State Senator Angela Paxton of Texas, the wife of the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, announced on Thursday that she had filed for divorce, saying she made her decision “on biblical grounds” and “in light of recent discoveries.”

The divorce petition, filed by Ms. Paxton in Collin County on Thursday morning, lists among the grounds for divorce that the “respondent has committed adultery” and that the couple has not lived together “as spouses” since June 2024.

Mr. Paxton, in a parallel announcement on social media, said the couple had decided to “start a new chapter in our lives,” and suggested that the pressures of public life and “countless political attacks” had precipitated the rupture.

“I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time,” Mr. Paxton said.

The announcement of the divorce filing could roil Texas Republican politics, where the couple has been a fixture for years, and where Mr. Paxton’s primary challenge to United States Senator John Cornyn has already caused significant rifts ahead of the 2026 midterm campaign.

Mr. Paxton, who has courted the hard right of the Republican Party for years, has been polling ahead of the incumbent in public surveys, and he has sought to align himself firmly with President Trump and his supporters.

Democrats, in turn, have jumped at the prospect of contesting the seat, hoping that in a general election with Republicans facing headwinds, they could more easily defeat Mr. Paxton than Mr. Cornyn.

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