Why The Enterprise Still Defends Ken Paxton Despite His Perpetual Adultery

Here we go again with Ken Paxton, Texas's attorney general and walking advertisement for the proposition that some people mistake shamelessness for strength.

Today, State Senator Angela Paxton filed for divorce from her husband of 38 years, citing "biblical grounds" and "recent discoveries."¹ Now, we're no theologians, but when a politician's wife invokes biblical grounds for divorce while referencing mysterious "recent discoveries," we're probably not talking about Ken's secret hobby of collecting vintage teacups.

This is the same Ken Paxton who, during his 2023 impeachment trial, had his own former chief of staff testify that he admitted to having an affair—with his wife sitting right there in the room.² The man has turned marital humiliation into a fetish.

But here's what's truly galling: The Enterprise, who fancy themselves the moral guardians of Texas conservatism, is still writing checks to defend this walking soap opera. Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, the West Texas oil money behind The Enterprise, have poured millions into keeping Paxton in office.³

The Sanctimony Industrial Complex

Now, let's be clear about something. Dunn and Wilks don't just quietly cut checks and hope for lower taxes like your average plutocrats. Oh no, they've built an entire sanctimony industrial complex around their political activities. They fund organizations promoting "biblical governance" and Christian nationalism.⁴ They lecture the rest of us about moral decay and the need for godly leadership.

These are men who present themselves as the righteous remnant, fighting the good fight against secular decadence. They're the types who could find moral failing in a church bake sale if the cookies weren't sufficiently biblical.

Yet when it comes to Ken Paxton—a man whose own wife has now twice filed for divorce citing his adultery—suddenly their moral principles develop a curious case of selective amnesia. It's like watching fire-and-brimstone preachers suddenly discover nuance when discussing their favorite politician's latest scandal.

The Real Gospel According to Paxton

So why do these self-appointed moral guardians keep defending the indefensible? The answer has nothing to do with Christian virtue and everything to do with good old-fashioned self-preservation.

Ken Paxton isn't valuable to The Enterprise because of his sterling character—Lord knows that ship sailed long ago. He's valuable because he controls the Texas Attorney General's office, which means he controls who gets prosecuted and who gets a free pass in the Lone Star State.

And boy, has that investment paid off. When the Texas House voted 121-23 to impeach Paxton in 2023, The Enterprise didn't abandon their guy.⁵ Instead, they executed what can only be described as a masterclass in political corruption. Defend Texas Liberty PAC—funded by guess who—dropped $3 million on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick right as Patrick was setting up the rules for Paxton's Senate trial.⁶

Patrick, of course, would serve as the presiding officer in that trial. The optics were so bad they made Boss Tweed look subtle. But it worked. Paxton was acquitted on all charges, and The Enterprise's investment in legal immunity was validated.

The Corruption Two-Step

Step one: Find a politician so morally compromised that he's completely dependent on your continued support.

Step two: Use that dependence to ensure he'll protect you from the legal consequences of your own questionable activities.

It's a beautiful system, really, if you're completely devoid of shame.

Consider the irony here. Public records show patterns of coordination between supposedly independent PACs within The Enterprise network—the kind of thing that normally results in campaign finance violations.⁷ There's evidence of complex financial arrangements designed to obscure the source and destination of political funds. The type of schemes that would typically face prosecution under, you guessed it, the Attorney General's jurisdiction.

But Ken Paxton's office has shown a remarkable lack of curiosity about investigating these activities. It's almost as if the top law enforcement official in Texas has some sort of conflict of interest. Shocking, we know.

Meanwhile, when Paxton's own senior attorneys filed whistleblower complaints alleging he was abusing his office to help a donor, a federal judge ultimately awarded those whistleblowers $6.6 million.⁸ That's taxpayer money, by the way, used to compensate people for calling out their boss's corruption.

Holy Hypocrisy, Inc.

Politics is a messy business. Compromise is inevitable. Perfect candidates don't exist, and sometimes you have to hold your nose and support the lesser of evils.

But there's a difference between reluctant pragmatism and what we're seeing here. Dunn and Wilks aren't reluctantly tolerating Paxton's moral failures—they're actively bankrolling his defense while simultaneously lecturing the rest of us about biblical values and Christian governance.

It's the kind of brazen hypocrisy that would make Elmer Gantry blush.

These are the same people who attack opponents for far lesser moral failings. They demand purity from others while defending a man whose own wife describes his conduct as grounds for divorce "on biblical grounds." They've created a system where moral standards apply to everyone except the politicians they own.

The Rotten Foundation

Here's what Angela Paxton figured out that Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks apparently haven't: You can't build something decent on a rotten foundation. You can't promote biblical values while bankrolling biblical failures. You can't lecture others about moral decay while actively enabling it.

As Angela Paxton noted in her divorce announcement, she could no longer remain in a marriage that did not "honor God."⁹ The Enterprise apparently has no such qualms, as long as their investment in corruption continues paying dividends in the form of protection from prosecution.

This isn't conservative governance—it's a protection racket with a Christian nationalist veneer. It's what happens when the pursuit of power completely divorces itself from any actual principles.

The tragic irony is that these billionaire moralists had the resources to support genuinely principled conservative candidates. Instead, they chose to hitch their wagon to a man so morally compromised that his own wife felt compelled to cite biblical grounds for leaving him.

That's not biblical governance. That's just corruption with better marketing.

And the most damning part? They'll probably keep writing checks anyway, because in their moral universe, protecting their own interests apparently trumps everything else—including the biblical values they claim to champion.

Some gospel that turned out to be.

Sources

1. KUT Radio, "State Sen. Angela Paxton files for divorce from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton," July 10, 2025. https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-07-10/state-sen-angela-paxton-files-for-divorce-from-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton
2. Dallas Morning News, "Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton files to divorce AG Ken Paxton," July 10, 2025. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/07/10/texas-state-sen-angela-paxton-files-to-divorce-ag-ken-paxton/
3. Texas Tribune, "Ken Paxton's far-right billionaire backers are fighting hard to save him," July 24, 2023. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/24/ken-paxton-impeachment-dunn-wilks/
4. DeSmog, "Tim Dunn," 2025. https://www.desmog.com/tim-dunn/
5. KUT Radio, "Republican-led Texas House impeaches state Attorney General Ken Paxton," May 27, 2023. https://www.kut.org/politics/2023-05-27/republican-led-texas-house-impeaches-state-attorney-general-ken-paxton
6. CBS News, "Conservative groups push back against Texas House impeachment of Ken Paxton," July 12, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/conservative-groups-push-back-against-texas-house-impeachment-of-ken-paxton/
7. Texas Tribune, "Sen. Angela Paxton files for divorce from AG Ken Paxton," July 10, 2025. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/angela-paxton-divorce-texas-attorney-general-ken/
8. Associated Press, "Judge awards $6.6 million to whistleblowers who reported Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to FBI," 2024. https://apnews.com/article/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-whistleblower-lawsuit-5dd82f053e23f971855568b6c6b98f50
9. CBS News, "Texas Sen. Angela Paxton files for divorce from Attorney General Ken Paxton, court records show," July 10, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-sen-angela-paxton-divorce-ag-ken-paxton/