Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Avoids Candidate Forums Ahead Of March 1 Primary
MARSHALL, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The campaigns for the three Republican challengers to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton say he hasn't attended any candidate forums.
Paxton's campaign also hasn't responded to requests by CBS 11 News seeking an interview about his effort to win re-election.
His primary opponents, George P. Bush, the Texas Land Commissioner, E. Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman have all expressed concerns in interviews about Paxton's legal troubles.
On Monday, Feb. 14, the first day of early voting for the March 1 primary, CBS 11 caught up with Paxton in Marshall, Texas, where he held a news conference to announce the state's lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta.
We asked Paxton how he would respond to his Republican challengers who've criticized his ethics and integrity and said they worry he will be indicted on federal charges if he wins the primary.
"Let me just say we're going to keep this to the topic at hand," said Paxton. "I'm not going to talk about my campaign, I'm not going to talk about campaign issues. Literally, this is part of my job. This is an important issue for the state of Texas."
Paxton is reportedly being investigated by the FBI after his former top lieutenants in the Texas AG's office made allegations of bribery against him in 2019.
Paxton has denied any wrongdoing and his office also cleared him last summer.
He also pleaded not guilty to state securities fraud charges, first filed in 2015, and he's awaiting trial.
Paxton has led all primary polls and is close to 50 percent in the most recent survey, released Monday, by the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project.
The survey showed Paxton has 47%, while Bush far back with 21%, Guzman at 16%, and Gohmert with 15%.
Paxton is also backed by former President Donald Trump.
Matthew Wilson, Political Science Professor at SMU said, "So given that, I just don't think he sees much upside to him taking questions or talking about any ethics concerns."
Regarding the crowded field of Republican candidates in the race, Wilson said Paxton's challengers have some statewide name recognition and decent funding. "I would be surprised if he managed to avoid a runoff, but there's no doubt he's the favorite in the race."
Wilson said Paxton's supporters believe the ethics concerns are old news. "People, both Democrats and Republicans tend to just not care about ethical issues associated with people on their side of the aisle. Voters have come to a point where they just overlook a lot in terms of ethics concerns and that's something just generally true in American politics now. So it's very hard to derail a candidate based on anything other than an absolute slam dunk on these concerns."
Paxton was also asked during the news conference why he filed the lawsuit in Marshall, which is part of Gohmert's congressional district.
The Attorney General said, "This has been planned for a long time. We would have filed it either way, whether he was in the race or not. It's completely irrelevant."
Wilson said Gohmert is the only challenger whose constituency overlaps with Paxton's. "I think one electoral concern Paxton has is that Gohmert could eat into some of his core support. I think it's not coincidental."