Again and again, throughout his long political career, Ken Paxton has gotten himself into trouble. Each time, his wife, Angela, has come to his defense.
In 2022, a process server trying to deliver a subpoena to Mr. Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, said he watched Ms. Paxton drive him away from their home in a truck.
The next year, during Mr. Paxton’s impeachment trial, which aired multiple allegations of corruption and an extramarital affair, Ms. Paxton, a Republican state senator, sat stoically through the entire proceedings, which she later dismissed in a social media post as “all of this foolishness.”
And now, in the homestretch of the 2026 campaign, with polls showing Mr. Paxton trailing the Democrat James Talarico in the U.S. Senate race, Ms. Paxton is urging voters in a new television ad to back the entire Republican ticket — even as she is divorcing her husband and accusing him of adultery.
It is not just Mr. Paxton’s political future at stake. It is also her own.
Ms. Paxton, 63, has tried to build a political identity separate from her polarizing and scandal-plagued husband in Texas, staking out ground in policy debates over artificial intelligence, campaign finance reform, and social issues like abortion. Allies envision her running for statewide office in the future — regardless of whether Mr. Paxton is serving in Washington.
The new ad — in which Ms. Paxton never mentions his name — is a new and surreal chapter in the long-running saga of one of the most powerful attorneys general in the country. The decision to deploy Mr. Paxton’s soon-to-be ex-wife in this reliably red state reveals how precarious the Texas race has become for Republicans, as they fight to maintain control of the Senate.
Ms. Paxton feared staying silent in such a close race could hurt her reputation and open the door to politically damaging questions about her loyalty to the party, according to a person familiar with her thinking. A loss by Mr. Paxton in Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat in a statewide race in more than three decades, would be viewed as disastrous for the Republican Party.
Ms. Paxton does not want to be viewed as a victim, the person close to her said, though she has felt “hurt and broken” by her husband’s behavior. Last July, she reached her breaking point and filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.” After tabloids published photographs of Mr. Paxton touring Europe with another woman over the summer, friends and supporters began pressing Ms. Paxton on whether they should support his Senate campaign.
“She’s still in elected office and facing questions and pressure to support the entire Republican ticket,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a political consultant who has worked closely with Ms. Paxton. “There’s sort of an expectation by Republican voters that even if you’re not a big fan, and even if that candidate did things you didn’t like, you pull the lever for the G.O.P. ticket.”
As the race tightened, Ms. Paxton, who declined a request for an interview, began quietly making the case for her husband in private conversations and small party gatherings. In remarks to a women’s club in September, which she pointedly titled “The Elephant in the Room,” she announced her plans to back the entire Republican ticket.
“It’s not the people — it’s the seat,” Ms. Paxton said in the speech, which she later posted on YouTube. “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.”
Her remarks drew the attention of Republican strategists, who asked if she would appear in the pro-Paxton ad. She agreed, as long she could write the script, according to the person familiar with her thinking.
Much of her argument is left to subtext.
“In a general election, it’s not as much about the individual players on the team,” she says. “It’s about getting the whole team across the finish line.”
A spokesman for Mr. Paxton declined to comment.
Mr. Talarico criticized the ad for prioritizing partisanship over individual candidates.
“Asking Texans to close their eyes and vote for a political party instead of the best person for the job is exactly what’s wrong with today’s politics,” he said on social media.
Even Mr. Paxton’s most powerful ally, President Trump, can’t help but concede his political baggage, saying in a recent campaign appearance, “Whether you love him or don’t love him, he’s a little controversial.”
So, who better to close the deal for Mr. Paxton than his more telegenic, albeit estranged, wife?
‘My husband sues Obama’
Angela Allen met her future husband as a college student at Baylor University, where she was studying mathematical science and he was student body president. After becoming the first member of her family to earn a college degree, in 1985, and then a master’s degree, she became a high school math and physics teacher.
The couple helped found a church, and Ms. Paxton became a guidance counselor at a local Christian school. “I was not particularly political, but I cared about values,” she said in a recent interview with a Texas conservative group. She had four children in five years.
As Mr. Paxton ascended from the state legislature to the attorney general’s office, his wife served as his closest adviser — and his exuberant warm-up act. She toted her guitar from one Republican club to another, promoting her husband’s crusade against the Obama administration’s policies, singing, “I’m a pistol-packing mama and my husband sues Obama.”
Mr. Paxton was serving his first term as attorney general in 2018 when he summoned several top staffers for an unusually emotional meeting with his wife. As Ms. Paxton cried, he apologized for cheating on her and said the affair was over, two senior aides later recounted at his impeachment trial.
The aides felt uncomfortable. But they felt even worse for Ms. Paxton.
“She was sad and embarrassed,” Katherine “Missy” Cary, Mr. Paxton’s chief of staff, testified. “My heart broke for her.”
About two months later, Ms. Paxton won her husband’s former seat in the Texas Senate, with a $2 million loan backed by Mr. Paxton’s campaign amid the most expensive legislative primary in state history.
