Paxton Secures Texas Attorney General Post Despite Legal Troubles

AUSTIN, TEXAS — incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton retained his seat after securing more votes than his Democratic challenger Justin Nelson.

Paxton, a Republican, had 50 percent of the vote at last check, or 4,060,982 votes, while his Democratic challenger, Nelson, secured 46 percent of the vote, with 3,729,489 votes cast for him. The Libertarian candidate, Michael Ray Harris, managed to secure 2 percent of the vote, or 192,586 ballots.

Paxton managed to overcome an obstacle that, were it not for the deeply conservative nature of the Lone Star State, may have proved insurmountable elsewhere: A pair of criminal felony charges for securities fraud and a third for failing to register as an investment adviser stemming from days before he entered politics.

The charges — and subsequent and widely distributed mug shot after turning himself into jail for booking before immediately bonding out — were surely a source of embarrassment for the man who is, essentially, the state's top cop. But this is Texas, after all, where conservative values abound across the vast landscape save for the occasional blue dot along the terrain.

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Nelson did his best in exploiting this obvious political vulnerability, reminding voters of Paxton's previous indictment via a barrage of television ads, billboards and even a roaming truck with that infamous 2015 mug shot when he was booked into jail. That booking photo from Collin County appears below:

Paxton booking photo via Collin County

But in the end, the tactic failed to propel Paxton to victory.

Paxton was uncharacteristically quiet in the weeks leading up to the election, opting to decline an invitation by Nelson to debate. Ultimately, he pulled out a victory, in spite of himself and despite he incongruous legal predicaments in which he currently finds himself as the state's top law enforcement official.

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>>> Top photo via State of Texas