Ken Paxton’s estranged wife backs his candidacy — without mentioning him by name

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — Ken Paxton’s estranged wife threw her support behind the Texas GOP Senate nominee without naming him, saying in a new ad that she will be “voting for the Republican ticket.”

Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce from Ken Paxton last year and accused him of adultery, argued that in the general election, the GOP’s success matters more than any individual candidate.

“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. In a general election, it’s not as much about the individual players on the team. It’s about getting the whole team across the finish line,” Angela Paxton, who is a state senator, says in the ad. “Either we hold every Republican seat or we hand the future of Texas to the other team. That’s why I’m voting for the Republican ticket on November 3.”

The ad comes after Paxton urged Republican women in remarks last month to support GOP candidates even if they have reservations about them. She similarly did not mention her estranged husband by name in that September 18 speech.

“Because we have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat — when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” she said in the speech. “But if we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back, right?”

The Texas Senate race is a marquee contest as Republicans seek to hold onto the chamber, and the seat — in what was a reliably red state — is increasingly seen as a toss-up, in part due to Ken Paxton’s scandals. Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives over yearslong corruption allegations and was later acquitted by the state Senate. He continued serving as attorney general of the Lone Star State.

A New York Times/Siena poll released Saturday showed Democratic nominee James Talarico leading Paxton by 6 percentage points.

In a separate ad posted by Paxton on Saturday, the GOP candidate’s daughter made the case that “liberal politicians,” like Talarico, are making the affordability crisis worse.

“When they come after you, my dad goes after them,” Mattie Hayworth says in the video, which featured her partner and children.

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