Mr. Paxton was then facing charges of security fraud, and during her first year in office, Ms. Paxton introduced a bill that would have expanded the attorney general’s power over the financial industry. It was one of the only times in her political career in which she was accused of an ethical lapse. Ms. Paxton denied that the legislation had anything to do with her husband. The bill never made it out of committee. (Mr. Paxton later cut a deal with prosecutors and paid restitution but did not admit guilt.)
She stood by Mr. Paxton’s side when he spoke at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally supporting President Trump before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. During Mr. Paxton’s impeachment trial in 2023, in which state senators served as jurors, Ms. Paxton never flinched as prosecutors contended that her husband deployed burner phones and a secret Uber account to cover up the affair he had promised to end years earlier.
Under the Senate’s rules, she could not participate in deliberations or vote, but she would be counted as present. That meant it would take one additional vote to reach the two-thirds majority required for a conviction.
A gag rule prevented her from commenting on the trial. But she shared a Bible verse on social media each day of the proceedings.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance,” she posted after Mr. Paxton’s acquittal, along with a photo in which she seems to be reaching toward the heavens in a bright red suit.
A few days later, she uploaded a cheerful video from their kitchen, pointing to the ceramic countertops to debunk testimony from the trial that a campaign donor to Mr. Paxton had paid for a granite upgrade.
She also directed viewers to donate to her re-election campaign.
Less than a year later, the Paxtons were no longer living together, according to Ms. Paxton’s divorce petition.
Rachel Mello, a Democrat and public-school teacher who unsuccessfully ran against Ms. Paxton in 2024, called her a “complicated character.” Ms. Mello said she feels compassion for her former opponent and even some measure of respect, but she also wonders about the trade-offs Ms. Paxton may have made to further her own political — and financial — goals.
“She had to have some level of ambition to be in that marriage for so long,” Ms. Mello said.
Mr. Paxton, while earning a $153,000 salary as attorney general, has amassed a real estate portfolio that includes at least 15 properties worth around $9 million, according to public records reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Talarico has questioned whether Mr. Paxton used the powers of his office to enrich himself.
Mr. Paxton has long denied allegations of corruption that he said were politically motivated.
In her divorce petition, Ms. Paxton argued that she should receive a “disproportionate” share of their estate because of Mr. Paxton’s greater earning power and responsibility for the breakup of their marriage. Texas legislators earn $600 per month.
In her most recent financial disclosure form covering 2025, Ms. Paxton reported income from a limited liability company and her legislative salary, as well as multiple mutual funds and other investments. She is not required to list precise dollar figures.
‘Angela is our sister’
Ms. Paxton’s plunge into the U.S. Senate race marked a striking turnabout from earlier in the campaign. On the day of the Texas Republican primary runoff in May, she publicized endorsements in three races — but not the matchup between her husband and Senator John Cornyn.
Jill Tate, the president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, heard Ms. Paxton speak to another women’s club in August. Some of Ms. Tate’s members were struggling with whether to support Mr. Paxton, and she asked Ms. Paxton to address her board in September.
For more than 20 minutes, Ms. Paxton made an impassioned case for voting for all the Republicans on the ticket, even if a certain candidate — “the elephant in the room” — wasn’t perfect. Republicans should prioritize their political values and the power of a G.O.P. majority over their personal opinions, she argued.
“People are having moral conflict around some of these races — I understand,” she told the audience in Round Rock, Texas. “But look higher. Look higher. There’s a lot more at stake than just one person.”
She received a standing ovation.
“Angela is our sister,” said Ms. Tate. “But we know his history of how he has been a good representative, a good conservative and a good attorney general, and we have to remember that.”
She added: “The ladies needed to hear that.”
At a recent meeting of the Golden Corridor Republican Women in McKinney, Texas, the club where Ms. Paxton has belonged for decades, the members said they all intended to vote for Mr. Paxton. But their hearts were with his estranged wife, who responds to their calls, greets them in Dillard’s department store, and chats with them at church.
“I’ve seen her where she’ll put things in her newsletter, and she’ll say ‘Team Paxton’ and I want to say, don’t do that. ‘Team Angela,’” said Linda Nelson, 70. “He needs to go to the Senate. But another good candidate will come around in six years and then he can go away.”
Across the small Holiday Inn ballroom, Maggie Whitt and Sonja Oonk explained how they reconciled their views of Mr. Paxton with their admiration for their friend Angela.
“He’s not a perfect person,” said Ms. Whitt, 75, “but let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and that ain’t gonna be me.”
Ms. Oonk, 84, said hearing about the Paxtons’ divorce had brought back painful memories of her ex-husband’s infidelity years earlier. But hearing Ms. Paxton’s talk about supporting her husband at a recent party dinner helped Ms. Oonk come around.
“I don’t want anything to ruin what she’s going to do with her political life,” she said. “If that means I have to grin and bear it, I have to grin and bear it.”
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