Ken Paxton had survived indictment, impeachment and years of scandal. He counted on surviving another election.
For more than a decade, the Republican attorney general of Texas won election after election despite rarely campaigning, dismissing accusations of adultery, bribery and fraud as partisan attacks.
But his bid for U.S. Senate ended in defeat against his foil, James Talarico, a Democrat who tied Mr. Paxton’s scandals to the rising costs facing Texans.
Mr. Talarico, 37, drew support from voters in both parties with an energetic campaign that relentlessly tried to make Mr. Paxton’s scandals feel tangible to voters. His victory marked the first Senate win for a Texas Democrat since 1988 — the year before Mr. Talarico was born.
In a short concession speech at his watch party in Dallas on Tuesday night, Mr. Paxton said he was grateful for the 12 years he spent as attorney general and wished Mr. Talarico well.
“The best part of it is the memories of working with so many great Texans,” Mr. Paxton said. “As soon as I’m out of office, I still have a lot of friends in Texas.”
Mr. Paxton’s loss underscored a midterm election season where many voters who had soured on the economic and foreign policy choices of President Trump put their pocketbooks over their party.
Mr. Paxton, 63, leaves behind a checkered, but lasting, legacy. He sued the Obama and Biden administrations more than 100 times, influencing state and federal policy on issues such as abortion, immigration and L.G.B.T.Q. rights. He also challenged the 2020 presidential election results, securing him the loyalty of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Paxton also helped purge Texas of Republican moderates and push his party further to the right, with the help of a few far right megadonors.
But Mr. Paxton’s career was shadowed by scandal — an indictment, an impeachment and allegations of two extramarital relationships — that cost him key allies and donors who grew tired of defending him. Elon Musk and national Republican groups spent tens of millions of dollars on ads to try to shore him up, but to no avail.
To be sure, the outcome of the Senate race was as much about Mr. Talarico’s assets as it was about Mr. Paxton’s liabilities. But in a state that was supposed to be reliably Republican, the fingers in the state’s G.O.P. have already begun pointing to the biggest loser.
As a standard-bearer for his party’s far right contingent in Texas, Mr. Paxton had become known as “Teflon Ken,” the man who, despite his many problems, always pulled out a win. Now, he is the face of the worst Republican wipeout in mdoern Texas history.
“People will study this campaign failure, this ridiculous candidate, for decades,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist who worked on the campaign of incumbent Senator John Cornyn, whom Mr. Paxton defeated in the Republican primary in May. “Every single person that had a chance to stop this when it could have been stopped is to blame.”
Mr. Paxton was far from the only Republican to lose in Texas. From governor to state judges, Republicans fell short up and down the ballot in Texas and across the country.
“It’s a bloodbath, everywhere,” Matt Wolking, an adviser to a super PAC backing Mr. Paxton, said at his watch party.
Mr. Paxton had risen by challenging his party’s establishment, aligning himself with far-right activists in the Texas House and winning the attorney general’s office in 2014 with support from Senator Ted Cruz and the Tea Party.
When Mr. Paxton was indicted on charges of defrauding investors in a technology firm in 2015, he smiled in his mug shot. To his critics, the image captured his apparent indifference to the allegations.
The fraud case hung over him for years, but opponents failed to make it disqualifying. He won re-election in 2018 and again in 2022.
Backed by billionaire donors Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, Mr. Paxton emphasized his fights against Democrats and his alliance with Mr. Trump, often ignoring his opponents and refusing debates.
“The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated,” Mr. Paxton joked during his victory speech in 2022.
Mr. Paxton faced the most serious threat to his career in 2020, from within his innermost circle.
That October, senior aides reported him to the F.B.I., accusing him of doing favors for a campaign donor in exchange for home renovations and a job for a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair.
Mr. Paxton denied wrongdoing and fired four of the aides, who sued his agency under the state’s whistle-blower law. The agency agreed to a $3.3 million settlement, subject to legislative approval.
Chip Roy, a Republican congressman who once worked under Mr. Paxton in the attorney general’s office, said Mr. Paxton’s “leadership problems” drove away senior employees at the agency.
“When you treat the office of AG as a personal and political playground, people inside and out tend to notice,” he told The New York Times after Mr. Paxton’s loss.
Faced with these new corruption allegations, Mr. Paxton drew closer to Mr. Trump. In December 2020, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the presidential election results in four states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr., seeking to overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat.
Mr. Paxton lost that fight, but gained Mr. Trump’s loyalty. He spent the next four years suing to block the Biden administration’s policies on immigration, abortion and other issues.
But his request for state funding to settle the whistle-blower lawsuit rekindled problems in his home state and prompted a Texas House investigation. In May 2023, a majority of House Republicans joined Democrats to impeach him on corruption charges.
After a 10-day trial in the Texas Senate, Mr. Paxton was acquitted, largely along party lines. His wife, now a state senator, was recused from voting.
The next spring, Mr. Paxton settled the 2015 securities fraud case against him. He never faced a jury and did not admit guilt.
“I learned early on how utterly corrupt and amoral Ken Paxton is. And tonight he finally had to answer for it,” Brian Wice, a Houston attorney who prosecuted the securities fraud case against Mr. Paxton, said Tuesday night.
Survival actually buoyed Mr. Paxton’s power in Texas, and his hubris.
He began to travel more, spending tens of thousands of dollars on trips to South Africa, India and Taiwan. He began dating a second woman, a Christian influencer and registered Democrat from Louisiana. He helped oust some of the Republicans who had voted to impeach him.
In 2024, Mr. Trump was elected to a second term, and Mr. Paxton turned his sights to a higher prize: the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Trump remained an X factor. For weeks ahead of the Republican primary runoff, Mr. Trump withheld his endorsement. He eventually backed Mr. Paxton, citing his loyalty, and Mr. Paxton bested Mr. Cornyn by more than 30 points. At his watch party, Mr. Paxton thanked Mr. Trump.
“When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me,” Mr. Paxton said, “he didn’t listen.”
But Mr. Paxton’s fortunes faltered with the president’s. Mr. Talarico, a Christian seminarian and former teacher, ran on an expansive and detailed economic platform that centered the cost of food, housing and health care. He also made the corruption allegations newly relevant.
“He now owns 15 homes, while most Texans can’t afford one,” Mr. Talarico said on the campaign trail, referencing Mr. Paxton’s growing real estate portfolio.
As polls began favoring Mr. Talarico, Mr. Paxton shifted his message, emphasizing his modest upbringing in a military family. He launched a statewide tour, appearing with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz. Mr. Musk eventually came to his aid, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into ads.
As Election Day neared, Mr. Paxton returned to his partisan attacks, warning conservative voters a win for Mr. Talarico would mean the end of conservative, Christian values in the state of Texas.
But the momentum failed to materialize.
In the final weeks of the race, Mr. Paxton invoked the imagery of the Texas Revolution to rally his supporters. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick compared the Republican ticket to the defenders of the Alamo.
Those men lost their battle nearly 190 years ago, just as Mr. Paxton did on Tuesday. Whether this was his last stand remained an open question.
In his concession speech on Tuesday, Mr. Paxton said, “We’ve had a difficult night across the country but it’s not over.”
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