Ken Paxton, Texas’ Anti-LGBTQ Attorney General, Wins Republican Senate Primary
Paxton has argued that gender-affirming care is child abuse and Pride events are “immoral.” He’ll face Democrat James Talarico in November’s election.
Featured Image: Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at an election night watch party. Photo by Stewart F. House/Getty Images.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat current U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate Primary on Tuesday.
Paxton, who has a history of targeting transgender people as Texas’ chief law enforcement officer, won with 64 percent of the vote. Cornyn, who has served in the Senate for 24 years, got 36.
Trump backed Paxton recently, claiming Cornyn, a staunch conservative, had not been loyal to him. Cornyn is the first GOP senator from the state to lose the party’s nomination for reelection, the Associated Press reports.
What Does Paxton’s Win Mean for November’s Midterms?
Cornyn is the latest Republican lawmaker to lose his primary due to Trump supporting their opponent, indicating Trump’s iron hold on the GOP. The senator had previously been seen as a moderate before turning more to the right after Trump’s first election. However, he still worked with Democrats on some legislation, which angered Trump’s MAGA supporters, according to NPR.
The win gives Democrats in the state some hope going into November. Many in the party believe their candidate, state Rep. James Talarico, could win against Paxton. Talarico’s campaign already began going after Paxton’s scandal-ridden history in office, which includes an FBI investigation and having been impeached by the Texas House before being acquitted by the state’s senate.
Paxton’s wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year. She cited “biblical grounds” as the reasoning.
The attorney general’s win may force the Republican Party to funnel more resources into the state than it would have if Cornyn had secured the nomination. That in turn will divert money away from swing-state races that Republicans need to win to keep control of the Senate.
Paxton’s Obsession With LGBTQ+ People
For years now, Paxton has targeted transgender people and gender-affirming care in the state and has even gone after Talarico’s support for LGBTQ+ people. He’s backed categorizing gender-affirming care as child abuse, investigated hospitals that provide trans healthcare, and gone after trans athletes.
In 2022, Paxton was accused of spreading his “personal anti-LGBTQIA+ ideology” in the AG’s office by an employee. This was also the time when he released a legal opinion that described gender-affirming care for trans youth as “child abuse.”
He also claimed on social media that Pride events at schools were “immoral and illegal.” He called the organizers of the Pride events “sexual propagandists and predators.”
Throughout his time in office, he misgendered trans athletes and officials, GLAAD notes. He also sued the Biden administration over its support of protecting LGBTQ+ employees in the workforce.
Paxton also declined to defend a Texas commission after a judge said she wouldn’t marry same-gender couples, in violation of federal law. She sued the State Commission on Judicial Conduct after it reprimanded her. As attorney general, Paxton was supposed to defend state agencies when the judge sued but refused, according to GLAAD.
In 2025, Paxton introduced a tip line for Texans to call into after the state passed an anti-trans bathroom ban.
More recently, Paxton has gone after companies that produce chest binders, saying that the companies are in violation of consumer protection laws. In March, he released another legal opinion saying that therapists who affirm trans youth are violating state law, LGBTQ Nation reports.
Earlier this month, Paxton announced that Texas Children’s Hospital had to pay the state $10 million and create a “destransition clinic” over a settlement.
“Paxton is blackmailing a hospital system into creating a resource that no one is asking for,” Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas, said in a statement at the time. “It ignores the actual science and years of data about the overwhelming benefits of gender-affirming care, and it completely disregards the huge number of trans people who owe their lives to the very care Paxton is opposing.”
