Last week, one of the biggest stories of the news cycle was the failed impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
He is very much like Trump in a way, in that both Democrats and the establishment despise him.
Despite overwhelming numbers in the Texas House, the impeachment failed in the Senate.
The Texas House has 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats. The Texas Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats.
The vote in the House to impeach Paxton passed by a vote of 121-23, so there were a significant number of Republicans that voted in favor of removing him from office.
When the Senate voted on the impeachment, 16 of the 20 articles of impeachment were voted on, with each vote coming in at 16-14. So, two Republicans crossed over, with one Senator, Paxton's wife, not permitted to vote in the proceedings.
After the first 16 articles failed, a motion was made to drop the final four articles, which passed, acquitting Paxton in full on all charges.
After the impeachment was over, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick gave a scathing speech about how the House had conducted its hearings.
That was nothing compared to Paxton's statements after the hearing.
Paxton blistered the House for impeaching him, accusing the Republican Speaker of siding with Democrats.
Paxton stated, "I don't think he particularly has an ideology. He's like, 'I want to stay in power. I've cut this deal to be Speaker with Democrats.'"
Right after the impeachment, he had stated:
"Today, the truth prevailed. The truth could not be buried by mudslinging politicians or their powerful benefactors. I've said many times: Seek the truth! And that is what was accomplished."
I have stated many times how much Paxton is despised in the Texas legislature, and that was ultimately why this impeachment went forward.
Establishment Republicans in the House saw an opportunity over a Paxton controversy, but they ultimately failed simply because they failed to see if they had the support in the Senate before moving forward.
While two Republicans did side with Democrats, they fell seven votes short for the impeachment, which is a big number.
All of these controversies were brought up during the election, but Ken Paxton remains popular with voters in the state.
Paxton destroyed Bush in the primary runoff election by 36%, then won the general election by 9.7%, which equated to more than 781,000 votes in a midterm election. Those are some rather big numbers.
All the people in the Texas House did was assure themselves of big change in the upcoming elections.
There will be a huge opportunity to boot out establishment politicians and replace them with the next generation of voters.
Living in Texas myself, I, for one, am looking forward to the change.
