Ken Paxton hit the campaign trail with a smile last week.
Beaming in photos he posted of events in Collin County, Denton County, Grayson County and Tarrant County, the Texas Republican attorney general campaigned and promoted more than a dozen candidates on the ballot in this week’s primary election.
Most are new faces to the Republican Party, because Paxton, the legally embattled but popular statewide official, isn’t seeking to shore up his party’s incumbents: Paxton is out for revenge.
“It’s time for a whole new slate in Collin County,” he wrote in one post with a photo of him and five Republican candidates seeking to oust incumbents. Two of them are running in the same race — his tweet suggests voters pick one — but all share one key characteristic in their primaries: They didn’t vote to impeach the attorney general last year.
Paxton was impeached on corruption charges by the Texas state House last May, with 60 votes coming from his own party, before the Texas state Senate acquitted him in September and restored him to office.
Now, the attorney general has issued endorsements to candidates in more than 70 contests, with most going to Republican lawmakers who voted against his impeachment or those challenging GOP incumbents who voted for it. His social media accounts boast a two-page, single-spaced list of endorsements up and down the March 5 primary ballot.
And he has a powerful ally in his effort: Former President Donald Trump has endorsed a dozen of the candidates Paxton is backing, making good on his promise to punish those who voted against his longtime ally.
It’s turning an already chaotic primary season in Texas into yet another battleground in the Republican Party’s internal wars.
“What you’re seeing right now is a reflection of what is happening [in] national politics. You’ve seen Donald Trump jump into — I don’t even know how many — state rep races. Why is he getting involved that far down the ballot? Because it is a…
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