Trump’s election fight puts embattled Texas AG in spotlight

A lawsuit that President Donald Trump is now calling “the big one” in his effort to overturn the outcome of the presidential election is helmed by an embattled Texas ally who is likewise trying to reverse his own skidding fortunes.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Electoral College votes in battleground states that Trump lost — a challenge dismissed by legal experts as frivolous and rebuked by state officials in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But the lawsuit is succeeding in bringing Paxton back into the embrace of the GOP at a time when his former inner circle has accused him of bribery and the FBI is investigating his dealings with a donor.

On Wednesday, 17 Republican-led states threw support behind Paxton’s lawsuit that rehashes numerous disproven and unsupported allegations of illegal voting. Both Republican Senate candidates in a pair of high-stakes Georgia runoff elections in January are also on board and Trump’s legal team — which has lost at every turn in an attempt to keep him in power — asked to intervene as well.

“This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!”

Trump tweeted.

Legal experts have predicted that the Supreme Court will reject the case, but for now Paxton’s return to the spotlight reflects Trump’s continuing power to elevate even troubled members of his party who rush to his defense. Although one Republican congressman, Rep. Chip Roy, called on Paxton to resign before the election, prominent GOP leaders have not gone farther than express concern over allegations that Paxton abused his office to benefit a donor.

“He’s playing to the hometown crowd with that lawsuit,” said Bill Miller, a longtime GOP political consultant in Texas who talks with Paxton.