Calculating taxpayers’ tab for Ken Paxton’s in depth travels

This text was initially revealed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet and journal. Join their weekly publication, or comply with them on Fb, X, and Bluesky.

By the point Ken Paxton lastly leaves behind the eighth flooring of the Worth Daniel Sr. State Workplace Constructing, the place the lawyer normal’s govt workforce works, he’ll have spent 12 years as what occupants of his workplace like to contemplate Texas’ high legislation enforcement official. These dozen years — tied along with his predecessor, Greg Abbott, for the longest AG stint in state historical past — have been fought and clawed for, by incessant turmoil and scandal, by the previous probate lawyer from McKinney. 

And Paxton’s tenure has additionally been crammed with heaps, and much, of journey — throughout Texas, specifically to his homebase in Collin County; throughout the USA; and, more and more, to unique locations overseas. 

It’s not readily obvious who has coated the prices of the lawyer normal’s travels. A few of these journeys seem to have been linked to his official work as AG, whereas others have been for political or private functions. However accompanying Paxton on most of those journeys has been a state police safety element, a perk that comes together with serving as governor, lieutenant governor, or AG. And the Texas Division of Public Security (DPS) is, by legislation, required to report the quarterly bills incurred by the state police offering safety for these high officers, damaged down by vacation spot and the correlating expense of journey, meals, gas, and lodging—offering one window onto taxpayer prices. 

Since first getting into workplace in January 2015 and up by August 2025, the newest reporting accessible, Paxton’s safety element has price a complete of about $2.8 million, these DPS information obtained by the Texas Observer present. The annual price of his safety element clocked in at a mean of $245,000 a yr—however the prices have steadily ticked up lately. On the peak, in 2024, it price DPS almost $500,000 to accompany Paxton on his travels. 

The main points in regards to the journeys are comparatively restricted; as an illustration, DPS doesn’t present particular dates of journey past the month, nor the variety of officers who’re current on every journey. However the reporting does present maybe probably the most available solution to observe the place Texas’ strongest politicians have been. That’s a invaluable instrument for public transparency, particularly for somebody like Paxton, who’s infamous for shielding particulars about his actions and correspondence from the general public. 

“For those who take a look at his therapy of the workplace, he tends to only use his public platform for lots of political grandstanding,” Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen Texas, instructed the Observer. “There are plenty of issues that he does that recommend that he doesn’t have an entire lot of respect for the workplace, that he don’t have plenty of curiosity or concern about applicable use of taxpayer assets, and that he’s keen to make use of each the workplace and the state assets for causes that transcend the strict efficiency of his duties.” 

Collectively, what the DPS experiences present for Paxton is that over his more-than-decade-long tenure, his safety element has racked up a substantial tab defending him throughout his travels. 

In whole, Paxton’s safety element racked up $965,000 in lodging prices since 2015, $835,000 in journey, $526,000 in meals, $24,000 in gas, and $352,000 in different unspecified bills.

Over the course of his tenure, Paxton made 100 journeys to Frisco, 59 to his hometown of McKinney, 44 to Plano, and 35 to Allen, in keeping with the DPS experiences. (Paxton was identified, particularly in his earliest years, to regularly work from his North Texas dwelling.) Outdoors of Texas, Paxton has most regularly traveled to Washington, D.C., together with Florida (whole spent $220,000), California ($181,000), and Utah ($107,000). 

By comparability, Gov. Greg Abbott’s safety journey prices are larger — simply over $5 million over that very same time — as he routinely travels overseas to advertise Texas financial improvement in locations together with India, Japan and Israel.

However Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s safety journey prices are comparatively austere — at simply $1.2 million, with most journeys being in-state. 

So, what accounts for Paxton’s in depth gallivanting? 

A few of Paxton’s travels are linked to attendance of nationwide lawyer normal conferences, particularly with the Republican Attorneys Normal Affiliation (RAGA), the Legal professional Normal Alliance (AGA), and the Nationwide Affiliation of Attorneys Normal. These kinds of conferences and junkets are sometimes attended by state attorneys normal from across the nation and are sometimes additionally financed by non-public company pursuits. 

