Topline
Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton filed for divorce Thursday after nearly four decades of marriage to Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, a U.S. Senate candidate whose impeachment trial in 2023 publicly exposed an alleged extramarital affair.
An alleged affair involving Ken Paxton was publicly exposed during his impeachment trial.
Key Facts
Angela Paxton announced her divorce on X, writing she made the decision “on biblical grounds” and “in light of recent discoveries,” while noting “I do not believe [my marriage] honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
Ken Paxton, in a separate statement, said he and Angela “decided to start a new chapter in our lives” after they both faced “the pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny.”
During Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial in 2023, during which he was acquitted of charges of misusing public funds and accepting bribes, among other accusations, one of Ken’s former staffers testified—with Angela Paxton in attendance—he confessed to having an extramarital affair.
Paxton, during the trial, denied having the affair.
In a divorce petition filed in Collin County, Texas, Angela Paxton listed among the grounds for divorce the “respondent has committed adultery” and the couple had not lived together “as spouses” since June 2024, The New York Times reported.
What To Watch For
Whether Ken Paxton’s divorce impacts his Senate bid. He announced earlier this year he would challenge Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the upcoming midterm elections, saying at the time it was “time for a change in Texas.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, supported Angela Paxton after her announcement, as spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez wrote, “What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting. No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has.”
Key Background
Ken and Angela Paxton have been fixtures in Texas politics for more than a decade—Angela Paxton was elected to the Texas State Senate in 2018 and won her reelection bid in 2022. Ken Paxton, first elected as the state’s attorney general in 2014, is a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump and, as part of Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, accused several states of ignoring federal and state election laws. He later challenged the Justice Department’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022, accusing the Biden administration of “weaponizing the DOJ.” Ken Paxton was previously indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, though the Justice Department declined to prosecute him.