Ken Paxton Is the Fighter Texas Needs in the Senate

Texas does not get to treat this Senate race as a far-off debate. Election Day is Nov. 3, 2026, and early voting starts Monday, Oct. 19. A Marist poll of likely voters taken Oct. 8-11 put Democrat James Talarico at 47 percent and Ken Paxton at 45 percent, inside a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 points. In that same poll, 53 percent of likely voters think Paxton will win, and Republicans lead the generic congressional ballot 51 percent to 46 percent among likely voters.

The latest poll tracker reading tells the same story of a close fight. The latest CBS/YouGov poll, taken Oct. 8-16 among likely voters, has it 51-49 for Talarico, and most recent polls show margins of 2 to 6 points. A race this tight is decided by who shows up when the polls open, not by who sounds clever on television.

Ken Paxton has been Texas attorney general since 2015. He won the Republican nomination in May by defeating longtime Sen. John Cornyn in a primary runoff, and President Trump endorsed him shortly before that runoff, as OutKick noted recorded. Voters already chose the fighter over the familiar name. The general election should not undo that judgment.

The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton sued the Biden administration more than 100 times, and that Texas led almost four times as many lawsuits as the next-highest state. He sued over Biden's 100-day pause on most deportations on Day Three, and a federal judge blocked the pause nationwide. He sued Biden more than 20 times on immigration alone, including to keep the Remain in Mexico program, and he also sued over the revocation of Title 42 and Biden's deportation-priority guidance. He filed more than two dozen lawsuits defending Texas oil and gas from federal rules.

That is what a border-first attorney general looks like in practice. His office has documented that he became the first Texas official to formally partner with President Trump in his second term to assist in deporting illegal aliens. In a joint motion with Trump's Justice Department, he struck down a law giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition. Partnership with the president is not a slogan when it means helping remove illegal aliens and ending a tuition break for people who broke the law to get here.

Election integrity belongs on the same list. He defended Texas's voter ID laws and busted an illegal vote harvesting scheme that led to the arrest of multiple individuals, including elected officials, according to the attorney general's office. He defeated Dallas ISD's attempt to allow biological boys in girls' competitions, and sued U.S. Masters Swimming for allowing men to compete in women's sports. He continued his lawsuit against Pfizer over what his office calls false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine, and secured agreements with companies such as Kellogg's to remove toxic dyes from food. He won before the U.S. Supreme Court to require age verification on pornography websites.

He has also made Big Tech pay. A separate release from his office says he secured a $1.375 billion settlement with Google over Texans' privacy, the largest by any state attorney general against Google for state privacy law. It followed his $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over biometric data. Privacy, girls' sports, voter ID, and a secure border are not side issues. They are the job.

On May 19, 2026, Trump wrote on Truth Social, in the endorsement posted that day: "Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate." Trump wrote that Paxton is a "Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT," and listed among Paxton's priorities to "Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, Safeguard our Elections, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment." That is a governing list, not a vibe.

The attacks on Paxton should be met with the record, not a flinch. On Sept. 16, 2023, the Texas Senate acquitted him of all 16 articles of impeachment and dismissed four more. Not a single article got even a simple majority, far short of the 21 votes needed to remove him. Trump put the ordeal in one line: "Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to WIN." Acquittal on every article is not a technicality. It is the verdict.

Even a mainstream outlet that is not friendly to him has to concede results. The Texas Tribune says his claimed 80 percent win rate is overstated, and that by the most generous measure Texas got the outcome it wanted in about two-thirds of cases. Two-thirds is not perfection. It is still a lawyer who beat Washington far more often than he lost, and who kept fighting when the odds were long.

Trust is where James Talarico fails the test. In the Texas House, Talarico voted against Republican-backed restrictions on transgender athletes, as race coverage noted. In September 2026 he told Fox News he would "oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it risks safety or fairness." He later said his position had not changed and that he opposes a blanket statewide prohibition, preferring athlete-by-athlete, sport-by-sport decisions by local officials. A vote against restrictions, then a softer television line, then a walk-back to local case-by-case calls, is not a settled defense of girls.

The same pattern shows up in his own words about faith. In 2021, debating a bill on transgender participation in school sports, he said on the Texas House floor, as the Star-Telegram reported: "God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between." and "God is nonbinary." At a CNN town hall this month he said: "You know, the first comment about God not being defined by gender, when I said that I was being provocative, and I want to admit that and come clean about that." Calling it provocative after the fact does not erase what he chose to say on the floor. Voters are entitled to ask which version they would be electing.

Dallas Cowboys legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy White does not leave that question hanging. In White's OutKick interview on Oct. 4, 2026, he said, "I know Ken Paxton." He went on: "I know he's going to do what he says he's going to do. I know he's going to go to work every day, and he's going to help the people of Texas." He added: "We need somebody like Ken Paxton who is going to stick to his guns, who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes is right." On Talarico, White said, "I think that's a sign that we can't trust him." Then: "He's going to go with the way the wind flows, whatever he feels like is the best thing for him and what his goals are."

Early voting starts Monday. Paxton has the lawsuits, the deportation partnership, the election cases, the women's sports fights, the acquittal, and a presidential endorsement that names the SAVE America Act, a secure border, safeguarded elections, and the Second Amendment. Talarico has shifting lines and a remark he now calls provocative. Texans who want a senator who will stick to his guns should not wait for Nov. 3. Vote early.