As polling averages stubbornly show Democrat James Talarico with a narrow advantage in the Texas Senate race, embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is employing an eyebrow-raising gambit to grab at national, mainstream GOP donor support: Deploying his daughter, Mattie Paxton, to assure skeptics that he's actually a totally respectable family man.
For years now, Paxton has been dogged by a string of allegations that refuse to quit pointing to big league ethical problems.
His fans have seemed to want to gloss over this proverbial rap sheet by pointing to his rock-ribbed MAGAism and Talarico's wokeness and too-earnest demeanor and "I'm actually only twelve years old" visage.
That has worked to a degree in Texas; Paxton is close to Talarico in polling, and in fact leads in some polls.
But he's not winning.
And Paxton supporters have fretted for months about a financial imbalance that could see Talarico seated as John Cornyn's replacement in the Senate.
Most notably, former Paxton best pal Leonard Leo has stayed on the sidelines of the race after previously spending gazillions to make Paxton into the MAGA star that he is. That, in turn, has kept other GOP SuperPACs– and their gazillions--on the benches.
Enter Mattie Paxton, now making the argument via campaign emails to establishment GOP donors that her Dad is a great father– with the tacit admission that he is a terrible, terrible husband.
In an email sent overnight and received by multiple more establishment-type GOP donors more drawn to candidates like Susan Collins or Ashley Hinson, the junior Paxton effuses about Paxton senior's presence as a Dad while she was growing up– and the role he's now playing as "Pop Pop" to her kids.
"He was at my games, at my school events, present in the moments that mattered and in the quiet, ordinary ones too," the email reads. "He was the kind of dad who made you feel seen and loved, not just on the big occasions, but every single day."
But the email also hints at the thing that has been bothering both more establishment-minded donors and family values conservatives, even with "God is nonbinary" James Talarico as a foil: Paxton's ongoing divorce proceedings initiated by his wife, Angela, whom he is alleged to have flagrantly cheated on during their marriage.
"My dad is not a perfect man. None of us are," Mattie's email pointedly states, while following up with a note that Paxton "is a man of deep faith, genuine love for his family, and an unrelenting commitment to doing right by the people of Texas."
Presumably, an expansive definition of "family" that glosses over the anchor position of "wife" is being used.
But here's the real question: Will it work?
Of note, the Paxton campaign has done this before. Ahead of this year's primary, where Paxton forced Cornyn into a runoff that Paxton ultimately won, Mattie was prominently featured in a campaign ad and as an oped writer.
Paxton got to where he is now– so presumably it helped, or at least did not hurt.
But loads of Texans will have seen that ad when it ran– and yet the polls remain pretty sour for the AG.
Will it really be easier to get donors who thought Mitt Romney (husband and father of the year, every year), Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan were just fine and dandy to chip in even $5 here or there when enough Texan voters– who actually are the ones having to make a proverbial Sophie's Choice with their vote this November– haven't been able to even say "Paxton" to a nameless, faceless pollster?
In Paxton's favor is the fact that there is precedent for his argument working.
Pretty much no one argues that President Trump has been a great and amazing husband over the course of his three marriages (and thanks to Jon Ossoff, we're now enduring yet another round of discussing this on every cable news channel, ad infinitum).
Before Trump, there was John McCain, who was also demonstrably not a great husband, at least to his first wife, but seems to have performed better on the second attempt and again appears to have done a good job as a father.
But Ken Paxton's non-marital alleged misdeeds go well beyond any that McCain ever committed. And they arguably even go beyond those of Trump (check the corruption allegations closely; Trump may get to equivalent territory before the end of this term in office, but among other things, he does not appear to have ever been engulfed in controversy over an alleged stolen luxury pen).
Ultimately, these alleged ethical and legal infractions are not charges Mattie Paxton is especially well-situated to combat. And all the "Talarico is a vegan who believes there are sixty-six genders" needling in the world doesn't seem to be pushing Paxton ahead.
It's Texas, so it's still hard to see how literally anyone with the "R" next to their name doesn't pull this out.
But the Mattie Paxton effort seems more likely to win the Paxton campaign points for trying, and for trying something that feels vaguely honest, especially. That's not the same as fifty percent plus one vote on Election Day, though.
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