AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Billionaires, burner phones, alleged bribes: The impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going to test the will of Republicans senators to oust not only one of their own, but a firebrand who has helped drive the state’s hard turn to the right for years.
The historic proceedings set to start in the state Senate Tuesday are the most serious threat yet to one of Texas’ most powerful figures after nine years engulfed by criminal charges, scandal and accusations of corruption. If convicted, Paxton — just the third official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached — could be removed from office.
Witnesses called to testify could include Paxton and a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an extramarital affair. Members of the public hoping to watch from the gallery will have to line up for passes. And conservative activists have already bought up TV airtime and billboards, pressuring senators to acquit one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest defenders.
“It’s a very serious event but it’s a big-time show,” said Bill Miller, a longtime Austin lobbyist and a friend of Paxton. “Any way you cut it, it’s going to have the attention of anyone and everyone.”
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The build-up to the trial has widened divisions among Texas Republicans that reflect the wider fissures roiling the party nationally heading into the 2024 election.
At the fore of recent Texas policies are hardline measures to stop migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, battles over what is taught in public schools, and restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights — many of which are championed loudest in the Senate, where Republicans hold a dominant 19-12 majority and have Paxton’s fate in their hands.
The Senate has long been a welcoming place for Paxton. His wife, Angela, is a state senator, although she is barred from voting in the trial. Paxton also was a state senator before becoming attorney general in 2015 and still has entanglements in the chamber, including with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who will preside over the trial and loaned $125,000 to Paxton’s reelection campaign.
If all 12 Democrats vote to convict Paxton, they would still need at least nine Republicans on their side. Or the Senate could vote by a simple majority to dismiss the charges altogether. It was a GOP-dominated House that decided by an overwhelming majority that Paxton should be impeached.
“You’re seeing a fracture within the party right now,” said Matt Langston, a Republican political consultant in Texas. “This is going to impact the leadership and the party for a long time.”
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The trial also appears to have heightened Paxton’s legal risks. The case against him largely centers on his relationship with Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer who was indicted this summer after being accused of making false statements to banks to secure $170 million in loans.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Washington kicked a long-running investigation of Paxton into a higher gear when they began using a grand jury in San Antonio to examine his dealings with Paul, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of secrecy rules around grand jury proceedings. The grand jury’s role was first reported by the Austin American-Stateman.
Chris Toth, the former executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General, said Paxton has for years weathered scandals unique among top state lawyers. He said the outcome of the trial will send a message about what is acceptable to elected officials across the country.
Impeachment managers in the GOP-controlled Texas House filed nearly 4,000 pages of exhibits ahead of the trial, including accusations that Paxton hid the use of multiple cellphones and reveled in other perks of office.
“There’s very much a vile and insidious level of influence that Ken Paxton exerts through continuing to get away with his conduct,” Toth said.
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Part of Paxton’s political durability is his alignment with Trump, and this was never more apparent than when Paxton joined efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Like Trump, Paxton says he is a victim of politically motivated investigations.
But James Dickey, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said the base of the GOP sees Paxton’s impeachment as different from legal troubles facing Trump.
“Exclusively, the actions against President Trump are from Democrat elected officials and so it can’t avoid having more of a partisan tone,” he said. “Therefore, Republican voters have more concern and frustration with it.”
Patrick, in a rare television interview last month, was explicit in what the trial is and is not.
“It’s not a criminal trial. It’s not a civil trial,” he told Houston television station KRIV. “It’s a political trial.”
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give us feedback.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been a loud anti-abortion crusader throughout his political career.
But as reproductive rights loom over the election season as a key issue for voters, Cruz is uncharacteristically quiet.
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The Texas Republican, running for a third term in the Senate, is locked in a tight race against U.S. Sen. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who has made restoring access to abortion and blaming Cruz for the toppling of Roe v. Wade central to his campaign.
