Ken Paxton’s estranged wife urges conservative women to support GOP candidates ‘even if we’re mad at them’

Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News/Getty Images/File

Angela Paxton, who is divorcing Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, posted a video Monday of recent remarks urging Republican women to support GOP candidates in Texas this fall even if they have reservations about them.

In the speech, titled “The Elephant in the Room,” Angela Paxton, a Texas state senator, did not mention her husband or his hotly contested race against Democrat James Talarico. But she made multiple references to Texas Republicans feeling conflicted about how to vote in the November election, particularly amid Ken Paxton’s long history of legal and ethical controversies.

Angela Paxton filed for divorce last year from the state’s attorney general and cited “biblical grounds,” accusing him of adultery.

“The reality is, while we are the party of values, we have some vulnerabilities on our ballot, some real vulnerabilities,” Angela Paxton said in the speech. “And I’ll be honest with you, I think Republican women will decide this election, because some of those vulnerabilities, I think, have been particularly alienating to women that hold our values.”

But she suggested that the now-concluded primary — in which Paxton resoundingly defeated Sen. John Cornyn — was the time to litigate those issues and that Republicans now need to prioritize the “seat” over the candidate.

“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 them,” she 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?”

Angela Paxton released the full video of her September 18 speech after the Texas Tribune reported on a roughly two-minute clip that was posted on social media by an attendee. She delivered the remarks at a quarterly board meeting of the Texas Federation of Republican Women.

Republicans are sweating the Senate race as Talarico, a state representative from Austin, continues to lead Ken Paxton in most recent polls for a contest critical to maintaining the GOP’s narrow majority. A top Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, is spending well over $100 million to advertise on Paxton’s behalf, while President Donald Trump is planning multiple trips to the state to boost him.

Some Texas Republicans have long been concerned about Ken Paxton’s viability as a candidate due to his record of scandals, including multiple allegations of infidelity. Cornyn, whom Paxton defeated in the primary with Trump’s support, has declined to campaign for his rival.

The longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove declined to say Saturday whether he was voting for Paxton and rattled off a list of his scandals, including an allegation at his Texas Senate impeachment trial in 2023 that he used a secret Uber account to see a mistress.

“Can you make this sh*t up? I mean, really?” Rove said, speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

The Republican-led state Senate acquitted Paxton under pressure from Trump. Angela Paxton, elected to the chamber in 2018, was not allowed to vote in the trial, which dealt with broader accusations that Paxton abused his office as attorney general. His lawyers broadly denied wrongdoing through the trial and called it politically motivated.

Angela Paxton’s divorce filing in July 2025 reignited speculation about Ken Paxton’s personal life. He issued a general denial of her petition but has otherwise mostly avoided addressing allegations of infidelity on the campaign trail.

The Paxtons’ divorce trial was scheduled for June but was canceled. Ken Paxton’s lawyers said at the time they were nearing a “final agreement.”

Angela Paxton did not make an endorsement in the primary runoff between Ken Paxton and Cornyn, even as she backed candidates in other statewide contests.

While Angela Paxton did not bring up her estranged husband in her recent speech, she addressed a handful of things other Texas Republicans have said about the Senate contest, such as their desire to leave a race blank on the November ballot. She urged them not to do that.

She also cast the decision as one that could have implications for the next election in Texas, when she is up for reelection and when voters will be picking a new president.

“We cannot ignore the elephant in the room,” Angela Paxton said. “If we do, we will lose, and in two years, we’ll be fighting not a battle, but a war.”

