Suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton raises $1.7 million after being impeached

Impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton raised more than $1.7 million dollars since he's been suspended from office according to the latest campaign finance report. Paxton faces a trial in the Texas Senate over whether he is permanently removed in early September.

Texas statewide officials are banned from fundraising during the regular legislative session and in the days before and after. The money reported in his latest campaign finance paperwork came from the middle to the end of June - after the Republican-led Texas House impeached him 121-23. Paxton’s campaign has more than $2.7 million in his campaign bank account, including a $850,000 loan.

The latest report shows Paxton supporters donated more than usual since the impeachment vote. A similar post-session report in 2019 showed he raised $1.4 million.

In 2017 he raised $1 million in the July report. In 2015, his first post-session fundraising period, he raised almost $400,000.

This latest report nearly matched his $1.8 million haul from July 2021, where he was locked in a competitive primary race against three other major candidates.

National Republican groups funneled money to Paxton in that race where he eventually triumphed over former Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush in a runoff.

With this impeachment, his job is once again on the line and his supporters are sending him dollars.

“Each battle I face, I have been amazed and grateful for the support I have received from everyday Texans. Not only will we survive this latest attack but we will come out of this stronger than ever. I will never stop fighting for Texans,” Paxton wrote NBC 5 in a statement.

In the last days of the legislative session, a House investigating committee revealed they’d been investigating the attorney general after he requested more than $3 million in taxpayer money to settle a whistleblower lawsuit from within his office. In a public hearing, House investigators accused him of obstructing justice and abusing his power to help a major donor. Days later both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly voted to impeach him.

Paxton openly called for donations to defend against the impeachment effort.

“RINOS (Republicans In Name Only) and far-left radicals have establish a kangaroo court in the TX Lege. To eliminate America’s most conservative Attorney General,” Paxton tweeted this summer, asking for donations from $1 to $100.

He now faces a trial and a decision among 30 Texas senators. Paxton’s wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, is not allowed to vote on his fate per Senate rules. Earlier this week, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick acting as judge over the trial, issued a far-reaching gag order to limit public comments on the upcoming trial.

Texas doesn’t have campaign contribution limits. Craig Holman from the watchdog group Public Citizen told NBC 5 the amount of money can make for “murky politics.”

Paxton’s finance reports show more than $1 million out of the $1.7 million he raised came from a few big donors: Waco-area fitness chain owner Gary Heavin gave $500,000, Midland oil man Doug Scharbauer gave $250,000. And four other conservative mega-donors gave $100,000 or more.

Paxton’s campaign pointed to the many hundreds of small-dollar donations to Paxton as well. A spokesman says more than 2,000 individuals donated.

Holman compares the donations to the phenomenon he saw when former President Trump supporters came to his aid after he was indicted on many criminal charges.

“It will bring out donors both small donors and large donors and that money can add up substantially as we’re now seeing in Texas,” said Holman.

Texas law allows Paxton to use the donations on nearly everything outside of “personal” use like buying groceries or paying for a mortgage.

“He can use it for promoting himself on airwaves and his cause and he can use it to pay for a very professional team of lawyers,” said Holman.

Paxton tapped high-profile Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee to lead his defense. Buzbee planned for a press conference on the trial Tuesday but canceled it after Patrick’s sweeping gag-order.

Director of the pro-Paxton Defend Texas Liberty PAC, Luke Macias, told NBC 5 Paxton’s donors shows that he has not lost support among Republican voters. Those voters, according to Macias, “are very upset.”

“A lot of Ken Paxton’s own political opponents criticized him throughout the Republican primary. He had three opponents and he got re-elected,” he said.

Leaders in the Texas House have not yet commented on the donations, citing Patrick’s gag-order. In an interview with NBC 5’s Austin affiliate KXAN, Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, R - Beaumont, said impeachment was the right thing to do and he hoped “outside forces” wouldn’t sway senators away from a fair trial.

“I hope external pressures will not play a part in what I think is a very important piece of democracy, and that are checks and balances on someone who did something wrong,” said Speaker Phelan at the end of the session.

House investigators continue their work.

The Paxton trial is September 5 in the Texas Senate. The next glimpse of who is donating to Paxton is way afterward when the January finance reports are due.