From left: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Comptroller Kelly Hancock during Paxton's September 2023 impeachment trial on the Senate floor at the Austin Capitol.

Ken Paxton calls acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock ‘loser,’ calls for his removal amid grudge match

In a Tuesday letter, Hancock criticized the attorney general for not using all the tools at his disposal to go after groups he says are affiliated with Muslim terrorist groups.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune March 25, 2026

In a Tuesday letter, Hancock criticized the attorney general for not using all the tools at his disposal to go after groups he says are affiliated with Muslim terrorist groups.

From left: State Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, are running in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general.

Texas News

Mayes Middleton, Chip Roy advance to runoff for GOP attorney general nomination

With a self-funded ad surge, Middleton overcame Roy’s initial frontrunner status, taking a commanding lead but falling short of the majority needed to win outright.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune March 4, 2026March 4, 2026

Aaron Reitz, nominee to be an Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, speaking at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26, 2025.

Politics & Elections

Aaron Reitz, Paxton’s endorsed successor, vows to ‘destroy the left’ if elected Texas attorney general

Reitz believes the nation is at war with liberals, and the best bulwark against them is a fully empowered Texas attorney general’s office — with him at the helm.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune February 16, 2026February 16, 2026

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to reporters May 26, 2023, a day before the Texas House voted to impeach him. He was later acquitted by the state Senate.

Texas News

Texas’ next top lawyer: What does the attorney general do and how has Paxton remade the office?

Texans will elect a new attorney general next year for the first time in over a decade. The office handles legal matters impacting everyday life and, currently, plays a leading role in the conservative movement.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune December 22, 2025December 22, 2025

Competing demonstrations take place outside the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears a case on gender-affirming care for transgender children in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4, 2024.

Texas News

Waco judge who refused to marry same-sex couples asks federal courts to overturn right to gay marriage

Judge Dianne Hensley, who has been fighting the state judicial oversight body since 2019, is hoping to tee up a new challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune December 20, 2025December 20, 2025

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to a crowd during a campaign rally on Oct. 29, 2025 in Conroe.

Texas News

Paxton’s campaign against immigrant-serving groups gets boost from court rulings

Courts have said that the attorney general can use a 100-year-old law to demand entities’ internal records and sue to shut them down if he believes they’re violating the law.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune December 9, 2025December 9, 2025

State Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, looks over a proposed congressional map during a redistricting hearing at the Texas Capitol in Austin on Aug. 6, 2025

Texas News

Supreme Court lets Texas keep new congressional map while legal battle continues

The ruling is a major win for the Trump administration and Texas Republicans, who engineered the map to give the GOP control of 30 of the state’s 38 congressional districts.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune December 4, 2025December 4, 2025

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 2024.

Texas News

Supreme Court temporarily restores Texas’ new congressional map

The administrative ruling is a first step before the court decides whether to pause the use of the 2025 map, drawn to increase GOP seats in the U.S. House, for the rest of the legal battle.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune November 22, 2025November 22, 2025

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference in Houston on Oct. 1, 2025.

Texas News

Abbott, Republican lawmakers’ comments cited in court order overturning Texas’ congressional gerrymander

Judge Jeffrey Brown pointed to comments from the governor and GOP legislators as the basis for his ruling that the new map can’t be used in 2026.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune November 21, 2025November 21, 2025

tate Rep. Matt Morgan, R-Richmond, surveys a map of proposed new congressional districts in Texas, as Democratic lawmakers, who left the state to deny Republicans the opportunity to redraw the state's 38 congressional districts, began returning to the Texas Capitol in Austin on Aug. 20, 2025.

Texas News

Federal court blocks Texas from using new congressional gerrymander in 2026 midterms

The decision is a major blow for Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who had pushed Texas’ GOP leaders to draw new lines to help protect the party’s narrow U.S. House majority.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune November 18, 2025November 18, 2025

Texas News

Paxton makes ‘extraordinary request’ to block Tylenol maker from paying shareholders

The filing is likely intended to create financial uncertainty for the company — something Texas has promised corporations they could avoid in a bid to lure business to the state.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune November 6, 2025November 7, 2025

A voting machine for voters with disabilities at a public verification test of the voting system at the Dallas County Elections Department building in Dallas, Texas on Sept. 20, 2024. The test allows participants to validate the voting process by using ballots containing the same races and proportions as the upcoming elections in November.

Texas News

How the Texas GOP’s bid to block lawmakers from the ballot defies a century of court precedent

The Texas GOP will vote Saturday to possibly bar some state legislators from running in the 2026 primary, despite repeated Texas Supreme Court rulings saying they cannot.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune October 10, 2025October 10, 2025

From left: Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

News

Ken Paxton’s legal crusade against Beto O’Rourke is faltering before an all-Republican appeals court

The court, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, recently allowed O’Rourke to continue raising and dispersing donations, and cast doubt on Paxton’s main arguments.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune September 17, 2025September 17, 2025

News

Judge blocks Beto O’Rourke from financially supporting Texas Democrats who left the state

The order came at the request of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who O’Rourke accused in a separate lawsuit of going on a ‘fishing expedition, constitutional rights be damned.’

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune August 9, 2025August 20, 2025

News

Texas Attorney General Paxton will ask courts to vacate Democratic lawmakers’ seats

Legal experts say it’s “inconsistent with the Texas Constitution” to argue a quorum break qualifies as abandoning an office.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune August 5, 2025August 11, 2025

News

Top Paxton deputy accused of witness tampering during impeachment trial

In dueling lawsuits, current and former employees of the attorney general’s office sling allegations that threaten to intrude on Paxton’s U.S. Senate bid.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune June 26, 2025July 2, 2025

News

What the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on gender-affirming care ban means for Texas

The court split 6-3 along ideological lines on a case from Tennessee. About two dozen states have similar bans in place.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune June 20, 2025June 29, 2025

News

Trans Texans brace for life under strict sex definition law

Texas has strictly defined man and woman, leaving trans Texans in legal limbo.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune June 12, 2025July 18, 2025

News

Texas’ swift surrender to DOJ on undocumented student tuition raises state-federal collusion questions

Experts say Wednesday’s action to eliminate the long-standing policy could be a ‘collusive lawsuit,’ where the state and feds worked the courts to get a desired outcome.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune June 9, 2025June 18, 2025

News

Texas will require state documents to reflect sex assigned at birth

Many trans Texans have changed the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver’s licenses and other documents. They say their identities will be invalidated under bill headed to governor’s desk.

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune May 28, 2025June 17, 2025