Convenience Big Store: The Ken Paxton revenge tour begins

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Paxton unleashed

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is out to settle some scores.

Over the last 24 hours, the Collin County Republican has gone on at least nine different conservative radio shows or podcasts to hammer anyone in the GOP who he thinks had a hand in the attempt to impeach him and remove him from office.

He used appearances with conservative personalities like Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck to blast the Bush Family, House Speaker Dade Phelan, former Gov. Rick Perry, longtime Texas political strategist Karl Rove, State Comptroller Glenn Hegar and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, among others. All of whom, by the way, are Republicans.

"They focused just on slamming me in every possible way," Paxton said on "The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs."

Reporters Taylor Goldenstein and Jasper Scherer have more on his interview with Carlson, including the potential of him running against Cornyn in a primary in 2026 — the next time Cornyn would face reelection.

"Now that I've been through this and I've seen how guys like John Cornyn have represented the state of Texas, or not represented us, I think it's time somebody needs to step up and run against this guy and do the job the right way," Paxton said of Cornyn.

Cornyn served as Texas attorney general from 1998 to 2002 before winning his seat in the U.S. Senate. He has been reelected three times since, beating all his GOP primary opponents by more than 40 percentage points.

Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter

jeremy.wallace@houstonchronicle.com

Who's up, who's down

Up: Venezuelan migrants.

In a major immigration policy shift, the Biden administration granted more than 400,000 Venezuelan migrants work permits in the U.S., protecting them from deportation in order to reduce the strain on social service programs. The move only covers migrants who arrived prior to August. Venezuelan migrants have been a big part of the surge of border crossings in places like Del Rio since last summer.

Down: Kevin McCarthy.

Again, the U.S. House Speaker was unable to get Republicans in the House to agree on a spending plan to stop a potential government shutdown on Oct. 1. An apparent breakthrough on Wednesday evaporated on Thursday with McCarthy sounding very frustrated with his own members: "This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down."

What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.

What else is going on in Texas

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. House Republicans remained paralyzed on Wednesday as deep internal divisions left McCarthy with no immediate way to advance needed spending legislation, significantly increasing the chances of a government shutdown in 10 days. (Pete Marovich/The New York Times)

Photo by: PETE MAROVICH, NYT

Why Texas business shrugs at threat of government shutdown

As Congress readies for a government shutdown, the response from Texas companies and industry has been a relative shrug of the shoulders.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, center, sits between defense attorneys Tony Buzbee, left, and Mitch Little, right, before starting the ninth day of his impeachment trial in the Senate Chamber at the Texas Capitol on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, in Austin, Texas.

Photo by: Sam Owens/Sam Owens/Pool Via San Antonio E

Paxton impeachment trial ends, but a new saying begins

Even if the saying "There's no coincidences in Austin" wasn't an Austin-ism before Paxton's historic impeachment trial, it almost certainly will be going forward.

Books at the Audrey H. Lawson Middle School team center are lined up against the wall Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023 in Houston. The school transformed its media center to a team center. The principal said the students can still check out books from the team center.

Photo by: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer

Texas districts ban 625 books during 2022-23 school year, report says

Texas school districts have banned more books in classrooms and libraries than nearly every other U.S. state during the 2022-23 school year, a new report says.

Pick of the day

Photo by: Jeremy Wallace

That is how Paxton described efforts to impeach him during one of nine interviews he did with conservative media outlets over the last 24 hours.

What else I'm reading

Families and medical professionals across the country — and in Texas — say fentanyl test strips are one of the most effective and cost-efficient tools for tackling the fentanyl crisis and saving lives. Yet Texas remains one of the few states that still makes it illegal to have the test strips according to Aarón Torres of The Dallas Morning News.