This past week, Allred’s campaign, boosted by an influx of cash from Senate Democrats, began airing an ad on TV and streaming platforms across the state that blasted Cruz for his anti-abortion record.
Texas has banned almost all abortions — including in cases of rape and incest — since Roe was overturned. Since then, Cruz has been more careful about how he engages on the topic. He has repeatedly called abortion a state issue, while offering more vocal support for in vitro fertilization.
Cruz, through a spokesperson, declined a request for an interview. The Texas Tribune reached out to his campaign eight times over six weeks to ask about his positions, posing nine initial questions via email and several follow ups on topics ranging from his past support for a national abortion ban to how he squares his belief in fetal personhood with his support for IVF — a process which routinely involves the disposal of fertilized embryos.
Cruz’s campaign did not respond directly to questions, instead providing links to previous statements he had made on the topic in other interviews. Those statements did not address several specific questions.
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While Democrats have not won statewide in Texas in 30 years, the issue could pose a risk for Cruz, who squeaked to victory in 2018 against Beto O’Rourke by less than three percentage points. Though polling shows Texans prioritizing issues like border security and the economy over abortion, more Texans believe that the state’s abortion laws are too strict, and Democrats are banking on the issue boosting turnout nationwide in a presidential election year.
The most important Texas news, sent weekday mornings.
Abortion ban
When the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, Cruz celebrated the decision as “nothing short of a massive victory for life” that would not outlaw abortion across the country, but leaves “abortion policy up to the states and returns power to the American people.”
“This is a momentous day, and yet the fight for life doesn’t end with the Dobbs decision,” he said in a statement after the ruling. “It simply begins a new chapter. I’ve been proud to stand for life in the U.S. Senate, and I will continue to do so as we navigate the path ahead.”
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Republicans have faced scrutiny in recent months about their past efforts to pass a federal abortion ban, with Democrats warning that former President Donald Trump would press for further restrictions.
In 2021, before Roe was overturned, Cruz cosponsored a 20-week federal abortion ban, which included exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. He cosponsored a similar ban at least six times over his Senate career. He did not sign onto a 15-week ban when it was introduced in September 2022. In 2023, he co-introduced a bill that would allow states to exclude medical providers that perform abortions from state Medicaid funding. None of those measures advanced through Congress.
Cruz did not respond directly to a question about whether he still supports a federal ban. But in a past interview his campaign provided to the Tribune, he said that abortion policy is up to each state.
“Questions of what the rules of abortion are will be made by state officials in Austin, the state legislature, the governor. And the situation we have right now, every state makes different rules,” Cruz said in an August interview with WFAA.
Trump, during the vice presidential debate on Oct. 1, said on social media for the first time that he would veto a national abortion ban, after backing a series of shifting positions over the course of his third campaign for the White House.
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Abortion exemptions
Cruz declined to directly answer whether he thought Texas should add carveouts for rape and incest and if he thought the state’s exception to save the life of the mother was working.
In the WFAA interview, he pointed to legislation he has supported with those exceptions, while reiterating that the decision would be made at the state level.
But during his 2016 presidential run, Cruz said at a town hall in Wisconsin that he did not support an exemption for rape.
“When it comes to rape, rape is a horrific crime against the humanity of a person, and needs to be punished and punished severely,” Cruz said. “But at the same time, as horrible as that crime is, I don’t believe it’s the child’s fault.”
Texas law allows abortions only in instances where the life of the mother is at risk. Critics, including Allred, say that exemption is unclear and has resulted in women — such as Kate Cox, who was denied an emergency abortion by the Texas Supreme Court after finding out her pregnancy was no longer viable — being unable to access necessary medical care.
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When asked if he thought the law needed clarifying or changing, Cruz’s campaign pointed to an interview he sat for on CNN. When asked during that interview if he agreed with the court’s ruling in Cox’s case, he said the Texas Supreme Court “was right” to direct the Texas Medical Board to “set the rules.”
