In Texas, a $1,000 pen embarrasses Republicans and further complicates the midterm elections for the Trump camp

A pen that could write a chapter in American electoral history. The Republican candidate for a Texas senatorial seat, Ken Paxton, is caught up in the luxury pen incident that he stole in 2012. Fourteen years later, his Democratic opponent, the rising star James Talarico, exploits the affair and can tip Texas, a Republican stronghold for more than 30 years, during the mid-term elections, on November 3.

The duel between Ken Paxton, supported by Donald Trump, and James Talarico, who received the support of former President Barack Obama, is particularly followed during these elections, where the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of those in the Senate are renewed. A shift in Texas to the Democrats could cause Donald Trump to lose his Republican majority in the US Congress. According to the New York Times, which cites recent polls on Wednesday October 14, the Democratic candidate is in the lead in the race for the Texas senatorial seat. “The national attention paid to Mr. Talarico has given this pen affair an unprecedented resonance,” notes the New York Times.

During his campaign, James Talarico, a 37-year-old former teacher and seminarian, brought up the case of the $1,000 pen stolen by Ken Paxton, current attorney general of Texas, with supporting video surveillance images. The facts date back to August 14, 2012, Ken Paxton, then elected to the Texas parliament, took a pen worth $1,000 that did not belong to him in a court in Collin County, near Dallas. CCTV footage shows him pocketing an object as he passes through a security gate. Ken Paxton quickly returned the pen to its owner, lawyer Joe Joplin, and has since assured that it was a simple misunderstanding.

“He won’t steal your pen.”

What could have been a simple incident is regularly exhumed by the adversaries of the Texan elected official to denounce his immorality. First in 2018, by Democrat Justin Nelson who published a video with the message: "Vote for Justin Nelson [...] he won't steal your pen." In 2025, it is the turn of John Cornyn, the outgoing Texas senator, to attack Ken Paxton, his opponent in the state's Republican primary, about the pen "symbol of depravity".

Last August, fourteen years to the day after the events, James Talarico, the Democratic candidate facing Ken Paxton, reused the video and added a coup de grace: his famous pen in hand, Joe Joplin, the cheated lawyer, gave him his support. “Vote for James Talarico. He won’t steal your pen,” concludes the campaign clip once again. James Talarico's team is also selling their own pens, which read: "This is not Ken Paxton's pen."

The pen that hides scandals

The day after Ken Paxton's victory in the Texas Republican primary on May 26, the Democratic candidate described his opponent as "the most corrupt politician in America". “He embodies the failing system we are fighting against,” he adds. The 63-year-old Republican, ultraconservative and emblematic figure of the MAGA movement, "Make America great again", is mired in scandals, among which the $1,000 pen affair seems minimal.

In 2023, Ken Laxton was removed from his post as Attorney General of Texas by the state's House of Representatives, controlled by his own party, on grounds of fraud and breach of trust, before being acquitted. Despite this, the attorney general of Texas is designated as the Republican candidate and receives the support of Donald Trump. He will become a “formidable senator, full of common sense and respected by all”, greets the American president on his Truth Social network.