Trump endorses Texas AG Ken Paxton over George P. Bush in Republican primary
Former president Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as he seeks his third term, a major boost for the embattled Republican that also stymies one of Paxton’s primary opponents, Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
Bush, the only prominent member of his family to back Trump in the 2016 election, had sought the former president’s endorsement and even distributed drink koozies at his campaign kickoff that featured a supportive quote from Trump and a photo of the two shaking hands. But he faced a big lift drawing Trump’s support over Paxton, who is a close ally of the former president and famously waged an unsuccessful legal challenge to Trump’s loss in four battleground states in 2020.
Two months ago, Trump announced he’d support one of the two, saying: “I like them both very much.” The endorsement is believed to carry significant weight in most Republican primaries, as the former president remains highly popular among GOP voters.
In a statement, Trump said Paxton “has been bravely on the front line in the fight for Texas, and America, against the vicious and very dangerous radical left Democrats, and the foolish and unsuspecting RINOs that are destroying our country.” He did not mention Bush in the statement.
“It is going to take a patriot like Ken Paxton to advance America First policies in order to Make America Great Again,” Trump said. “Ken has my complete and total endorsement for another term as Attorney General of Texas. He is a true Texan who will keep Texas safe—and will never let you down!”
Paxton posted a screenshot of Trump’s statement on Twitter and said he was honored to receive the endorsement. Bush released a statement shortly after Trump’s announcement, in which he did not mention the former president.
“I’m running for Attorney General because Texans deserve integrity and honesty from the office of Texas’ top law enforcement official,” Bush said. “Texans deserve a candidate without a laundry list of existing and potential criminal indictments.”
Trump’s endorsement came on the six-year anniversary of Paxton’s indictment for securities fraud, for which he is out on bond and awaiting trial with no date set.
Paxton also faces an FBI investigation into allegations by his former top aides that he accepted bribes and used his office to benefit a friend and campaign donor. Paxton has denied any wrongdoing in both cases. His campaign has called the FBI allegations “meritless.”
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman joined the race in mid-June, when both Paxton and Bush were already angling for the nod from Trump.
The Democratic primary field has also begun to take shape, including lawyer and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski and Dallas-area civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt.
‘The Big One’
After the 2020 election, Trump and his allies filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits in various states challenging results, and demanding recounts. But it was Paxton’s lawsuit that Trump appeared to pin his hopes on, referring to the case as “the big one.”
Paxton’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, sought to invalidate Electoral College votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — states all won by Joe Biden, and enough to swing the election if the results were nullified.
In the lawsuit, Paxton alleged that pandemic-related election law changes in those states were unconstitutional because they were implemented without approval by the respective state legislatures. The lawsuit also argued that the policies had allowed voter fraud to occur, though none of Trump’s legal efforts uncovered evidence of substantial fraud.
The court declined to consider the lawsuit, ruling that Texas lacked standing to bring the case.
Paxton and Trump have shared a common interest in voter fraud since well before the election lawsuit, both frequently claiming that fraud is rampant enough to swing election results in Texas and elsewhere.
While some minor cases have been identified, multiple academic studies, an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and Paxton’s own “Election Fraud Unit” have yet to discover widespread fraud on the scale alleged by Trump, Paxton and other Republicans.
Meanwhile, Bush has notably broken from his family in backing Trump, even after Trump openly mocked his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Nevertheless, George P. Bush said in an interview with the Texas Tribune that he does not believe there was enough fraud in the 2020 election to validate Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.
During the last 10 days of June — when state elected officials were allowed to resume fundraising after the legislative session — Bush raised about $2.3 million, outpacing Paxton and Guzman’s hauls of $1.8 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
A Hearst Newspapers analysis found that more than two dozen of Paxton’s previous donors cut checks for Bush during that span.
jasper.scherer@chron.com
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