Paxton Suffers One PR Hit after Another
in Month of July that Kicked Off in Europe
Capitol Inside
July 19, 2026
Republican Ken Paxton is coming off a two-week stretch that began with a trip to London with an alleged mistress on American Independence Day before accusations of illegal voting, revelations on suspicious campaign contributions and personal investments and wildly exaggerated claims about his fundraising and crowds at events for a U.S. Senate bid.
Here are the top 10 public relations hits that Paxton has faced in the first half of July in a monumental battle with Democrat James Talarico in a Texas Senate race that could swing the majority in Washington D.C. to the Democrats at the rate the state attorney general and the Republicans have been going.
 Crowds. The Texas attorney general's camp claimed that he attracted 763 supporters in McAllen to an event on Tuesday that he'd billed as a Rally in the Valley. But the turnout for the Paxton campaign event at the University Draft House turned out to be closer to 100 - about two-thirds of the establishment's maximum capacity. Talarico in sharp contrast had more people waiting in line outside an event that was already packed to the max inside in Del Rio the following day than the entire audience for Paxton's rally in the Rio Grande Valley. "Lying about your crowd size is a pretty Low-T move, Ken," the Texas Democratic Party argued in a tweet that mocked the Paxton campaign's Low-T Talarico battle cry.
Fundraising. Paxton's campaign announced on July 8 that the AG raised $9 million for the Senate race in the second quarter of 2026 in a sign that Republicans have united behind him after a bruising primary runoff fight. But the Ken Paxton for Senate committee only raised $1.6 million during the three-month span in a development that pushed his total for the Senate race to $9.2 million. Talarico reported $26 million in new money during the second quarter - pushing the total take to nearly $66 million as a Senate candidate for the past 10 months. A Talarico super PAC has generated $16 million for the Senate race while a super PAC that's backing Paxton has taken in $6 million for his bid. The running count when the super PACs are added to the mix stands at $82 million for the Democratic Senate contender compared to $15 million for the Republican. GOP nominees in the meantime in seven Texas statewide races for offices at the state level generated $158.7 million combined before the end of June compared to $13.1 million that Democratic opponents generated during the current two-year cycle.
Gambler Rescue Ride. Paxton received a donation of $274,000 from Fort Worth's Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech University board chairman and leading donor the day before the attorney general intervened in a standoff between the Big 12 and the school on the eligibility of transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby. The former Indiana and Cincinnati signal caller had been suspended by the league for gambling large sums of cash on his teams' games at his two previous NCAA stops. But Paxton rode to Tech's defense with a letter that he fired to the Big 12 warning of legal consequences by his office in the Sorsby case. Texas Tech pulled the plug on Sorsby after the conference to blink in the face of the Paxton threats. The Campbell contribution was disclosed in filings at the FEC this week. Campbell denied there to be any connection between the contribution and the AG's actions on behalf of the school.
Election Fraud. The Collin County Democratic Party filed a complaint with authorities this week with allegations that the Texas AG voted in six separate elections when he was still registered at the home where he'd lived before a break-up with his wife. Paxton has pushed for prison sentences for migrants and other poor people who violated state election laws for relatively minor offenses when they didn't realize they were doing anything wrong. Paxton's camp has denied that he broke the law in any way, form or fashion. He probably doesn't have to worry about the threat of the state investigating him.
Real Estate. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Paxton added three condos at a golf resort in Utah in February to an investment portfolio that includes 15 separate properties that are valued at an estimated $9 million combined. The Texas lawyer's extensive real estate holdings have sparked a flurry of questions on where he got the money for the ventures while making an annual government salary of $153,000 as the attorney general for the past 11 years. Talarico has slammed Paxton repeatedly for profiting off his public position.
America's 250th Birthday. Paxton got a preview of his fame when somebody recognized him in an airport shuttle in Washington D.C. where he and a girlfriend got a getaway to Europe under way on the first of July. The cell phone video of Paxton and the woman went viral before the traveling Texans ever got to their room in Reykjavik - the capital of Iceland - where the holiday excursions began. Then someone else spotted Paxton and the female walking down a street in London on July 4th and captured the experience on a video as well. Paxton's traveling partner was decked in a fancy green dress while the AG wore a business suit without a tie on sunny day with temperatures in the high 80s. The backlash was intense. From a public relations standpoint, the worst part of the tempest that the married state lawyer's globetrotting sparked was its timing, giving critics an easy opportunity to berate him for celebrating America's independence from England with the British and a woman who is not his wife. Republicans in down-ballot races may have been the most concerned about the Paxton vacation because it raised the specter he'd put his Senate bid on cruise control while Talarico was campaigning overtime back home. When asked in a national television interview where he'd been on the Fourth of July, Talarico said he'd spent the day with Willie Nelson.
Trump. Paxton stepped up his plan to keep the president center stage in his Senate campaign without any apparent concern for Trump approval ratings that sunk to new lows in the past few days. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll that was made public Thursday found with a 37 percent approval mark - which matched the rating he had at the end of his first term in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Worse yet - a new Echelon Insights survey showed Trump losing ground with key components of his base. The poll found the president's approval rating among voters with a high school degree or less at a historic low as well. But there was more. A U.S. Hispanic Business Council poll of Hispanic that was released on Monday had Talarico leading Paxton by 7 percentage points among Hispanic business owners in Texas where there were more who identified as Republicans than Democrats.
Talarico Reviews. Joe Rogan caught Vice-President JD Vance off-guard during an interview on his podcast this week when he heaped praise on the Democratic Senate contender in the Lone Star State. "I had James Talarico on the podcast, and one of the things that I think he has a really good point about is putting the 10 Commandments in schools," Rogan told the VP. "I don't think that’s the right way to do it. This is a guy, Talarico, who was in seminary and is very Christian - he just thinks… you're forcing your religion into other people's lives, that this is going to push people away from Christianity, rather than encourage them to pursue it.” Rogan was so impressed the first time he had Talarico as a guest that he suggested the state representative from Austin should run for president.
Utah Connection. Paxton has emerged as a darling among some very conservative and wealthy donors in Utah - one of his largest sources of campaign cash outside of Texas. The NYT piece noted that Paxton recently acquired three condos in the luxury golf resort Black Desert in Ivins in the southwestern corner of the Beehive State. That gave him four there. Two other Utah executives - defense contractor Doug Quezada and real estate investor Ben Rogers - are hosting a fundraiser for the Texas Senate nominee on August 21. Quezada founded the Latter-day Saints for Trump coalition. He's organized fundraisers for President Donald Trump himself there. But Paxton's largest contributor in Utah had been Trevor Milton - a billionaire who received an unconditional pardon from Trump in 2025 after landing a four-year prison term for securities and wire fraud in connection with investors in a scheme involving emission-free truck technology. Paxton can empathize - having been charged with felony securities fraud himself in 2015 in a case that bounced around in the judicial system for nearly a decade before he got prosecutors to dismiss the case if he agreed to complete 100 hours of community service on top of $300,000 in restitution to ostensible victims.
Border Security. Pro-Trump Republican Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland teamed up with two Democratic counterparts from neighboring rural counties in a show of support on Tuesday for Talarico's bipartisan border security proposal at a press conference near Big Bend. The Commonsense Border Security Agenda that the GOP sheriff from Terrell County showed up to support stole the thunder from a belated endorsement that Paxton received from the National Border Patrol Council, which had backed Cornyn for re-election before his elimination from the race.
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