Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton is publicly weighing in on her estranged husband’s U.S. Senate race for the first time, urging Republican voters to stick with the party even when they are unhappy with its candidates.
Paxton made the remarks during a recent meeting of the Texas Federation of Republican Women in Round Rock, where she encouraged more than 100 board members to prioritize control of the Senate seat over their feelings about an individual candidate. The comments come as her estranged husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, faces a competitive general election against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Angela Paxton filed for divorce from Ken Paxton in July 2025 after 38 years of marriage. She said at the time that she was seeking the divorce “on biblical grounds,” while her original divorce petition alleged adultery. Ken Paxton later generally denied the allegations in the petition.
Since then, Angela Paxton has largely avoided publicly discussing her husband’s political future. That changed during the Republican women’s meeting.
“Because we have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at it,” Paxton said. “But if we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back, right?”
Her message centered on the broader consequences of party control rather than an explicit personal endorsement of Ken Paxton.
“They’re [Democratic candidates] not like a stand-alone thing, like a menu item. We have more control when it’s our party,” Paxton continued. “We have more ability than influence, and that person is attached to our party.”
During the Republican primary season, Angela Paxton encouraged Texans to participate in the May election but stopped short of publicly supporting her husband in his battle against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. Ken Paxton ultimately defeated Cornyn for the Republican nomination.
The general election has since developed into a closely watched contest. Recent public polling compiled by the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project shows a tight race. A Texas Southern University/YouGov poll conducted Sept. 15-19 found Talarico at 47 percent and Paxton at 46 percent among likely voters, while an Emerson College/Nexstar survey conducted Sept. 12-14 produced the same 47-46 split. Both margins were within the polls’ reported margins of error.
Republican-aligned groups have also dramatically increased spending in Texas. The Houston Chronicle reported this week that more than $100 million in largely negative advertising against Talarico has been launched or planned as Republicans seek to hold the seat.
Ken Paxton entered the general election with a lengthy and sometimes contentious political record. In 2023, the Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him on allegations that included bribery and abuse of office. He was later acquitted by the Texas Senate and returned to his duties as attorney general. Allegations surrounding an extramarital affair also surfaced during the impeachment proceedings.
The personal and political storylines have now collided as November approaches.
Angela Paxton did not erase the differences that have emerged between herself and her estranged husband. Instead, her message to Republican activists was that those differences should be weighed against the consequences they see in handing a Senate seat to the opposing party.
