Ken Paxton: Wife Is Moving ‘closer and Closer by the Day' to Deciding to Run for Texas Senate

For a moment there, it looked like Dallas County Republican Chair Philip Huffines was going to breeze into the Texas Senate District 8 vacancy created by the departure of Van Taylor, who is expected to succeed the retiring Sam Johnson in Congress.The two state representatives touted as likely challengers, Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen, have both decided to remain in the House. No one with similar district-wide familiarity or connections seemed poised to step up, until this week, when news broke of a possible bid by Angela Paxton, wife of Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose previous state job was that very senate seat.I spoke with Paxton Friday morning about whether we should expect a challenge that would set up a race featuring two established family names.So where are we on a possible decision by her to run?She's not someone that's been sitting out there waiting to run for office. Once that seat opened up, and once Matt and Jeff decided not to run -- I would have been happy with either one of those guys -- once that opened up, people started asking if she would consider running.So, she's been mulling it over, and at this point, she's made no announcement, but she, I would say, is moving closer and closer by the day to deciding to do it. If she were to do so, what would the timetable look like?I would guess in the next week or so, she would make that decision. Obviously it's a big change for her; it would affect her job, and there would be things that would have to change. But interestingly for us, this is the first time we've been empty-nesters ... Suddenly, we have no children at home.Some of the analysis is already kicking in. The Huffines family, famous in business and now in politics, coming up against the various connections you've made dating back from the AG race to senate races to house races.She's lived in the district for 21 years, that is a huge advantage over Philip -- obviously, he's moved up from Highland Park. She knows a lot of people in and of herself. And given that I've represented that area for 12 years and now serving as AG -- that district was my district -- so we know it well, we know the people in it well, and I think that will be really helpful to her if she decides to do this.This Q&A was conducted, edited and condensed by Mark Davis, a radio host and frequent columnist for The Dallas Morning News. The Mark Davis Show airs from 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays on KSKY-AM (660). Email: markdavisshow@gmail.comKen Paxton is attorney general of Texas.   Continue reading...