Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) campaign rolled out a new attack ad against his Senate primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The two candidates are heading to a runoff election since neither won 50 percent of the vote during Tuesday’s election.
The ad stitches together a series of legal, personal, and ethical controversies involving the attorney general. “Ken Paxton’s story is not about one scandal. It is about a pattern that began long before he became Texas Attorney General and continued after every warning sign,” the ad’s voiceover says.
The first scandal the ad highlights involves Paxton’s long-running securities fraud case related to his promotion of investments in a tech company called Servergy. “While serving as Texas state representative, Ken Paxton solicited investments in a technology company called Servergy,” the ad explains. “He persuaded fellow lawmakers and private investors to contribute more than $100,000 each. He did not disclose that he had not invested his own money, he did not disclose that he was being compensated with company stock.”
Paxton’s conduct led to an investigation and three felony indictments in 2015 for securities fraud and failure to register as an investment advisor. He was “booked, released on bond, and photographed in a mug shot seven months into his tenure as the state’s top law enforcement officer,” the ad says.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the felony charges against Paxton if he completed an 18-month pretrial agreement that included paying about $271,000 in fines and doing 100 hours of community service. He also had to take 15 hours of legal ethics courses, according to the Texas Tribune.
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The Ken Paxton Scandal Timeline They Don’t Want You to See https://t.co/wQjDOsDYeO via @YouTube
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) March 5, 2026
The ad also mentions the controversy over Paxton’s real estate and mortgage practices. “From 2015 to 2022, Ken Paxton secured mortgages on multiple properties in Austin, College Station, and Broken Bow, Oklahoma, repeatedly certifying the homes were not rentals, then listing them as rentals anyway.”
Paxton’s personal life also fell under scrutiny. “In 2018, Paxton began an extramarital affair,” the ad notes. “The affair disrupted the attorney general’s office, affected staff operations, and required direct intervention by senior aides.”
The affair was exposed through testimony in his 2023 impeachment trial when former top aides described how he admitted the affair to a senior staffer and his wife during a 2018 meeting. More recently, Paxton has been accused of having another extramarital affair with Christian influencer Tracy Duhon that began in 2024, according to the Daily Mail.
The ad also focused on Paxton’s ties to an Austin real estate developer named Nate Paul, who hired the woman with which Paxton was having the affair. Paxton reportedly recommended her for the position. Paxton repeatedly intervened as attorney general on Paul’s behalf as he faced legal troubles. He pressured staff to release confidential law enforcement records and halted foreclosure sales on Paul’s properties in the middle of the night. He also influenced private litigation to push for settlements that favored the real estate developer.
Paxton also allegedly authorized a special investigator to investigate Paul’s enemies, according to the Texas Tribune.
“In September 2020, eight of Paxton’s most senior deputies reported him to the FBI for bribery and abuse of office. They were all Conservatives. They were all hired by Paxton himself. They testified that the attorney general’s office had been hijacked to serve one individual,” the ad notes. “Paxton retaliated. Within weeks, every whistleblower was fired or forced out. Rather than defend his actions in court, Paxton negotiated a settlement and demanded Texas taxpayers pay it. That demand triggered an investigation by the Texas House.”
A whistleblower lawsuit filed by four of Paxton’s former aides led to a 2025 judgement in which the court ordered $6.6 million in damages after finding his office violated the Texas Whistleblower Act.
The ad concludes by summarizing Paxton’s record and noting that “This is how Ken Paxton became Crooked Ken Paxton.”
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