Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce from Ken Paxton in July 2025, has told Republican women that keeping the U.S. Senate seat in party hands matters more than their feelings about the candidate, according to Fox News.
Speaking to the Texas Federation of Republican Women at an event themed “the elephant in the room,” she framed the race as a question of control rather than personalities. Video of the address was posted on Facebook on Friday by the DeWitt County GOP.
“It’s not the people, it’s the seat,” she said. “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.”
She argued that a Democratic win would carry a higher cost than any dissatisfaction with the Republican nominee. “If we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back,” she said.
She added that “when you vote for the person, the party comes along with them,” and repeated: “The party comes with the person.”
The remarks are notable because of the couple’s public split. In her divorce filing, Angela Paxton cited adultery and said the marriage had “become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities.” In a social media post at the time, she wrote that “after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds.”
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, won the Republican nomination by defeating longtime Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary.
He has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, and MAGA Inc. and Elon Musk’s America PAC are backing him financially, Fox News reported.
His general-election opponent is Democrat James Talarico. The most recent Fox News poll showed Talarico ahead 51% to 48%, a margin that leaves the contest rated a toss-up.
Talarico has faced scrutiny over past statements, including a claim that “God is nonbinary” and a reference to six sexes. In a recent interview, he said those comments “missed the mark.”
In the remarks Fox News quoted, Angela Paxton did not name her estranged husband or mention the divorce. Fox News Digital said it reached out to her, to Ken Paxton, and to Talarico for comment; the article carried no response from any of them.
