Paxton's Lawyer Endorses Talarico

The Man Who Saved Ken Paxton Just Endorsed the Guy Running Against Him

Dan Cogdell knows Ken Paxton better than most people in Texas politics ever will. He sat across courtroom tables from prosecutors for nearly a decade, first when Paxton hired him in 2015 after his securities fraud indictment, and later when he served on Paxton's defense team in the 2023 impeachment trial that ended in acquittal. The securities fraud case ran nine years before prosecutors dropped the charges in exchange for 15 hours of legal ethics courses and roughly $271,000 in restitution to those Paxton allegedly defrauded. That is the man now endorsing James Talarico for the United States Senate.

Before Ken Paxton, there was Enron. Cogdell represented a defendant in the Enron "Barge Trial" and secured the only acquittal in the entire case. Every other defendant was convicted. He produced the same result in the Branch Davidian trial, a win significant enough that Paramount built a five-part series around it in 2023, Waco: The Aftermath, with Giovanni Ribisi cast as Cogdell. Over a 40-year career, he has tried nearly 300 jury trials across more than 20 states and represented a sitting governor, a mayor, a Heisman Trophy winner, and Grammy and Emmy award winners. He earned his law degree with highest honors from South Texas College of Law, clerked for the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and became the youngest partner in Richard "Racehorse" Haynes's firm before opening his own in 1988.

Cogdell announced his support for the Democratic state representative on his own podcast, Cogdell Law Uncensored, in a conversation with Talarico himself. He was direct. "I think what people are hungry for is a campaign that's going to bring us together," Talarico told him. Cogdell agreed and went further. "As you know, I've defended Ken Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and his state criminal cases. But in my view, respectfully, I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas." He credited Talarico with the ability to assemble a cross-partisan coalition, adding, "I'm old as dirt. We need unity. We don't need any more division."

The Paxton campaign dismissed the endorsement as predictable. "Dan is a Democrat and voted in the Democratic primary in 2024. Why is anyone shocked?" an aide told the Texas Tribune. Attorney Tony Buzbee, a fellow member of the impeachment defense team, backed that framing. "Mr. Cogdell is a lifelong Democrat," Buzbee wrote on X. "I firmly support AG Paxton for U.S. Senate." State Rep. Mitch Little, also part of the defense, added his own rebuttal. "I love Dan, but he is a Democrat who doesn't vote very much. This impeachment defense lawyer is 100% behind Ken Paxton."

Campaign finance records complicate the story further. Cogdell donated $6,500 to Paxton's Senate campaign roughly a year ago, then gave $1,000 to Talarico's campaign in March, after Talarico won the Democratic primary. Harris County vote rosters confirm Cogdell voted in the 2024 Democratic primary. Neither campaign holds a clean line on those numbers. Talarico used the endorsement to court Republicans skeptical of Paxton. "If you voted for John Cornyn, you have a place in this campaign. If you're a Republican tired of the corruption you're seeing in government, you have a place in this campaign. Even if you're Ken Paxton's impeachment lawyer, you have a place in this campaign," he said in a statement.

Talarico is attempting to become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in over 30 years. A poll from Texas Public Opinion Research, conducted after Paxton secured the Republican nomination, showed Talarico leading by three points among likely voters. The race draws its competitiveness largely from Paxton's legal record, which hands Democratic strategists sustained, concrete ammunition across the general election.

Cogdell maintains the Texas Senate was right to acquit Paxton in the impeachment trial, and he separates that legal judgment from his assessment of how Paxton has governed since. Acquittal in an impeachment proceeding carries a specific threshold tied to the political body rendering the verdict, and Cogdell treats it accordingly rather than as a broader vindication of Paxton's conduct in office.

Nobody in Texas knows where those bodies are buried better than the man who helped bury them.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.