Background and career
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the 51st attorney general of Texas since 2015. He is the Republican Party nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Texas. Born in Minot, North Dakota, Paxton was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013 and represented the eighth district in the Texas Senate from 2013 to 2015. In 2015, Paxton was indicted on state securities fraud charges relating to activities before taking office; the charges were dismissed nine years later without any requirement to admit any wrongdoing. In 2023, Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives, and the Texas Senate voted later in 2023 to acquit Paxton of all articles of impeachment. An ultraconservative or far-right politician, Paxton is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump. After Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Trump refused to concede while making false claims of election fraud, Paxton aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the result. He filed the unsuccessful Texas v. Pennsylvania case in the U.S. Supreme Court and spoke at the rally Trump held on January 6, 2021, that preceded the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Throughout the course of Biden's presidency, Paxton pursued legal action against the administration 106 times, with a success rate of about two-thirds. In April 2025, Paxton announced that he would run for the United States Senate in the 2026 election in Texas, challenging incumbent senator John Cornyn. Following a primary election, Paxton defeated Cornyn in a runoff for the Republican nomination. He will face Democrat James Talarico in the general election.
Paxton was born on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where his father was stationed while in the United States Air Force. His parents and their three children lived in a trailer parked outside wherever his father was temporarily stationed. They lived in Florida, New York, North Carolina, California, and Oklahoma. He graduated from MacArthur High School in Lawton, Oklahoma. At the age of twelve, Paxton nearly lost an eye in a game of hide-and-seek; a misdiagnosis led to long-term problems with his vision. He further injured his eye while in college. Paxton received a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1985 and an MBA in 1986, both from Baylor University. He was elected president of the student government. In 1991, he received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduating from law school, he worked at the law firm of Strasburger & Price and as in-house counsel for JCPenney. In 2002, he opened his own law practice, specializing in estate planning, probate matters and real estate.
In 2002, Paxton ran in the Republican primary for the Texas House in District 70. He captured 39.45% of the vote and moved into a runoff with Bill Vitz, whom he then defeated with 64% of the vote. He faced Fred Lusk (D) and Robert Worthington (L) for the newly redistricted open seat. On November 4, 2002, Paxton won with 28,012 votes to Lusk's 7,074 votes and Worthington's 600 votes. Paxton won reelection against Democrat Martin Woodward in 2004, receiving 76% of the vote, or 58,520 votes, compared with 18,451 votes for Woodward. Paxton won reelection in 2006, defeating Rick Koster (D) and Robert Virasin (L). Paxton received 30,062 votes to Koster's 12,265 votes and Virasin's 1,222 votes. Paxton won reelection by again defeating Robert Virasin (L), 73,450 votes to 11,751 votes. Paxton ran unopposed for reelection in 2010. In 2010, Paxton ran for speaker of the Texas House of Representatives against fellow Republicans Joe Straus of District 121 in Bexar County and Warren Chisum of District 88 in Pampa, Texas. Paxton said that if elected speaker, he would take "bold action in defense of our conservative values". Sensing certain defeat, Paxton pulled out of the speaker's race before the vote. Paxton was endorsed by HuckPAC, the political action committee of Mike Huckabee, and was endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund. Straus was elected to his second term as speaker and was reelected in 2013, 2015, and 2017.
After winning the 2012 election, Paxton replaced the retiring Florence Shapiro in the Texas Senate. He served from 2013 until January 2015, when his term as attorney general began.
Paxton became a candidate for Texas attorney general when the incumbent Greg Abbott decided to run for governor. Paxton led a three-candidate field in the Republican primary on March 4, 2014, polling 566,114 votes (44.4%). State representative Dan Branch of Dallas County received 426,595 votes (33.5 percent), and Texas Railroad commissioner Barry Smitherman polled the remaining 281,064 (22.1 percent). Paxton faced Branch in the runoff election on May 27, 2014, and won with 465,395 votes (63.63 percent). Branch received 265,963 votes (36.36 percent). In the November 4, 2014, general election, Paxton defeated Democrat Sam Houston, an attorney from Houston. Paxton took office on January 5, 2015. Paxton's campaign raised $945,000 in the first half of 2016, leaving Paxton with just under $3 million in his campaign account for a potential 2018 re-election bid. Paxton won the attorney general's election without the endorsement of a single Texas newspaper.
In 2018, Paxton ran unopposed for reelection in the Republican primary. Having received the endorsement of U.S. president Donald Trump, Paxton won a second term as attorney general in the general election on November 6, 2018, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Justin Nelson, a lawyer, and Libertarian Party nominee Michael Ray Harris by a margin of 4,173,538 (50.6 percent) to 3,874,096 (47 percent) and Harris receiving 2.4%. Justin Nelson's campaign ad for attorney general included surveillance video from the Collin County courthouse in 2012, showing Paxton taking a Montblanc pen worth $1,000, which had been accidentally left behind at a metal detector by fellow lawyer Joe Joplin. The pen was later returned "when the error was realized", said a spokesman for Paxton.