“I think there’s a very good argument that she fell under that exception,” he said. “But what the Texas Supreme Court said in its opinion is it asked the Texas Medical Board go in and set clear rules.”
The Texas Medical Board adopted guidance in June for how doctors should interpret the state’s new abortion laws, but declined to provide a list of cases in which an abortion should be permitted.
IVF
This year, Cruz has become increasingly vocal about his support for IVF, which he calls a “miracle.”
In February, a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court sparked a nationwide panic about the future of access to IVF. That decision said that frozen embryos should be considered people, and that anyone who disposed of them could be liable for wrongful death. The Alabama Legislature subsequently passed a law to protect fertility treatments.
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In May, Cruz introduced a bill with U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, that he said would protect IVF on the federal level by excluding any state that bans the treatment from federal Medicaid dollars.
“It simply does what needs to be done: safeguarding the right of couples to grow their family if they choose to use IVF, because this should not be a political issue,” Cruz said on the Senate floor in September describing his bill.
The bill, which Democrats blocked, would not create a statutory right to access fertility treatments. Critics panned it as lip service and “incentivizing far-right, anti-choice policymakers in deep red states to defund health care for low-income Americans” without barring them from also outlawing IVF.
Cruz voted against Democratic legislation that would create a federal right to access fertility care, saying the bill infringes on religious freedoms — though the measure does not require medical professionals who may oppose IVF to provide any treatments.
Cruz also did not respond to a question asking if he supported an idea Trump floated to make IVF free for all Americans. Trump did not explain how that proposal would be implemented.
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Allred said he would support the Democratic IVF bill, which was backed by two Senate Republicans, and he cosponsored a related measure in the House to federally protect fertility treatments.
Cruz did not respond to questions about whether he believes an embryo created through IVF constitutes a person.
In 2015, during his presidential campaign, Cruz signed a pledge to back a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would “guarantee a constitutional right to life for every innocent human being, from earliest biological beginning until natural death.”
He embraced personhood measures in February 2016, before ducking questions about the topic a couple of months later.
Cruz has argued that his support for IVF is not inconsistent with a belief in fetal personhood by pointing to states that have adopted both personhood amendments and IVF protections.
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“There are three states — Alabama, Georgia and Missouri — all of which have adopted personhood amendments, and all of which protect IVF,” he said on the Senate floor in June. “The Democrats maintain that IVF is in jeopardy, and yet the facts are precisely to the contrary.”
After the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision, IVF providers paused treatments across the state. Most resumed services once the Alabama Legislature passed protections for fertility treatments. But that law did not address the question of personhood, and simply provides immunity to IVF providers and patients.
Filibuster
At the same time, Cruz has characterized Allred as an extremist on abortion and accused him of supporting “abortion literally up until the moment of birth.”
Allred’s campaign rejected that claim as a scare tactic, providing a statement he made to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in response to Cruz’s allegations.
“I find it offensive that Ted Cruz would knowingly misstate not only my position but what has been the standard in this country for the last 50 years,” he said, saying a return to Roe would allow states to restrict abortions after viability while also leaving the decision of whether to have an abortion to patients and their doctors.
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Meanwhile, Allred has tried to pin the end of Roe and subsequent state abortion bans on Cruz’s support for anti-abortion state lawmakers and his position on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which advanced three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices.
“He is singularly responsible for what’s happening in our state,” Allred said.
Allred has been a consistent abortion rights advocate throughout his tenure in Congress.
After he was elected to the U.S. House in 2018, Allred cosponsored and voted in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would create a federal protection for abortion access. The bill passed the House in 2021 and 2022 but died in the Senate. Allred has also spoken out against local efforts to ban the use of roads and highways to obtain an abortion out of state.
“We have to restore freedom to Texas women and Texas families,” he said. “And the way we do that is going to be at the federal level.”
