Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat impeachment. Now he wants Super Tuesday revenge on his foes

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat impeachment. On Super Tuesday, he wants political revenge.

The Republican, who just six months ago was on the brink of removal from office, is charging into Texas’ primaries on a dramatic campaign to oust dozens in his own party. They include rank-and-file legislators, state judges and one of the most powerful figures in Texas: Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, who oversaw the historic vote last year to impeach Paxton on corruption charges.

Paxton’s purge attempt is part of a wild brawl engulfing the state’s dominant political party, where the attacks are blunt and the haymakers personal. Phelan recently punched back with a video reminding voters of Paxton’s extramarital affair, saying Paxton broke an “oath to his wife and God.”

Paxton himself is not on the ballot — he won a third term in 2022 — but the clean-the-House effort by one of former President Donald Trump ‘s most vocal defenders could reshape the Texas GOP for years to come, tilting the deeply conservative Legislature further to the right.

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