Inside Ken Paxton's jet-setting lifestyle: California wineries, European hot spots and ski resorts

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched his campaign for Senate last year, he skipped the local pageantry.

Instead, records show, the conservative firebrand announced his bid on Fox News , cleared his calendar and booked a hotel in Augusta, Georgia, during the storied Masters golf tournament, a trip that cost to Texas taxpayers at least $25,000.

The trip reflected a transformation that has unfolded over Paxton’s 11 tumultuous years as Texas’ top law enforcement official: His focus has increasingly extended beyond state lines. As he steadily built a national political profile and became a star in President Donald Trump’s MAGA universe, Paxton traveled frequently and spent less time in Texas, according to an Associated Press review of state and campaign records.

Since assuming office in 2015, Paxton left about 730 workdays blank on his official calendars and took over 275 out-of-state trips to places such as the California wine country, Caribbean resorts and European tourism hot spots. The travel cost Texas taxpayers a minimum of $1.9 million to cover expenses charged by his security detail, records show. It is unclear how Paxton has financed much of his portion of the travel.

The pattern became more pronounced as Paxton became a ubiquitous presence in conservative media and filed a stream of partisan lawsuits to oppose Democratic President Joe Biden’s agenda, endearing himself to Trump. Early in his tenure, his official calendars were packed with job-related duties. In 2021, more than 90 workdays were blank — a number that reached to 112 in 2024, the last full year the AP had records for.

Texas does not require the attorney general to report his day-to-day whereabouts, and other state records do not often reveal the length or purpose of the out-of-state travel. Texas, however, keeps records for the monthly expenses incurred by his security detail. Those records show reimbursements for travel outside Texas spiked from about $30,000 in 2015 to nearly $400,000 in 2024.

“There is clearly a pattern of behavior here that may make some voters question how seriously Ken Paxton has taken the job,” said Joshua Blank, the director of research for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “At the same time, Ken Paxton has been accused of a lot of things and those accusations have not hurt him in any significant way yet.”

Paxton’s record as attorney general and his travel have become an issue in the Senate campaign, a race that could prove pivotal in deciding party control of the chamber.

His Democratic opponent in the November election, James Talarico, criticized Paxton for spending July 4 in Great Britain and accused him of focusing more on his standing in Trump’s political movement than on issues facing Texans. In a recent social media post, Talarico chided Paxton for misspelling the name of a Texas town. “It’s Cypress, not 'Cyprus,'” Talarico wrote on Sept. 20. “But for all the time you spend on luxury vacations in Europe, it’s no surprise you don’t know Texas.”

The travel has also served as an uncomfortable reminder of Paxton’s complicated personal life.

Last year, his primary opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, posted a photo online of Paxton attending the 2024 Kentucky Derby with a group that included a woman who he has since been spotted traveling alone with.

“Quite the unforgettable day for Crooked Ken and Tracy Duhon!” Cornyn wrote , adding, “If you know you know.”

Numerous publications have reported that Paxton and Duhon, a Christian influencer and author, have an alleged romantic relationship, though both have declined to comment on the situation.

Paxton’s wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year on “biblical grounds” and accused the attorney general of infidelity. Duhon, who was not named in the Paxtons' divorce filings, did not respond to a request for comment.

Paxton's campaign would not make him available for an interview and declined to comment for this story. Madison Cercy, a Paxton spokeswoman, directed all questions to the Texas Attorney General's office, which did not directly respond to a detailed list of questions about Paxton's travel, including how he pays for it.

In an unsigned statement, Paxton's office said that calendar entries do not “capture someone’s full workday, including hours of calls, negotiations, case strategy, and briefings with his team that fill every day.”

Paxton’s office said he has helped secure large legal settlements from drugmakers and tech companies, which requires routine travel. His office added that Paxton, like other high-profile state officials, travels with a security detail because he faces threats “stemming from his courageous work … fighting on behalf of the people of Texas.”

“Attorney General Paxton leads an agency of more than 4,000 employees and is briefed daily on the most pressing matters across the office,” the statement reads. “His schedule is built to be immediately responsive to the most pressing issues in order to best serve Texans.”

Since taking office more than a decade ago, the former state lawmaker and probate lawyer has been under a cloud of scrutiny. Paxton was investigated by the FBI but never charged. Without admitting guilt, he paid restitution to settle a felony securities fraud case brought by state prosecutors. And he was impeached — but later acquitted — by fellow Republicans on accusations of abusing his office and accepting bribes.

He has survived politically thanks to a deep-well of support from his Christian conservative base and a close affiliation with Trump. He cemented the bond early in his tenure by turning his office into an operating base for the conservative movement and pursuing litigation to further its goals.

Paxton, for example, spearheaded a failed effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss to Biden. After Biden took office, Paxton sued the Democratic administration more than 100 times, a feat he has boasted about on the campaign trail.

Paxton did not invent the “activist” model for attorneys general but marshaled it in a way that enhanced his political brand, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston.

