“A historical footnote until” Paxton: Texas impeachment history

Impeachment trials in the Senate are rare. Before Ken Paxton, the Texas House had only impeached one other statewide official more than a hundred years ago.

"It's really been a historical footnote until the impeachment of Attorney General Paxton of course," said longtime Texas Christian University political science professor James Riddlesperger, "The scarcity of those impeachments tells the story."

The only other similar case was the populist Governor James "Pa" Ferguson. In 1917, Ferguson was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives in August, 1917. A month later the Texas Senate convicted and removed him from office. The legislature turned against him after the Democratic governor got into a very public feud with leaders at the University of Texas at Austin.

When members of the university faculty supported the governor's opponents, including the then-Lt. Governor William Harding Mayes, Ferguson demanded they be fired. When the president of the university refused, the governor vetoed the entire budget for the University of Texas at Austin.

The House sent the Senate 21 articles of impeachment and the Senate convicted him of ten of them.

That wasn't the end of politics for Ferguson however. He encouraged his wife Miriam to run for governor and she was elected to a term, then lost her reelection campaign, but was reelected to another term later. Actress Kathy Bates played Governor "Ma" Ferguson in the Netflix movie The Highwaymen, a movie about two Texas Rangers going after the criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde.

"They became known at that point as 'Ma' and 'Pa' Ferguson," said Riddlesperger, "Famously he had a desk right outside her office where he sat. There are many pictures of her doing executive actions with him in the picture. He was in the background."

"Pa" Ferguson also ran for President in 1920 but lost in the primary.

The only other impeachment in Texas history wasn't for statewide office but a local district judge.

O.P. Carrillo from Duval County was impeached and removed in 1976 for using county tax dollars and staff for personal reasons. Professor Riddlesperger describes it as "a case of local corruption."

Most people know the Congressional impeachment process because former President Donald Trump went through the process twice and former President Bill Clinton went through it in the 1990s. Both were not removed from office after senate votes.

Statewide impeachments are quite rare with many states never having to go through the process. It is even less common for an attorney general to be impeached. In many states, the attorney general is appointed by the governor so the chief executive could simply fire the top law enforcement officer if needed. In Texas, because the state has a "decentralized executive" the attorney general and several other statewide positions are elected on their own.

Here's a list of some of the most recent statewide impeachments and their results.

In 2022, former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was removed and declared ineligible for office after he killed a man with his car while driving at night but told police he hit a deer.

In 2018, the associated justices of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals either retired, resigned, or reprimanded after they were impeached. They were impeached after news broke of an audit and federal investigation over improper spending.

In 2013, former Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands Benigno Fitial resigned after the Territory's House drew up impeachment articles for abuse of power.

In 2009, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was removed and declared ineligible to hold public office again after being convicted of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat left vacant when Barack Obama became President.

University of Nebraska Regent David Hergert was convicted and removed from office for manipulating election laws and trying to cover it up in 2006.

In 2004, former Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher resigned instead of facing an impeachment trial over corruption, incompetence, and neglect of duty. Also in 2004, Kathy Augustine, Nevada Comptroller, was censured but not removed.

In 2000, the first-ever impeachment trial of a state supreme court chief justice ended in New Hampshire when Chief Justice David Brock was found not guilty.