Top Ken Paxton aide faces calls to resign over antisemitic social media exchange

Michelle Smith, a longtime adviser to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is facing criticism after agreeing with an antisemitic jab at a Republican operative on X, according to Jewish Insider.

In June 2025, an X user responded to criticism of GOP consultant Chad Wilbanks with a comment invoking an antisemitic stereotype about money. “If Chad were to squat ‘n cough, shekels would prolly [sic] fly out,” said the post. Smith, who has advised Paxton since 2020 but doesn't work for his Senate campaign, replied that it was “a true statement.”

Hunter Bonner, chairman of the Marion County Republican Party, urged “all Republicans in this state, especially party officers” to denounce the remark, and demanded that Smith resign or be fired.

“Antisemitism should not be tolerated from people trying to use our Republican brand,” Bonner wrote.

Smith pushed back, writing that her grandfather’s photograph hangs at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and that he helped in the liberation under Gen. George Patton, and that supporting Israel doesn’t mean placing it above America. She deleted the post after Jewish Insider asked Paxton’s campaign about it last week.

Paxton’s campaign didn’t address the post itself. A spokesperson instead highlighted Paxton’s pro-Israel record, citing his defense of Texas’s law against taxpayer funds going to businesses that boycott Israel, his support for other states’ anti-boycott efforts, and an investigation prompted by parents in Plano.

“Ken Paxton has always stood with Israel, and he always will,” the spokesperson said.

Paxton has been dogged by a litany of scandals involving public corruption and his marital infidelity, and faced a new headache this week after video footage emerged of him partying in Dubai with a pair of federally wanted fugitives.