DALLAS — Ken Paxton is on a winning streak.
He was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.
He then defeated some of his fellow Republicans on Super Tuesday for revenge.
And Paxton even recently got criminal securities fraud charges against him dropped after nearly a decade.
“Right now, he is unstoppable. I mean, you tell me, of the top four state officials, Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Speaker of the House Phelan and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who of those four other than Ken Paxton has conquered all three branches of government,” Houston Attorney Joe Jaworski asked rhetorically on Y’all-itics.
Jaworski is a Houston Attorney who tried to take Paxton’s job a couple of years ago. But he lost to Rochelle Garza in the Democratic primary runoff for Attorney General by more than 20 percentage points.
And if you happen to recognize his surname, he’s the grandson of Leon Jaworski, the famous prosecutor in the 1973 Watergate scandal.
Even though he lost by a large margin in 2022, Jaworski tells us he is strongly considering another run for Attorney General in 2026.
“So, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick, they are in a well-fortified bunker and it’s going to take something more in ’26 to remove them,” Jaworski said matter-of-factly.
Because Ken Paxton is so powerful, Jaworski says other Republicans either fall in line, or they’ll face a primary challenge, or hear from Paxton’s vocal supporters.
And in the absence of a third or fourth viable political party, the former Galveston Mayor says it’s entirely up to Democrats to do something about Paxton’s dominance.
A tall order in a red state like Texas.
“So, it's really up to the Democratic Party to nominate candidates, in this case for Attorney General, who can draw independent support, moderate, or let's just use the word repulsed, Republican support, because they just can't live with Donald Trump or Ken Paxton, and they really are very similar, and, of course, motivated Democratic voters to create a bloc that will outnumber whoever the primary Republican voters are that support Paxton and those who just reflexively vote Republican in November,” he said.
And Jaworski says if Democrats can’t do that, they shouldn’t call themselves a political party.
To learn more about that, and why the Democrat thinks it’s essential the idea of compromise returns to Texas politics, listen to the full episode of Y’all-itics. Cheers!