AUSTIN, Texas – Suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded to rumors he plans to resign. He tweeted, “Wrong!”
He posted this on social media Saturday in response to a tweet that claimed there was "credible chatter" that he will step down to avoid testifying at his impeachment trial that starts next week. It appears to be the first public comment on impeachment since Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick imposed a gag order on those involved in the trial last month.
Even if Paxton does resign, a source close to the Texas House impeachment managers says they plan to proceed with a trial regardless. But as we inch closer to the trial, some Paxton supporters are putting pressure on certain senators to end it before it officially even begins.
RELATED: Experts: Ken Paxton's impeachment trial is political, not criminal
Senators will serve as jurors who will determine Paxton’s political future. That’s led some conservative groups defending Paxton to step in.
“I think that senators should be willing to listen to the will of their voters,” said Luke Macias, director of the pro-Paxton political action committee (PAC), Defend Texas Liberty.
Some conservatives and Paxton’s attorneys argue voters reelected Paxton knowing he was accused of wrongdoing. Macias says that’s why they’re encouraging Texans to call their Republican senator to push them to acquit Paxton.
“I think Texans should be asking their representatives to vote in conjunction with their values, beliefs, and the things they want to see advance in the state,” he said. “I think it's completely appropriate for any individual to reach out to their elected officials, if they think there's any chance that they would vote with Democrats instead of the will of Republican voters. I think any organization that is urging Texans to do that, in a respectful manner, are doing, really, what is in the best interest of those same Texans.”
Matthew Wilson, associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, says the average voter in Texas doesn’t know who Paxton is.
“When Paxton's defenders talk about the voters, it's important to ascertain who exactly they mean, because it is certainly true that a majority of Texas voters prefer a Republican in that office to a Democrat. But that's going to be true regardless of what happens to Ken Paxton. The other thing is, it is true that in the Republican primary, voters chose Ken Paxton over other Republican alternatives," Wilson said. "But if you're talking about those voters, there you're talking about the kind of core Republican base because that's who shows up in Republican primaries. The other thing, despite what those of us who closely follow and care about politics would like to believe, the average voter in Texas does not know who Ken Paxton is, right? That's important to remember. The average voter in Texas has probably heard of the governor and the senators, and that's about it. So you're talking about a very engaged political activist class of voters who have strong opinions on Ken Paxton one way or the other.”
House impeachment lawyers say voters didn’t know everything before the most recent election and have laid out new allegations.
“As voters, I think we need to respect this process and allow it to unfold the way that we would allow any trial to unfold. You certainly couldn't imagine reaching out to jurors and asking them to vote a particular way in a trial. The same standard should hold here,” said Adrian Shelley, the Texas director for Public Citizen. “We don't think it's appropriate for anybody to be calling on their senator to vote a certain way in this trial. We need to let it unfold, and we need to let the facts determine the outcome.”
In May, a majority of House Republicans voted to impeach Paxton. Defend Texas Liberty went after those members. And now, the PAC’s leader, former Texas GOP Rep. Jonathan Stickland, says any Republican senator who votes to convict Paxton is risking their political career.
“This is political in nature, so I don't think anyone escapes this without some kind of political implication. It's where the country's at, and it's certainly where Texas is at... It just feels like this is not the will of the voter. I mean, Paxton was elected, our attorney general, was elected by 10 points, which is no small margin in politics,” said Lauren Davis, a grassroots organizer in Dallas, who believes the trial should “stop before it even starts.”
Wilson disagrees.
“I think it is unlikely that you would see elections for the state legislature next year center on the fate of an impeached and removed attorney general, whose fate was decided more than a year previously. I think that's a little bit far-fetched,” said Wilson.
Defend Texas Liberty donated $3 million to Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick earlier this year. As head of the Senate, Patrick will preside over the impeachment trial. But Macias says this wasn’t an attempt to influence him.
“The donations we've given out are purely in support of all the conservative policy that was passed in the Senate,” Macias said.
Paxton has denied all wrongdoing. His legal team calls the impeachment trial a sham. But some influential Republicans are also saying the process should play out. Former Gov. Rick Perry wrote in an op-ed that Senators should allow for a “full and fair” trial. It will begin on Sept. 5.
“If Paxton is removed from office, it's not as if he's going to be replaced by some sort of left-wing Democrat,” Wilson said. “Paxton will be replaced by a conservative Republican. And so the issue priorities that conservative Texas voters care about are going to be served with or without Ken Paxton in office.”