MAGA profit-taking

If you’re going to make your political career as a Donald Trump tribute act might as well go all the way. To the bank!

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton went from being a middle-class lawyer to a multimillionaire during his two decades on a public official’s salary, according to thousands of pages of previously unreported documents that shed new light on the personal finances of one of the Republican Party’s most-watched midterm candidates.

Paxton, who entered state government in 2003 with a modest income and few assets, by 2018 told a lender he had amassed a net worth of about $5.5 million, not including millions in assets he and his wife had previously moved into a blind trust. 

The following year, Paxton reaped an additional $2.2 million gain—never previously disclosed—from his investment in a local company with a lucrative Texas state contract, according to the documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, which include Paxton’s tax returns and bank statements.

Paxton’s accumulation of wealth has become a key campaign issue as he vies to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a hotly contested Republican primary set for March 3, 2026. The race is crucial to Republicans’ hopes to hold on to their Senate majority. Paxton is popular with the party’s base, but national GOP strategists fear his nomination could cost them in a general election.

Whether this will hurt or help him among Republican primary voters is an open question.