“The culture war litigation became a central function of his office rather than a peripheral one,” said Rottinghaus. Paxton, he added, “learned that litigation itself generated political capital.”

Tom Phillips, a former Republican chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court, said Paxton’s politicization of the office was a factor in his decision to endorse the Democratic candidate, state Sen. Nathan Johnson, in the race to succeed him as attorney general. “The office of attorney general should be conducted in a nonpartisan fashion. Not to advance their own political agenda,” said Phillips.

Paxton’s evolution into a national political figure can be seen in his official calendars, according to records. Early in his tenure, his schedule was packed with the typical duties of a state attorney general.

For example, during his first year in office, he routinely met with state lawmakers, greeted constituents, delivered speeches and huddled with deputies for strategy meetings.

Over the last five years, the calendars contained few listings of such activities, appearing to confirm what two former deputies told impeachment investigators in 2023: He often skipped meetings and was indifferent to many of his job’s day-to-day duties, which were delegated to his top deputies.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of contact with Attorney General Paxton,” Mark Penley, a former deputy attorney general, told impeachment investigators in 2023. “He was gone a lot, he was traveling, he was out.”

Over a two-year period ending in 2024, Paxton flew to the Caribbean , Israel, India, Taiwan, South Africa, made three trips to Europe and hit five different ski towns in the Rockies, including numerous visits to Park City, Utah, among other destinations, records show.

In the summer of 2022, a year in which he was running for reelection, Paxton embarked on a multistop European tour that included visits to Italy, Albania, Greece and Malta, as previously reported by the Dallas Morning News. Paxton also stopped at an Idaho resort town and at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, where he held a fundraiser. His travel that year cost the public roughly $230,000 to reimburse members of his security detail, records show.

While the number of blank days included in Paxton’s calendars trended upward during his tenure, other patterns emerged, too.

In 2022, for example, Paxton’s calendar contained just 79 blank days, but included 96 days in which the only listed activities were interviews he scheduled with conservative media outlets.

The following year his schedule contained more conservative media interviews — 122 — than the 98 events related to the day-to-day operations of his office, records show.

Texas conservatives, including Paxton, have treated California as a punching bag. “Don’t California My Texas” is a favorite phrase of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses it as a pejorative shorthand for the liberal values commonly associated with the west coast state.

Paxton recently took a swipe at the state while attacking his November opponent. “California already has two senators. It doesn’t need a third. But that’s exactly what James Talarico would be,” Paxton said earlier this month when Republicans gathered in Texas for a midterm election summit convened by Trump.

That kind of disdain has not stopped Paxton from spending time in California, where he spent a portion of his youth. Records show Paxton has taken over 25 trips to the state, costing Texas taxpayers over $175,000.

“I like places in California, even though I don’t like to admit that I go to California. But it’s beautiful,” Paxton said on the “Swimming with the Sharks” podcast last November.

He has shown a particular fondness for northern California’s wine country, which he visited at least five times, records show.

In 2019, Paxton used $11,000 from his campaign fund to pay for lodging at a boutique Napa Valley hotel, vineyard tours and stops at two wineries, which he described in campaign finance reports as a fundraising expense. The trip cost taxpayers $8,100 in security costs, records show.

Another wine country visit in 2024 cost the public over $14,000, records show. During the trip, Paxton ventured near Yosemite National Park, records show, where his campaign paid for meals, including $436 dropped at Mammoth Rock Restaurant, a French-inspired brasserie that offers “elevated” classics such as escargot and duck confit.

It’s unclear how Paxton has financed most of his jet-setting lifestyle. He tapped his campaign fund to cover expenses in some instances. His Senate campaign and his office did not offer comment on the matter.

Though he was not wealthy when first elected to the legislature in 2002, Paxton’s net worth has soared in recent years. A financial disclosure he recently filed with the Senate indicates he has millions of dollars in assets.

But the documents offer an incomplete picture. As attorney general, Paxton makes about $153,000 a year and has said he is not obligated to disclose assets held in a trust. His net worth has fluctuated in the periodic reports he has filed with the Senate, which give values in ranges but do not provide precise dollar figures. A document filed last year indicated he had substantial debts and may have a negative net worth. A disclosure Paxton filed in August indicated he may be worth more than $20 million, much of it related to his growing real estate portfolio.

Since Trump’s first election in 2016, Paxton could often be found in Washington, visiting more than 31 times. After Trump began plotting his political comeback following his 2020 election loss, Paxton made regular pilgrimages to Palm Beach, home to Trump’s private club, Mar-A-Lago.

In early 2021, when Trump was in political exile for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Paxton played a game of golf with him. That same year Paxton paid nearly $50,000 to hold a fundraiser for himself at Mar-A-Lago and flew into West Palm Beach aboard a private jet, according to campaign finance disclosures.

He’s since made 11 more visits to the area, records show, in addition to 28 other visits to Florida cities, including two stops at Disney World.

Slodysko reported from Washington.