The office's own biography carries two related numbers and neither is this one: it says he filed 27 lawsuits against the Obama administration during a two-year stretch, and that he has "obtained an injunction or other winning ruling in more than 75 percent of the cases he's brought against the federal government". The one countable ledger the office does publish is its opinion series, which counts written opinions and not suits. His own account of the litigation is on his campaign account in general terms: "When the Corrupt Biden Administration came for us, I took them to court and I won."

Sources: Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas, X

Why there is no verdict here

Suits by Texas against the federal government plainly exist, and this desk cites some of them, so there is nothing missing from the record in the way "not comparable" would mean. What is missing is a count. The office publishes no docket and no ledger of its filings, and its newsroom is a paginated press-release index that cannot be filtered to one administration and would not be a count of filings if it could. Every label on the methodology page would therefore say something untrue about why this claim is not judged, so this card carries none.

Sources: Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas

Limit: What would settle it is a docket: a list of cases filed by the State of Texas against federal defendants over a stated period, from the courts rather than from the office's press releases. This desk did not read federal court dockets, and it is recording that it did not, rather than counting press releases and calling the result a check. Nothing here says the claim is wrong, and nothing here says it is right.

Ken Paxton

Before the office: twelve years in the Texas Legislature

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign biography sums up his time in the Legislature in one sentence.

“Before becoming Attorney General, Paxton served in the Texas House and Senate, where he was consistently ranked among the most conservative lawmakers.”

Source: Ken Paxton for Senate

What the record shows ·

The service half is exact. The Legislative Reference Library records him in House District 70 from January 14, 2003 to January 8, 2013, in the 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st and 82nd Legislatures, and in Senate District 8 from January 8, 2013 to January 13, 2015, in the 83rd, where a footnote records that he drew a two-year term in the January 23, 2013 drawing. What he did there is countable too: the library's bill search records 280 bills and resolutions with him as author across those six legislatures and their called sessions, 46 of which carry a last action recording that they took effect, and a further 37 he carried as the other chamber's sponsor, 25 of which took effect. The ranking half is not in any official record. It is an assessment by organisations outside the Legislature, and no Texas legislative source scores a member.

Sources: Legislative Reference Library of Texas, Legislative Reference Library of Texas, Legislative Reference Library of Texas

Limit: The label attaches to the half a record can settle: he served in both chambers, for the districts and across the years the sentence implies, and the legislative record of that service is substantial. The other half, that he was consistently ranked among the most conservative lawmakers, is a third-party rating and this desk checked no rating publication, so it is neither confirmed nor doubted here. Counts of authored bills are as the library records them and include resolutions; a bill that took effect is not necessarily one he carried alone.

Ken Paxton

Record in office: the 2023 impeachment and trial

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign biography says the political establishment has repeatedly tried to silence him and that he never yielded to it; his issues page puts the same claim as a politically motivated investigation of him and of President Trump.

“He’s never bent a knee — not against the Biden administration, not against corporate overreach, and certainly not against the corrupt political establishment that’s tried to silence him time and time again.”

Source: Ken Paxton for Senate, Ken Paxton for Senate

What the record shows ·

Both chambers acted on him in 2023 and both were Republican-held. On May 27, 2023 the Texas House adopted H.R. 2377, impeaching him and preferring 20 articles, by 121 yeas to 23 nays with 2 present and not voting (Record 2191); the Journal accounts for 149 members, 85 Republicans and 64 Democrats, and of the 121 yeas 60 were Republicans and 61 Democrats, while all 23 nays were Republicans. He was then out of the office: the attorney general's own opinion index records John Scott serving as provisional attorney general from May 31 to July 14, 2023 and Angela Colmenero from July 14 to September 16, 2023, in each case "Pursuant to article 15, section 5 of the Texas Constitution". The Senate tried 16 of the 20 articles and acquitted on every one on September 16, 2023. The presiding officer stated on the record that conviction on a single article would remove him and that the threshold was 21 votes; no article drew more than 14. The Senate then had 31 members, 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats, and 30 votes were recorded on each article; Senator Angela Paxton, the respondent's wife, is not among the members whose votes the record carries. On each of the twelve articles that drew 14 yeas those yeas were the chamber's 12 Democrats and 2 Republicans and all 16 nays were Republicans; Article IV drew 2 yeas to 28 nays, Article VIII 8 to 22, Article IX 12 to 18 and Article V 13 to 17. The four articles held in abeyance, XI to XIV, were dismissed 19 to 11 on Senator Birdwell's motion, and the judgment records that "A dismissal of these articles of impeachment does not constitute an acquittal of any charge contained in the articles of impeachment". The judgment reinstated him the same day and he holds the office now.

Sources: Texas Legislature Online, Texas House of Representatives, Legislative Reference Library of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Texas Senate, Legislative Reference Library of Texas

Limit: What the record bears out is the checkable part of the sentence: formal proceedings were brought against him, they kept him out of the office for the 108 days between May 31 and September 16, 2023, he contested them rather than resigning, and they ended in acquittal on every article tried. The record calls that a suspension, not a removal, and this desk uses the same word on both cards that touch it. What no record can settle is the rest of the sentence, whether the proceedings were corrupt or were an attempt to silence him. That is a claim about motive and this site does not assess motive, in either direction. Two things are stated here so the record is not read as an argument: the chamber that brought the articles and the chamber that acquitted were both Republican-held, and the party split of each vote is given above. The dismissal of the four remaining articles is carried in the words of the judgment because the judgment itself says a dismissal is not an acquittal. This desk read the trial rules only as the record of proceedings quotes them, and did not read the articles' underlying allegations or any evidence.

Issues in this record

Follow the evidence by issue.

Costs and the economyHealth careImmigration and the borderGovernment accountabilityEnergy and the environmentEducation

Evidence timeline

Dated records, with sources attached.

  1. race event

    Final ballot certification

    The Texas Secretary of State's final ballot certification for the November 3, 2026 general election, signed by the Deputy Secretary of State on August 28, 2026, lists three candidates for United States Senator: Ken Paxton (Republican), James Talarico (Democratic) and Ted Brown (Libertarian), in that order, which is the ballot order this desk follows.

    Texas Secretary of State

  2. finance

    FEC filing snapshot

    July Quarterly 2026, principal campaign committee KEN PAXTON FOR SENATE.

    Federal Election Commission

  3. race event

    Paxton sworn in as attorney general

    The Office of the Attorney General records Ken Paxton as the 51st attorney general of Texas, elected on November 4, 2014 and sworn into office on January 5, 2015, and re-elected in 2018 and 2022.

    Office of the Attorney General of Texas

  4. race event

    Paxton's legislative service begins

    The Legislative Reference Library records Ken Paxton taking House District 70 on January 14, 2003, at the start of the 78th Legislature; he held that seat through the 82nd and then Senate District 8 in the 83rd, to January 13, 2015.

    Legislative Reference Library of Texas

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