Ken Paxton on Democracy and January 6: His Lawsuit to Overturn the 2020 Election, His Rally Speech Before the Capitol Attack, and His Letter for Kash Patel

As Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the U.S. Supreme Court on December 8, 2020, asking the court to block the four states whose results handed the presidency to Joe Biden from voting in the Electoral College. The court dismissed the suit three days later because Texas lacked standing.

On January 6, 2021, Paxton told the rally crowd before the attack on the Capitol "We will not quit fighting," then falsely claimed the mob was infiltrated by antifa, and he was the only state attorney general in the country who signed neither of the letters condemning the attack. In December 2024 he urged the Senate to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director; Patel's FBI has since fired agents who worked on investigations of Trump.

Ken Paxton's Lawsuit, Speech and Statements on the 2020 Election and January 6

• Paxton Sued to Stop Four States From Casting Their 2020 Electoral Votes. On December 8, 2020, Ken Paxton filed Texas v. Pennsylvania, contesting the results of the election in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; the suit claimed that pandemic-era changes to election procedures in those states violated federal law and asks the U.S. Supreme Court to block the states from voting in the Electoral College, and it asked the court to push back the December 14 deadline for states to appoint their electors. On December 11, 2020, the Supreme Court denied Texas leave to file for lack of standing: "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections." The suit asked the court to set aside the choice of the voters in four states; Pennsylvania answered that "Texas’s effort to get this Court to pick the next President has no basis in law or fact," and experts, state officials and U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr had all said there was no evidence of voter fraud on a scale that could change the election results.
• Paxton Signed Two 2024 Briefs Backing Trump's Immunity Claim in the 2020 Election Case. On February 16, 2024, Ken Paxton, as Texas attorney general, signed a brief of Alabama and 21 other states supporting Donald Trump's request to pause the federal case over the 2020 election; it argued that "Granting a stay would calm the fervor, reassure the public." On March 19, 2024, he signed the brief of Alabama and 17 other states in support of Trump in Trump v. United States, the appeal of Trump's claim of immunity from that prosecution. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court held that presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority, and at least presumptive immunity for his other official acts.
• Paxton Told the January 6 Rally Crowd "We Will Not Quit Fighting" Hours Before the Capitol Was Breached. On the morning of January 6, 2021, Ken Paxton spoke at the "Save America" rally in Washington and told the crowd: "We're here. We will not quit fighting," as he criticized Republican officials in Georgia who had stood by Joe Biden's victory there. "We are Texans, we are Americans, and we're not quitting." By that evening members of the crowd he had invited to Washington had breached the nation's Capitol in a mob that forced members of Congress to flee. The attack left five people dead and was intended to disrupt the certification of the presidential election results.
• Paxton Urged the Senate to Confirm Kash Patel, Whose FBI Fired Agents Who Investigated Trump. On December 11, 2024, Ken Paxton was among the attorneys general of 24 states who wrote to Senate leaders to "strongly encourage you and your caucuses to support Mr. Patel’s nomination for Director of the FBI," calling him "the man for the job." Patel's FBI fired special agents who worked on Jack Smith's investigation of Trump in October 2025 and at least two FBI agents involved in past investigations into President Donald Trump in November 2025; in October 2026 nine FBI employees fired for working on the classified-documents case filed a federal lawsuit against Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche.
• Paxton Claimed the Capitol Mob Was Not Trump Supporters; There Was No Evidence of Antifa. On the evening of January 6, 2021, Ken Paxton posted on Twitter and Facebook that the people who breached the Capitol were "not Trump supporters," citing incorrect reports that the mob had been infiltrated by antifa activists. There has been no evidence that antifa activists participated in the Jan. 6 attack, the Texas Tribune reported a week later.
• Paxton Was the Only State Attorney General Who Did Not Sign the Letters Condemning the Capitol Attack. In the week after January 6, attorneys general from 46 states, Washington, D.C. and three U.S. territories signed a letter condemning the attack, and three holdouts sent their own; Ken Paxton is the only state attorney general in the United States who did not sign on to either of two letters, the Texas Tribune reported on January 13, 2021. The letters condemned the violent insurrection of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, which left five people dead.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ken Paxton on Democracy and January 6

Last updated: 2026-10-25

Candidate Records