Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted in his impeachment trial Saturday despite facing a number of federal crimes and accusations he used state funds to aid in hiding his affair. He was also accused of firing top deputies in the AG's office who reported him to the FBI.
While Republicans in the state had claimed they sought justice and were angry about Paxton's behavior, in the end, they all circled the wagons to protect him.
Axios reported Sunday that behind the scenes, "an under-the-radar campaign of outside conservative pressure on the Texas senators designed to neutralize mainstream media coverage."
There was an "unofficial team" working like a campaign super PAC but without the funds working to help Paxton.
"Pro-Paxton forces also paid social media influencers to defend the attorney general," Axios reported. One Republican strategist said that the "team" had a "very well-defined target audience … no different than a confirmation battle."
A large majority of House Republicans supported the impeachment of Paxton, but only two Republican senators voted to convict him. Axios asked how something like that could happen.
The top GOP strategist claimed, "We didn't care what the MSM [mainstream media] said." The strategist said that the only point was firing up the grassroots and using far-right sites such as National Pulse, Post Millennial, and things they deemed "more valuable than any harm an A1 NYT story could do."
While that kind of strategy sounded good, the truth is that Republicans were threatened with losing their jobs.
"It was made clear to Texas GOP senators that they'd face a very well-funded primary opponent in their next election if they voted to impeach," said Axios.