We are sometimes accused of being “too Republican” on these pages, so let us take a swipe at a fast-rising Republican, Ken Paxton. Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, is now the Republican nominee and may be the next Senator from the Lone Star State. We do policy not politics at UP, so let us stick to his worrisome, anti-business, anti-growth record as AG.

We were going to list his dubious escapades, but the WSJ editorial page did a better job of it than we could:

[Paxton is] in bed with the trial bar, and it’s not a one-night-stand… Mr. Paxton’s AG office has approved 13 contingency-fee contracts with plaintiff firms. The firms are hired to bring cases against businesses that often settle to avoid costly and long-term litigation.

In 2024 Meta, the Facebook parent, settled a Paxton lawsuit for $1.4 billion even as it described the suit as without merit…

Mr. Paxton and his plaintiff partners have gone after the owner of Tylenol on dubious claims of medical harm; Colgate-Palmolive for fluoride in toothpaste despite decades of its safe use; and Google for alleged violations of data privacy. He and his trial-bar pals are also investigating Mars for alleged “toxic dyes” in Skittles and M&M’s, and Kellogg’s for the same in Froot Loops. [This is not a joke!]

He’s hired Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee for a lawsuit claiming that BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street conspired to buy shares in coal companies to advance a green agenda. That’s right. He says they invested in the CO2-heavy fuel to serve the climate-change cause.

Our biggest worry is that when you put a rotten apple in a Senate caucus cart, watch out what happens to the other apples.