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If elected to the Senate, Allred said he would support changing the filibuster to enable passage of a federal abortion protection law. The Senate requires 60 votes to move forward on any legislation — a threshold meant to protect the minority party’s power and foster bipartisanship, but which has stymied Democrats’ efforts to pass abortion and voting rights legislation over Republican resistance.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, recently reiterated her support for carving out an exception to the filibuster for abortion legislation — though institutionalists warn that lowering the threshold to a simple majority would be a slippery slope that could lead to less durable reforms and sap the minority’s leverage when the other party comes into power.
Still, Allred argued that the Senate now exists in an “ahistorical period in which the filibuster is being abused,” and that the chamber ought to return to a rule that required any senator blocking a bill to speak on the Senate floor for the duration of their filibuster.
Voting FAQ: 2024 Elections
When is the next election? What dates do I need to know?
Election Day for the general election is November 5, and early voting will run from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1. The deadline to register to vote and/or change your voter registration address is Oct. 7. Applications to vote by mail must be received by your county of residence – not postmarked – by Oct. 25.
What’s on the ballot for the general election?
In addition to the president, eligible Texans have the opportunity to cast their ballots for many Texas officials running for office at the federal, state and local levels.
This includes representatives in the U.S. and Texas houses and the following elected offices:
-1 U.S Senator (Ted Cruz)
– 1 of 3 Railroad Commissioners
– 15 State Senators
– 7 State Board of Education members
– 3 members of the Texas Supreme Court
– 3 members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
– 5 Chief Justices and various justices for Texas Courts of Appeals
– Lower-level judges and local county offices will also appear on the ballot:
– Various district judges, including on criminal and family courts
– County Courts at Law
– Justices of the Peace
– District Attorneys
– County Attorneys
– Sheriffs
– Constables
– Tax Assessor-Collectors
How do I make sure I’m registered to vote?
You can check to see if you’re registered and verify your information through the Texas Secretary of State’s website. You’ll need one of the following three combinations to log in:
Your Texas driver’s license number and date of birth.
Your first and last names, date of birth and county you reside in.
Your date of birth and Voter Unique Identifier, which appears on your voter registration certificate.
How do I register to vote if I haven’t?
You can request a postage-paid application through the mail or find one at county voter registrars’ offices and some post offices, government offices, or high schools. You can also print out the online application and mail it to the voter registrar in your county.
Applications must be postmarked by the Oct. 7 deadline. Download your application here.
Additionally, you can register to vote through the Texas Department of Public Safety while renewing your driver’s license. You may be able to register to vote online if you’re also allowed to renew your license online. This is the only form of online registration in the state.
After you register to vote, you will receive a voter registration certificate within 30 days. It’ll contain your voter information, including the Voter Unique Identifier number needed to update your voter registration online. If the certificate has incorrect information, you’ll need to note corrections and send it to your local voter registrar as soon as possible.
The voter registration certificate can also be used as a secondary form of ID when you vote if you don’t have one of the seven state-approved photo IDs
What can I do if I have questions about voting?
You can contact your county elections official or call the Texas Secretary of State’s helpline at 1-800-252-VOTE (8683). A coalition of voting rights groups is also helping voters navigate election concerns through the 866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683) voter-protection helpline. The coalition has hotlines available in other languages. Disability Rights Texas also assists voters with disabilities.
BURNET COUNTY — Authorities are looking for two men in connection to a possible attempted church shooting in Central Texas on Sunday.
Around 10:30 a.m., Burnet County deputies were called to the Church at the Epicenter in Burnet County, northwest of Austin.
Officials said a member of the volunteer church safety team encountered two “suspicious” men in the parking lot, one of them holding a rifle.
That church volunteer pulled out their weapon and fired multiple rounds, the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office said, and the suspects fled north on US 281 in a white minivan.
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The sheriff’s office said there are no known injuries.
State and federal agencies have joined the investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
This is a developing story.
