Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) campaign for U.S. Senate was strongly denounced on Monday by one of Paxton’s former close allies – the Houston defense lawyer who represented him in his impeachment trial.

Dan Cogdell told NOTUS that he was endorsing Paxton’s general election opponent, state lawmaker James Talarico (D), in a scathing statement, arguing that Paxton “has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.”

“And unlike Ken, I believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now,” Cogdell added.

NOTUS noted that Cogdell remained loyal to Paxton up until this past year, having donated $6,500 to Paxton’s campaign last year. He made his first donation to Talarico in March, giving him $1,000.

Cogdell represented Paxton three years ago when the Texas House of Representatives impeached him over a series of corruption allegations, including bribery and abusing his office for financial gain.

The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all 16 articles of impeachment filed against him in September of 2023. The GOP-led Texas House impeached Paxton in a historic 121-23 vote, but required a two-thirds majority in the state senate to remove him from office.

Talarico is seeking to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

CNN’s data guru Harry Enten made the case last month that Talarico has a real shot of winning the race given Paxton’s unpopularity in his own state.

“I was looking back at every single Texas Senate race that I could find, and at this point in the campaign, James Talarico is polling better than any Democrat in at least 24 years. You have to go all the way back to 2002 to find a Democrat even polling anywhere close to where Talarico is polling right now. Texas Democrats have dreamt about turning it blue. This time, the numbers actually support the idea that they may actually be able to do it,” Enten argued.

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