Juan Figueroa/达拉斯晨报/Getty Images/档案照片

安吉拉·帕克斯顿（Angela Paxton）正在与德克萨斯州共和党参议员候选人肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）办理离婚手续。周一，她发布了一段视频，视频中她最近发表讲话，敦促共和党女性在今年秋天支持德克萨斯州的共和党候选人，即使她们对这些候选人有所保留。

在题为《房间里的大象》的演讲中，德克萨斯州参议员安吉拉·帕克斯顿没有提及她的丈夫，也没有提及他与民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科之间激烈的竞选。但她多次提到，德克萨斯州的共和党人在11月的大选中不知如何投票，尤其是在肯·帕克斯顿长期以来饱受法律和道德争议的情况下。

安吉拉·帕克斯顿去年向州检察长提出离婚，并援引“圣经理由”，指控他犯有通奸罪。

“现实情况是，虽然我们是价值观的捍卫者，但我们的选票上存在一些弱点，一些实实在在的弱点，”安吉拉·帕克斯顿在演讲中说道。“坦白地说，我认为共和党女性将决定这次选举的结果，因为我认为，这些弱点中的一些尤其令那些秉持我们价值观的女性感到疏远。”

但她认为，现在已经结束的初选——帕克斯顿在初选中以压倒性优势击败了参议员约翰·科宁——是解决这些问题的时机，共和党人现在需要优先考虑“席位”而不是候选人。

“因为当我们掌控这个席位时，我们对它和未来就有了更大的控制权——即使我们对他们不满，只要它还在我们家族手中，”她说。“但如果我们把席位输给对方，我们想通过某个候选人来解决的那些细微问题，与夺回席位所需的努力相比，根本微不足道，对吧？”

在《德克萨斯论坛报》报道了一位与会者在社交媒体上发布的一段约两分钟的视频片段后，安吉拉·帕克斯顿公布了她9月18日演讲的完整视频。她是在德克萨斯州共和党妇女联合会的季度理事会会议上发表这番讲话的。

共和党人正为这场参议院选举焦头烂额。来自奥斯汀的州众议员塔拉里科在最近的民调中持续领先于肯·帕克斯顿，这场选举对共和党维持其微弱的多数席位至关重要。共和党最大的超级政治行动委员会“参议院领导基金”已斥资超过1亿美元为帕克斯顿做广告，而唐纳德·特朗普总统也计划多次访问该州，为他助选。

由于肯·帕克斯顿丑闻缠身，包括多次婚外情指控，一些德克萨斯州共和党人长期以来一直担忧他作为候选人的可行性。帕克斯顿在初选中击败了科宁，而科宁得到了特朗普的支持，但他拒绝为帕克斯顿助选。

共和党资深策略师卡尔·罗夫周六拒绝透露他是否会投票给帕克斯顿，并列举了帕克斯顿的一系列丑闻，其中包括在2023年德克萨斯州参议院弹劾审判中，他被指控使用秘密的优步账户与情妇见面。

“这事儿你编都编不出来？我是说，真的吗？”罗夫在奥斯汀举行的德克萨斯论坛节上说道。

在特朗普的压力下，由共和党控制的州参议院宣判帕克斯顿无罪。2018年当选州参议员的安吉拉·帕克斯顿被禁止参与审判投票。该审判涉及更广泛的指控，包括帕克斯顿作为州检察长滥用职权。在整个审判过程中，帕克斯顿的律师始终否认他有任何不当行为，并称此案是出于政治动机。

2025年7月，安吉拉·帕克斯顿提交离婚申请，再次引发了人们对肯·帕克斯顿私生活的猜测。他虽然对她的申请予以了笼统的否认，但在竞选期间，他基本上避免回应有关他婚外情的指控。

帕克斯顿夫妇的离婚案原定于6月开庭审理，但后来取消了。肯·帕克斯顿的律师当时表示，他们即将达成“最终协议”。

尽管安吉拉·帕克斯顿在其他全州竞选中支持候选人，但她并没有在肯·帕克斯顿和科宁之间的初选决胜轮中表态支持任何候选人。

尽管安吉拉·帕克斯顿在最近的演讲中没有提及她分居的丈夫，但她回应了其他一些德克萨斯州共和党人就参议院竞选发表的言论，例如他们希望在11月的选票上留空某个席位。她敦促他们不要这样做。

她还表示，这一决定可能会对德克萨斯州的下一次选举产生影响，届时她将竞选连任，选民也将选出一位新总统。

“我们不能忽视这个显而易见的问题，”安吉拉·帕克斯顿说。“如果我们这样做，我们就会失败，两年后，我们打的就不是一场战斗，而是一场战争了。”