DALLAS — Before winning election to the Texas Senate, Angela Paxton sometimes stole the show at her husband’s campaign stops.
She played guitar and sang a song with lyrics guaranteed to make any Republican crowd cheer, especially when she hit this line:
“I’m a pistol packin’ mama, and my husband sues Obama.”
The Ken Paxton campaign’s YouTube channel still features a seven-year-old video of Angela Paxton performing the song at what appears to be a Northeast Tarrant Tea Party event.
Angela met Ken Paxton while they were students at Baylor University.
They married in 1986 and had four children.
According to her senate biography, Angela was adopted and was the first in her family to graduate from college.
She earned an undergraduate and a master’s degree and spent more than 20 years as a teacher and guidance counselor.
Her husband entered politics in 2002 as a state representative.
He also served as a state senator before being elected Texas Attorney General.
In 2018, Angela ran for the same senate seat Ken once held.
She won, and then won re-election in 2022.
Her district includes most of Collin County as well as Hunt and Rains Counties.
As a senator, she will serve as a juror in her husband’s impeachment trial.
But she is the only juror without a vote.
The Texas Senate approved 31 rules that will govern the upcoming trial and rule number 31 applies solely to Angela Paxton.
It says spouses have a conflict of interest.
According to the rule, Paxton will be present and hear all of the evidence – some of which will include details of an alleged extra-marital affair – but when the rest of the Senate deliberates behind closed doors, Paxton cannot listen in or weigh in.
Her presence counts toward the total number of votes needed to convict her husband, but she will not cast a vote on anything.
Paxton was one of just three members of the senate who voted against the rules in June.
The day after her vote, she issued a statement that said in part: “I will continue to do everything in my power to be a voice for the people of Senate District 8 in the Texas Senate.”