Why Aren’t Texans Insulted by Ken Paxton?

By Noah Rothman

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

 

Anybody who spends enough time on social media (which, professional obligations notwithstanding, I don’t recommend) will encounter a disturbing level of racial and ethnic agitation. Some of it emanates from the backwaters of American society. Much of it is foreign in origin. Indeed, if you’ve built your brand around catering to that noxious outlook, the foreign audience is the backbone of your fanbase.

 

If, however, your goal is to build a representative and broad political coalition — not a following, but a constituency — you’d be a fool to promote yourself as a vehicle for the advancement of the sort of troglodytic racism that repels most Americans.

 

Enter Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

 

The Lone Star State AG is waging a heated campaign to primary incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn out of office, and he never misses an opportunity to ding his opponent — even the opportunities from which anyone with a sense of decency and honor would recoil. Take, for example, Cornyn’s promotion of his recent endorsement by the author, intellectual, and human rights advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

 

Cornyn’s pride provoked his, let’s say, more racially conscious critics on the right. “You’re bragging about being endorsed by a Somalian immigrant?” marveled one. “Can you get anymore out of touch?”

 

Again, conduct like this on social media is regrettably common. It should have been ignored. Many careers in politics and media have been cut short as a result of over-investing in the notion that the discourse on social media is representative of the broader public’s sentiments. It would have been a forgettable remark had Paxton not seen in it an opportunity to tarnish Cornyn.

 

To his credit, the Texas senator was not intimidated by Paxton’s appeal to racialist ignorance. “Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of the most prominent anti-Islamification activists in the world, and I’m proud of her support,” Cornyn wrote in response to his opponent’s decision to boost that message’s signal. “Trust KP to take the low road — every time.”

 

What was Paxton thinking? Does he really believe that Hirsi Ali’s scholarship is less relevant than the color of her skin? Does he believe her anti-Sharia activism, which is informed by her own victimization at the hands of Islamist fundamentalists, is dismissible? Is he so besotted with reductionist nativism that he cannot identify any positive contributions Hirsi Ali has made to her adopted home country, where she’s permanently resided since 2006 and of which she became a citizen in 2013?

 

Maybe. Or, perhaps, he thinks Texas’s Republican primary voters, Neanderthals that they are, will default to the assumption that the foreign-born cannot be trusted — particularly those whose cosmic accidents of birth landed them in a place like Somalia.

 

If I were a Texas Republican, I would find the attorney general’s insinuation more than a little insulting. Of the many, many, many indiscretions in which the Lone Star State’s AG allegedly engaged over the course of his career in public life, he’s generally avoided implicating his supporters in his misdeeds. Not this time.

 

Here, the attorney general has his hand in the air, eagerly awaiting high fives from a base that he expects will reward his aggressive thoughtlessness. Hopefully, Texans leave him hanging.