On July 10, Texas politics got a jolt: State Senator Angela Paxton announced that she had filed for divorce from her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton:
“Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds,” she wrote on X. “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
By “recent discoveries,” she was referring to her husband’s adultery—as she had listed it as the “grounds for divorce” in her divorce filing.
“I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose,” she concluded.
Angela Paxton
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She and her husband had stopped living together since “on or about June 1, 2024.”
On X, Ken Paxton had a different take on the matter:
“After facing the pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny, Angela and I have decided to start a new chapter in our lives.”
Thus, he blamed his unfaithfulness on those he had antagonized and those—elected officials and the press—who had held him up to “public scrutiny.”
And it was Angela, not him, who decided to start “a new chapter” in their lives—by divorcing him.
“I could not be any more proud or grateful for the incredible family that God has blessed us with, and I remain committed to supporting our amazing children and grandchildren. I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time.”’
Apparently his gratitude for his “incredible family” didn’t prevent him from violating his marital oath.
As for his request for privacy: Paxton has declared all-out war on women seeking the right to abortion—not only denying them that right in Texas but seeking to deny them the right to obtain such freedom outside the state.
Ken Paxton
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Angela stood by him during his 2023 impeachment trial for corruption, but was not allowed to vote on any issues or participate on deliberations over whether to convict or acquit.
The Republican-dominated Senate voted to acquit him.
Angela Paxton seeks exclusive use and possession of their home in McKinney as well as financial support.
Paxton served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013. In 2013 he entered the Texas Senate and served until 2015. In 2014, he successfully ran for state Attorney General. He was re-elected to a second term in 2018 and a third term in 2022.
Long before Ken Paxton entered the ranks of Republican “family values” hypocrites, there was Newt Gingrich. Gingrich served as a member of the House of Representatives for Georgia’s sixth district, from 1972 to 1999.
Newt Gingrich
After serving as House Minority Whip (1989 – 1995) and leader of the House Republican Conference (1995 – 1999) he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 and served until 1999, when he resigned from Congress.
Gingrich rejected bipartisanship and damned Democrats as traitors and subversives. In 1996, he wrote a memo entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” In this he urged Republicans to attack Democrats with such words as “corrupt,” “selfish,” “destructive,” “hypocrisy,” “liberal,” “sick,” and “traitors.”
He also encouraged the news media to disseminate such accusations.
Gingrich railed against President Bill Clinton for his adulterous tryst with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But Gingrich had a secret: He was involved in an extramarital affair of his own.
He had cheated on his first wife, Jackie Battley, whom he had married in 1962 and divorced in 1981. He remarried his romantic partner, Marianne Ginther, in 1981. That union lasted until he met Callista Bisek, a House staffer more than 20 years younger. They married in 2000.
When his adulterous relationships became exposed, Gingrich had a ready explanation: “I did it for my country.”
Specifically, in a March 9, 2011 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said: “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.”
But for Gingrich—as for Paxton–there was an out: “I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness.”
Not change his adulterous behavior. Just ask forgiveness from an imaginary Sky Daddy.
But while Gingrich relished employing “the politics of personal destruction,” he quickly took offense when others raised questions about his immoral behavior.
In 2012, now a candidate for President, he attended the Republican debate in North Charleston, South Carolina. A CNN reporter asked him about the charge by his ex-wife, Marianne, that he had sought an open marriage.
Gingrich exploded: “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that!”
Gingrich’s self-righteousness didn’t win him the Presidency. On May 2, 2012, with $4 million in campaign debt, he officially withdrew from the presidential campaign.
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REPUBLICANS: “I DID IT (ADULTERY) FOR MY COUNTRY”
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on September 9, 2025 at 12:17 amOn July 10, Texas politics got a jolt: State Senator Angela Paxton announced that she had filed for divorce from her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton:
“Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds,” she wrote on X. “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
By “recent discoveries,” she was referring to her husband’s adultery—as she had listed it as the “grounds for divorce” in her divorce filing.
“I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose,” she concluded.
Angela Paxton
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She and her husband had stopped living together since “on or about June 1, 2024.”
On X, Ken Paxton had a different take on the matter:
“After facing the pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny, Angela and I have decided to start a new chapter in our lives.”
Thus, he blamed his unfaithfulness on those he had antagonized and those—elected officials and the press—who had held him up to “public scrutiny.”
And it was Angela, not him, who decided to start “a new chapter” in their lives—by divorcing him.
“I could not be any more proud or grateful for the incredible family that God has blessed us with, and I remain committed to supporting our amazing children and grandchildren. I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time.”’
Apparently his gratitude for his “incredible family” didn’t prevent him from violating his marital oath.
As for his request for privacy: Paxton has declared all-out war on women seeking the right to abortion—not only denying them that right in Texas but seeking to deny them the right to obtain such freedom outside the state.
Ken Paxton
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Angela stood by him during his 2023 impeachment trial for corruption, but was not allowed to vote on any issues or participate on deliberations over whether to convict or acquit.
The Republican-dominated Senate voted to acquit him.
Angela Paxton seeks exclusive use and possession of their home in McKinney as well as financial support.
Paxton served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013. In 2013 he entered the Texas Senate and served until 2015. In 2014, he successfully ran for state Attorney General. He was re-elected to a second term in 2018 and a third term in 2022.
Long before Ken Paxton entered the ranks of Republican “family values” hypocrites, there was Newt Gingrich. Gingrich served as a member of the House of Representatives for Georgia’s sixth district, from 1972 to 1999.
Newt Gingrich
After serving as House Minority Whip (1989 – 1995) and leader of the House Republican Conference (1995 – 1999) he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 and served until 1999, when he resigned from Congress.
Gingrich rejected bipartisanship and damned Democrats as traitors and subversives. In 1996, he wrote a memo entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” In this he urged Republicans to attack Democrats with such words as “corrupt,” “selfish,” “destructive,” “hypocrisy,” “liberal,” “sick,” and “traitors.”
He also encouraged the news media to disseminate such accusations.
Gingrich railed against President Bill Clinton for his adulterous tryst with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But Gingrich had a secret: He was involved in an extramarital affair of his own.
He had cheated on his first wife, Jackie Battley, whom he had married in 1962 and divorced in 1981. He remarried his romantic partner, Marianne Ginther, in 1981. That union lasted until he met Callista Bisek, a House staffer more than 20 years younger. They married in 2000.
When his adulterous relationships became exposed, Gingrich had a ready explanation: “I did it for my country.”
Specifically, in a March 9, 2011 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said: “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.”
But for Gingrich—as for Paxton–there was an out: “I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness.”
Not change his adulterous behavior. Just ask forgiveness from an imaginary Sky Daddy.
But while Gingrich relished employing “the politics of personal destruction,” he quickly took offense when others raised questions about his immoral behavior.
In 2012, now a candidate for President, he attended the Republican debate in North Charleston, South Carolina. A CNN reporter asked him about the charge by his ex-wife, Marianne, that he had sought an open marriage.
Gingrich exploded: “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that!”
Gingrich’s self-righteousness didn’t win him the Presidency. On May 2, 2012, with $4 million in campaign debt, he officially withdrew from the presidential campaign.
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