Outside a Ken Paxton fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., last month stood a mobile billboard truck highlighting the many legal and ethical scandals the Texas attorney general has faced over the years.
The list included a criminal indictment on securities fraud, impeachment in the Texas Legislature and a stolen pen.
The pen was a pointed reference. The ad, paid for by supporters of Mr. Paxton’s Democratic opponent for Senate, James Talarico, harked back to an episode more than a decade ago when Mr. Paxton pocketed another lawyer’s $1,000 pen while passing through security at a courthouse outside Dallas.
In Texas politics, the Montblanc story has become an enduring piece of niche Paxton lore. It has also become an inside joke, as earlier this month when pens were reportedly confiscated from attendees at a Paxton rally in Houston.
But the episode remains unfamiliar to many Texas voters and even some potential Paxton donors.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Barry Kendrick, a pilot who lives in Texas, said as he stood near the billboard truck after leaving the fund-raiser in Washington last month.
That has not been for lack of Mr. Paxton’s political opponents trying for years to turn the purloined pen into an effective line of attack.
Security footage of the episode was used against Mr. Paxton, a Republican firebrand, during his run for re-election as attorney general in 2018. This spring, Senator John Cornyn’s supporters included the pen in an attack ad as he tried unsuccessfully to fend off Mr. Paxton in the Republican primary.
Last week, it resurfaced in an ad for Mr. Talarico featuring an endorsement from Joe Joplin, the lawyer whose pen Mr. Paxton took all those years ago.
“Vote for James Talarico,” the voice-over in the ad states. “He won’t steal your pen.”
The events in question took place at the security checkpoint of a Collin County courthouse. Mr. Joplin had left his Montblanc pen in a security bin. Mr. Paxton spotted the pen — worth around $1,000 — and took it as he passed through security soon after.
Mr. Joplin returned to retrieve the pen, which was a gift from his wife. The building’s security footage, dated Aug. 14, 2012, captured the man who took it: Mr. Paxton, who was a state lawmaker at the time from the area. A sheriff’s deputy reached out to ask Mr. Paxton if he had the pen. He said he did, and agreed to return it.
Madison Cercy, Mr. Paxton’s campaign spokeswoman, called Mr. Talarico’s attempts to resurrect the incident a “childish attack” about an issue that had already been addressed.
“This was nothing more than a mix-up at security,” she added.
The line of attack involving the pen was familiar to Justin Nelson, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2018, who used the security footage as part of his campaign. He still marveled at the episode.
“It’s such a ridiculous set of circumstances, right?” Mr. Nelson said in an interview. “Even if it was some innocent mistake, the reality of it is he took somebody else’s $1,000 pen.”
Mr. Paxton, then a well-funded incumbent, ignored the attacks during the 2018 campaign. This time may be different, Mr. Nelson said. Mr. Paxton has been trailing in fund-raising and in some polls. The national attention surrounding Mr. Talarico has carried the pen further than it ever traveled. And the pen’s owner has offered an endorsement for the first time. (Mr. Joplin declined to be interviewed.)
JT Ennis, Mr. Talarico’s spokesman, said the incident revealed something about Mr. Paxton’s character: He is “the kind of guy who will steal your pen.”
The Talarico campaign has also been selling its own ballpoint pens — for a $6 campaign contribution — that read “Not Ken Paxton’s Pen.” Mr. Nelson’s campaign tried the same thing in 2018, selling pens with the message, “Don’t Let Ken Steal This Pen.”
Mr. Paxton has long denied any wrongdoing in office. The indictment on securities fraud charges in 2015 resulted in a deal in which he paid restitution but did not admit guilt. The impeachment on corruption charges in 2023 ended in an acquittal.
Mr. Kendrick, the pilot at the Washington fund-raiser, said after seeing the “stolen pen” billboard, he watched the security footage and could not tell whether Mr. Paxton had mistakenly pocketed the pen, or taken it on purpose. Mr. Kendrick was more surprised that anyone would own a $1,000 pen.
“I got a laugh out of that,” he said. It did not change his mostly positive opinion of Mr. Paxton, he said.
Mr. Kendrick, who advocates for pilots, said he frequently attends meetings with officials of both parties where he has to go through a metal detector. To protect his belongings in the security bin, he carries a plastic bag with him.
Into the bag goes his wallet, his watch and, yes, a Montblanc he said he bought at Costco a decade ago for about $100. That pen goes with him everywhere, he said, including to the Paxton fund-raiser in Washington.
And no, Mr. Kendrick joked, Mr. Paxton did not try to take it.
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