In December 2023, Paxton travelled with safety to South Africa, a visit which aligned with a luxurious junket that the AGA was internet hosting on the similar time. As CNN reported, “The journey featured a safari, a keep at a five-star lodge … in addition to wine excursions and gourmand dinners at eating places that serve contemporary prawns and Wagyu ribeye steak.” Lobbyists and legal professionals for main firms together with Amazon, Uber, and Pfizer have been reportedly additionally in attendance. Per CNN, Paxton was among the many state AGs on the invite checklist. The high-end journey price DPS greater than $80,000.

A number of months later, in February 2024, Paxton and his safety element went to Huge Sky, Montana, which lined up with RAGA’s “Victory Fund Ski Retreat” (DPS’ invoice: $11,927). A visit to Orlando in March 2024 price DPS almost $19,000. Weeks later, a visit to Pinehurst, North Carolina, for a RAGA golf retreat price round $8,000. Then, in Could 2024, photographs present that Paxton attended the Kentucky Derby in Lexington; DPS information present a visit costing $13,000 to the identical vacation spot that month. 

Paxton has additionally traveled extensively throughout Europe. 

In the summertime of 2022, he and his spouse Angela Paxton went on a weekslong journey throughout Europe, with a safety element, that included Malta, Italy, and Albania. It additionally included a go to to the Balkan nation of Kosovo to assist promote an organization that his affiliate was operating, and for which Angela Paxton served on the board of administrators. The full DPS safety price of that journey totaled round $80,000. 

In March 2023, he traveled to Helsinki, Finland; Krakow, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; and Tel Aviv, Israel. These in depth travels price his safety element almost $180,000 that month—with nearly $70,000 simply on the Israel leg. In keeping with a Fb put up by the Jewish Group Heart of Krakow, which featured a photograph displaying Paxton, the AGA had organized the journey to Poland and Israel to study antisemitism. 

One other European journey included a Could 2023 jaunt to Budapest for a conservative political convention in Hungary the place Paxton was listed as a speaker (price: $9,200). 

“Touring across the globe … on the taxpayer’s expense, [on] these really extravagant journeys which might be costing tens of 1000’s of {dollars} a go — I don’t assume anyone would agree that that’s within the public’s curiosity,” mentioned Shelley. “His function is the chief legislation enforcement officer of the state. The overwhelming majority of his issues are going to be proper right here in Texas.”

The complete scope and nature of Paxton’s journey throughout his AG tenure is just not identified. The proper-wing conservative is notoriously secretive, and the DPS safety journey experiences don’t seize all of his travels. As an example, Paxton reportedly traveled to China for an expensive AGA coverage junket again within the fall of 2019, in opposition to the recommendation of his high deputies, who have been involved about safety publicity, however no such journey appeared in DPS experiences. Nor did his journey to Qatar in December 2022 to observe the World Cup, which the Related Press uncovered in 2023. That very same month, DPS did disclose a visit to the resort city of San José de Cabo, in Mexico, in December 2022 the place his safety element racked up a price of $20,000—together with about $9,000 for meals alone—and an $18,000 journey to Walnut Creek, California. 

The safety prices don’t reveal who coated different prices related to the AG’s journey, however annual private monetary disclosures — together with these of state Senator Angela Paxton, with whom he’s in divorce proceedings — have proven tens of 1000’s of {dollars} price of “presents” within the type of transportation, meals, and lodging from each the AGA, RAGA, and the Rule of Legislation Protection Fund, which is affiliated with RAGA. 

Paxton’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to the Observer’s request for remark, nor did the Texas Legal professional Normal’s Workplace. 

Paxton reportedly has a fame for totally having fun with the luxuries that may come along with his highly effective workplace. “He all the time cared about what journey he was happening, who was taking him to dinner,” mentioned Blake Brickman, considered one of his former high deputies who grew to become an FBI whistleblower accusing Paxton of partaking in bribery and abuse of energy, in keeping with information from Paxton’s impeachment trial. “He likes the perks of the workplace.” 

Now, Paxton is in the course of a hotly contested main with longtime incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Houston-area Congressman Wesley Hunt. Paxton formally launched his marketing campaign bid final April, promising to take a “sledgehammer” to the Washington swamp. 

That very same month, he went to Augusta, Georgia, dwelling to the famend PGA golf course, throughout which lodging prices ran as much as $17,000. Round that very same time, he racked up a DPS safety price of $18,000 travelling to Palm Seashore (dwelling to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago), and he additionally made time for a jaunt to none apart from Washington, D.C. — price $17,000.

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