Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is so staunchly anti-abortion that his office observes June 24, the anniversary of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, as a holiday.
The Republican’s actions to block abortion stand out. Four years ag0, Paxton sued the Biden administration to make Texas the only state blocking a federal law that protected abortions for people in medical emergencies.
Then, in 2023, Paxton asked a court to dismiss a case from women seeking clarity about when Texas’ strict ban granted an exception in dangerous — in some cases life-threatening — situations.
Months later, when a state court granted an abortion ban exception to Dallas resident Kate Cox — whose pregnancy had virtually no chance of survival — Paxton threatened legal action against a hospital if it permitted physicians to terminate her pregnancy.
Despite a court and doctors agreeing that Cox could have an abortion, she had to travel out of state to end her pregnancy.
Now, Paxton, a former state legislator whose tenure as attorney general has been mired in scandal — including an impeachment trial for alleged misuse of public funds (he was ultimately acquitted) and divorce proceedings after his wife alleged adultery — is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Democrats are pinning their hopes on James Talarico, a state senator who has broken fundraising records and who polling shows is within striking distance of delivering Democrats a statewide win in Texas for the first time in decades.
Paxton’s record indicates that, if elected, he could be one of the nation’s most anti-abortion senators — and groups that both oppose and support reproductive rights intend to call attention to that. Political organizations across the spectrum are planning to emphasize the contrast between Paxton and Talarico and the implications of electing either to the U.S. Senate.
Paxton’s campaign website lists a commitment to “defend the unborn,” and he recently indicated openness to restrictions on in vitro fertilization, a regimen that has drawn the ire of some abortion opponents. Talarico, a seminarian and former middle school teacher, has in the past highlighted his support for reproductive rights and has in the state legislature consistently voted against abortion restrictions.
But since Paxton’s primary victory in May, neither he nor his opponent has spoken much about abortion. And nationally, Democrats have largely retreated from the issue, with most midterm election campaigns emphasizing cost-of-living concerns. Paxton did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to The 19th, the Talarico campaign spotlighted Paxton’s record on abortion.
“Ken Paxton has consistently pushed to criminalize women’s health care and put politicians in the middle of decisions that should be left to Texas women, their doctors, and their faith,” said JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign. “Paxton defended and enforced the most extreme abortion ban in the entire country, with no exceptions for rape or incest — a ban that has led to Texas women dying and bleeding out in hospital parking lots, forced Texas women to put their IVF treatment on hold, and jeopardized their ability to have children in the future by denying basic care that protects the health of women. James stands with a majority of Texans by defending Texas women’s right to control their own bodies.”
Data from PRRI, a research organization specializing in religion and public opinion, suggests that most Texans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases; only 9 percent support banning it in all cases.
Even so, “Ken Paxton makes it impossible not to make this an issue,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of Reproductive Freedom for All, a national organization. “I do see an opening. We have to consider what we can do to raise the alarm on Ken Paxton.”
Her organization, which is spending heavily on races in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, California and Georgia — but not Texas — endorsed Talarico on Tuesday, alongside Democrats running for Senate in Iowa, Alaska and South Carolina, per an announcement shared first with The 19th.
Texas Right to Life, one of the state’s leading anti-abortion groups, is planning to campaign for Paxton, an approach that will include mailers, text alerts and in-person engagement, said John Seago, who heads the organization.
“We plan on making it an issue,” Seago said of abortion. “We want to make sure voters know who’s on the ballot.”
Paxton has not indicated how, specifically, he might approach abortion policy from Capitol Hill. As attorney general, he has filed suit against healthcare providers in New York, Delaware, California and the Netherlands for allegedly mailing abortion medications to people in Texas. A year ago, he signed onto a letter led by the Arkansas attorney general urging Congress to pass legislation that would bar blue states’ “shield laws,” which protect healthcare providers if they mail abortion medication from their home states to a patient in another state.
And as a state legislator, he consistently backed abortion restrictions, signing onto and authoring anti-abortion bills beginning in 2003, when he first joined the Texas House of Representatives.
Talarico’s campaign has largely focused on other issues — the cost of living in Texas, Paxton’s recent impeachment as attorney general, and a plea deal Paxton’s office agreed to with a man charged with sexual abuse of a minor. Still, Talarico has consistently criticized Texas’ abortion ban, including in a May podcast interview where he highlighted its lack of exceptions for people pregnant because of rape or incest.
Some women who have confronted Texas’ ban firsthand said they are ready to help Talarico make abortion a campaign issue.
Talarico “has been supportive of me and my work, and I will look forward to returning that support for him if and when he needs me to be,” said Amanda Zurawski, one of the women who sued in 2023 seeking clarity over the state’s abortion ban and a top surrogate in Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed 2024 presidential bid.
Lauren Miller, another plaintiff in the 2023 case, said she has also spoken to the Talarico campaign about highlighting her experiences seeking an abortion in Texas. Miller, who lives in the Dallas area, traveled to Colorado in 2022 for an abortion when doctors discovered one fetus in her twin pregnancy had a devastating anomaly and advised an abortion to ensure the survival of the healthy twin. She also spent 2024 campaigning for Harris and for former Rep. Colin Allred, who unsuccessfully ran against Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texas Republican.
“To me he promotes himself as a champion of the unborn, and yet when it was my son — my healthy twin — he has literally never acknowledged his existence,” Miller said of Paxton.
Emphasizing abortion — particularly through the lens of women like Zurawski and Miller — could encourage turnout among younger women, who are more likely to support Talarico, said Celinda Lake, a longtime Democratic pollster. She called Talarico, who has spoken about supporting abortion in the context of his Christian faith, a “unique voice” on the issue.
A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 56 percent of women voters said they intended to vote for Talarico, compared with only 36 percent of men. About 2 percent of women voters called abortion their top issue — well below the share of women voters driven by the economy, which was the top motivator for about 1 in 5 women voters, but just as many as those who cited healthcare or corruption, and well more than women voters primarily concerned by issues such as crime, gun violence or climate change. (Only 0.5 percent of men said abortion was their primary concern.)
“It can be a real turnout issue,” Lake said. “A lot of Texas women feel like Texas has gone too far, and they can’t do anything about it.”
Republicans are unlikely to come out of the November elections with the 60 Senate votes needed to enact sweeping abortion restrictions such as a national ban. But lawyers who have worked on cases in opposition to Paxton said he could make a mark: for instance, seeking commitments from federal nominees for executive offices and Cabinet positions to enact anti-abortion policies, or favoring judges appointed by the president — who must be confirmed by the Senate — who might oppose abortion rights.
“He is more than just a yes-no vote on abortion,” said Marc Hearron, an attorney formerly with the Center for Reproductive Rights who has litigated on the opposite side of Paxton on multiple occasions.
“Ken Paxton has always been a foot soldier for the right wing. That’s sort of how he rose to power,” said Blake Rocap, a longtime abortion rights attorney and lobbyist in Texas. “He would be a willing foot soldier to push all the anti-abortion strategy that they wanted.”
Seago, whose organization has worked alongside Paxton since he first joined the Texas legislature, suggested that as a senator, Paxton could push abortion restrictions similar to those he backed in the statehouse: laws that require ultrasounds before someone can get an abortion, that require minors have a parent’s consent before ending a pregnancy, and a national ban at 15 or 20 weeks.
“We would love to see him have a role in that national debate,” Seago said.