Angela Suzanne Paxton (née Allen; born February 14, 1963)[1] is an American politician from the state of Texas. A member of the Republican Party, she has represented District 8 in the Texas Senate since 2019.
Her political career has been closely tied to her husband, Ken Paxton, the current Attorney General of Texas.[1] She filed for divorce from him on July 10, 2025.[2]
Early life and career
Paxton was born on February 14, 1963, in New Braunfels, Texas. Her mother was a college student who put Angela up for adoption. She was taken in by a couple who could not have children, a fact which she later credited for her commitment to the anti-abortion movement.[1]
When Van Taylor vacated his seat in the Texas Senate to run for Congress, Paxton joined the race for District 8 in September 2017. Paxton ran against businessman Phillip Huffines in the Republican primary. At over $10 million spent between the two campaigns, the race was the most expensive Senate primary in Texas history. Her husband's campaign guaranteed her a $2 million loan. Paxton won the primary by nine points and narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Mark Phariss in the general election.[1][4]
In February 2019, Paxton introduced Senate Bill 860, which would grant her husband the power to issue exemptions from securities regulations. Billed as a consumer protection effort, the proposal would allow approved individuals to serve as investment advisers without registering with the state board.[5] Paxton said the bill to change state securities law "has literally nothing to do" with a criminal case charging her husband Ken Paxton with defrauding investors.[6]
Her husband was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives as the Attorney General of Texas on May 27, 2023. When Paxton declined to recuse herself from the trial, she was barred by the Texas Senate from voting on her husband's impeachment.[1][7][8]
The impeachment trial began on September 5, 2023, in the 31-member Texas Senate. Ken Paxton was acquitted of all charges on September 16, 2023. In February 2025, Paxton authored Senate Bill 13, which would move control of school library catalogs from librarians to boards of parents appointed by school board members, allowing parents to have any library book immediately removed from shelves until a decision by the school board.[9][10]
Personal life
Paxton, her husband Ken, and other Republican politicians at a Dallas County Republican Party event in 2015.
In a July 10, 2025, post on Twitter, Paxton announced she had "filed for divorce on biblical grounds ... I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation... But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage."[11][12] The court filing alleged Ken Paxton was at fault and had committed adultery, and that the couple had not lived together since June 2024.[11]
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