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S.E. Jenkins
S.E. Jenkins is a digital content producer for CBS Texas. She has also been a Digital Content Producer in Tallahassee and Myrtle Beach. S.E. graduated with journalism degrees from Texas State University, Aarhus Universitet and City, University of London.
It was a week of upheaval in The Associated Press college football poll, with Texas returning to No. 1 on Sunday after a one-week absence following Vanderbilt’s monumental upset of Alabama.
The Commodores’ win as more than three-touchdown underdogs caused the Tide to drop from No. 1 to No. 7. The last top-ranked team to fall so far was Ohio State, which plunged to No. 11 in 2010 following an October loss to Wisconsin.
Texas, which had an open date, received 52 out of 61 first-place votes and became the first team in two years to bounce in and out of the top spot in a span of three polls. The Longhorns also were just the third team since 2008 to be voted No. 1 after not playing the day before.
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Ohio State beat Iowa for its fourth straight easy win, received nine first-place votes and moved up a spot to No. 2.
Oregon and Penn State each rose three spots, with the Ducks up to No. 3 and the Nittany Lions fourth. Georgia remained No. 5.
Miami (Fla.), which came back from a 25-point second-half deficit to beat Cal, 39-38, rose two spots to No. 6.
The mayhem wasn’t limited to Alabama.
Six of the 18 AP Top 25 teams that played lost to unranked opponents (33%), the highest mark since six of 16 (38%) lost the first week of October 2020.
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The Tide were among four teams in the top 11 to lose to unranked opponents — the first time that’s happened since October 2017.
Tennessee lost to Arkansas and went from No. 4 to No. 8. Michigan lost to Washington and went from No. 10 to No. 24. USC lost to Minnesota and went from No. 11 to out of the Top 25. The Trojans were first among teams also receiving votes.
Texas A&M soundly beat Missouri at home in the only Top 25 matchup. That earned the Aggies a promotion from a tie for No. 25 to No. 15 and the Tigers a demotion from No. 9 to No. 21.
The Big Ten dominates the top five, but the SEC maintains its grip on the top 10. No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Penn State are bookended by the SEC’s Texas and Georgia. The SEC also has Alabama, Tennessee and Ole Miss in the top 10.
Double-digit drops by Missouri, Michigan and USC mark the first time since Nov. 13, 2016, that three teams fell 10 or more spots in the same poll. That week it happened to Auburn (8 to 18), Texas A&M (10 to 23) and North Carolina (15 to receiving votes).
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The biggest upward movers were Texas A&M (25 to 15), Clemson (15 to 10) and Iowa State (16 to 11).
SMU (5-1) was rewarded for knocking off Louisville on the road and enters the rankings at No. 25. The Mustangs have appeared in the Top 25 all but one season (2022) since 2019. Louisville (3-2) has lost two of three and dropped out.
Pittsburgh won at North Carolina to start 5-0 for the first time since 1991 and enters the rankings at No. 22 for its first appearance in two years.
USC (3-2) has lost two of its first three Big Ten games and is out, as is UNLV, whose first-ever Top 25 appearance was spoiled by an overtime home loss to Syracuse.
SEC: 9 (Nos. 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, T-18, 21).
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Big Ten: 6 (Nos. 2, 3, 4, T-18, 23, 24).
Big 12: 4 (Nos. T-11, 14, 16, T-18).
ACC: 4 (Nos. 6, 10, 22, 25).
Mountain West: 1 (No. 17).
Independent: 1 (No. 11).
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Here’s the full top 25:
1. Texas 2. Ohio State 3. Oregon 4. Penn State 5. Georgia 6. Miami (Fla.) 7. Alabama 8. Tennessee 9. Ole Miss 10. Clemson T-11. Iowa State T-11. Notre Dame 13. LSU 14. BYU 15. Texas A&M 16. Utah 17. Boise State T-18. Kansas State T-18. Indiana T-18. Oklahoma 21. Missouri 22. Pittsburgh 23. Illinois 24. Michigan 25. SMU
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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