Kayla Guo, Texas Tribune

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have violated federal ethics law in significant ways when filing recent disclosures of his assets and liabilities, creating confusion about his net worth and holdings, a review by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found.

Among them: Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, reported owning seven homes but said he earned no income from any. Yet all but one was listed for rent during the reporting periods, and some current residents and neighbors at those addresses confirmed that the properties were rented, the news organizations found. Receiving income and not reporting it is a violation of federal disclosure law, three ethics experts said.

Additionally, Paxton did not disclose mortgages for three condos at a Utah golf resort that federal law requires him to list as liabilities if they are not personal residences....

In a state once considered one of the most affordable places in the country, candidates have popped up at barbershops and in voters’ homes vowing to tackle a new problem for Texas: its cost-of-living woes.

In ads, they’re holding bags of groceries as they bemoan how expensive food, healthcare and gas have become. On the campaign trail, they promise to cut taxes and give away money to help people thrive in Texas.

The word “affordability” is everywhere....

Last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton waded into the explosive college football saga involving Brendan Sorsby, the Texas Tech University quarterback who had admitted to placing thousands of improper sports bets, including on his own team’s games, resulting in the NCAA declaring him ineligible to play.

In a June 11 letter, Paxton’s office warned the Big 12 Conference on behalf of Texas Tech that any move to sanction the university for fielding Sorsby would be “unlawful” and potentially expose it to $200 million in damages.

One day before he sent that letter, Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell, one of Sorsby’s most public defenders, donated $274,300 to a fundraising committee supporting Paxton in his bid for U.S. Senate, according to campaign finance records newly filed with the Federal Election Committee Wednesday....

Texas GOP congressional candidate Zeke Enriquez bet on the outcome of his own election on Kalshi, the prediction market said in a press release Wednesday, marking the latest sign of the industry’s newfound prevalence in the state’s politics.

Enriquez, who finished 11th in the Republican primary for Texas’ 21st Congressional District with 1.4% of the vote, traded less than $100 worth of contracts related to his own candidacy, according to Kalshi regulatory documents. Kalshi fined Enriquez $784 and suspended him from the platform for five years after a “full investigation” with which Enriquez was “fully cooperative,” the company said.

Two other political candidates, in Minnesota and Virginia, were also caught trading on their own elections and suspended from the platform, Kalshi said....

Thirty six Texas Democrats — including a congressional candidate, a former Texas House member and former party staffers — are urging Kendall Scudder to forgo reelection as chair of the Texas Democratic Party, citing operational failures and a “hostile work environment” fostered by his leadership over the past year.

“We have seen a Texas Democratic Party that makes bold promises to voters and candidates, yet cannot answer basic questions about strategy,” reads the open letter, which continues to garner signatures. “A Party that speaks of urgency but fails to act on it. A Party that asks for trust and money it has not earned.”

With “urgency and deep frustration,” the signers called on Scudder to step aside....