The wife of Texas AG Ken Paxton has filed for divorce, saying:
“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Cynic that I am, I’d have guessed either Angela’s legislative pension had finally vested, or some unusually ugly business misdealings had been uncovered. But the Texas Tribune says it’s (officially) adultery:
… “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, said in a post on X. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
In his own statement, Attorney General Paxton cited the “pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny” as the reason the couple had “decided to start a new chapter.”
Attorney General Paxton is currently running against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in next year’s Republican primary, after close to a decade as attorney general. Senator Paxton was elected in 2019 to represent the North Texas Senate district that her husband represented before his elevation to statewide office. She was reelected to another four-year term in November.
Paxton’s record of aggressively suing the Biden administration is matched only by his penchant for scandal, culminating in his impeachment by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023. The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him after a nearly two-week trial.
Angela Paxton attended her husband’s trial but was not allowed to vote on any issues or participate on deliberations over whether to convict or acquit.
The impeachment claims focused on benefits Paxton provided to Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, as well as an alleged extramarital affair the attorney general had with a former Senate aide. According to investigators, the affair ended briefly in 2019 after Angela Paxton learned of it, then resumed in 2020. The woman he allegedly had an affair with was called to testify before the Senate and came to the chamber, but left without speaking.
BREAKING: Texas' hottest political couple is no more – State Sen. Angela Paxton is filing for divorce from her husband, Attorney General Ken Paxton, citing adultery and "recent discoveries." Here's my report on "Keeping Up With the Paxtons" in @chron.com www.chron.com/politics/art…
— gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 3:04 PM
The couple has been professionally (as well as Biblically) joined at the hip for decades, so this must’ve been something very unpleasant…
… The news of the divorce could complicate Ken Paxton’s run for U.S. Senate, where he is seeking to topple longtime incumbent John Cornyn in what is expected to be a gruelling Republican primary next year.
The Paxtons first met at Baylor University in Waco, where Ken was student body president. Angela and Ken married in 1986, and have four children and three grandchildren. After receiving a master’s degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Angela taught math in Collin County public schools before becoming a counselor at a private Christian school in Frisco, Texas. She would eventually be elected to the Texas Senate in 2018, where she became one of the most conservative lawmakers in the state, regularly pushing for hard-right priorities on education and anti-LGBTQ+ issues.
Open Thread: Potentially Good News (for Democrats) Out of TexasPost + Comments (87)