Texas Republicans, it seems, don't want to talk about their confidence in the state's Attorney General.
The Associated Press says it reached out to more than 100 GOP lawmakers to ask if they had confidence in Ken Paxton. Two, state senator Paul Bettencourt and state Rep. John Smithee said yes.
The rest did not respond. Paxton has been under the microscope. Last fall, eight former staffers accused Paxton of misusing his office to help a donor.
Paxton has been the subject of an FBI investigation over bribery and abuse-of-office accusations All have resigned or were fired. Four of them filed a whistleblower suit, claiming they were let go as retribution.
University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus says that could hurt Paxton's chances of re-election next year.
"The Republicans are worried that Ken Paxton will drag down the rest of the ticket. There are some Republicans who might want to challenge him and get him out of the way so that it doesn't hurt the rest of the brand for the party."
He does not see Paxton resigning. "Ken Paxton has faced similar types of allegation before and it hasn't really phased him. I don't think these are the kind of things that are going to, by themselves, make him want to quit or that would encourage him to leave office before his time."
Paxton was indicted in 2015 for securities fraud. The case has yet to go to trial.
In December, Paxton filed a lawsuit to overturn the results of the presidential election on behalf of four battleground states. Rottinghaus suspect's Paxton's next race will garner a lot of national attention.
