A cartoon of Texas with the words "Loon Star State" inside its outline. The "L" in "Loon" is wearing a hat that's part cowboy and part dunce cap.
Ben Sargent

Loon Star State: In Ken Paxton’s Bathroom

We don't want to know what he uses for toilet paper.

by

Ben Sargent, a bald, older white man with a bushy white beard is dressed in a suit and red bowtie, with his artistic tools, including pens, in front of him.

A version of this story ran in the September / October 2023 issue.

A cartoon image showing Ken Paxton in the Attorney General's private bathroom at the Texas legislature or similar governmenrt building. He whistles a cheerful tune as he dries his hands on shreds of paper labeled "The Law" as a substitute for paper towels from his bathroom's wall dispenser.
Ben Sargent/Texas Observer

Part of our coverage of the impeachment of Ken Paxton. To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here.

Read more from the Observer:

An ad that reads: In Conversation: Join the Texas Observer & Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anette Gordon-Reed & UT professor of Journalism Kathleen McElroy for a discussion. Annette is the author of On Juneteenth and the landmark Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. She grew up in Texas and then distinguished herself as an historian, author, and Harvard professor. October 19, 7:30 p.m. at Stateside at the Paramount Theater, Austin
Advertisment
  • Angela Paxton’s Ties to a Shell Company: In the latest scoop from Politics Reporter Justin Miller, we get to the bottom of why K-Pax and his wife stopped over in Kosovo to promote a lobbyist-friend’s shadowy tech business.
  • The Rise of Ma and Pa Paxton: Even if Ken Paxton suffers from the impeachment, could his wife state Senator Angela Paxton prosper in his stead? Senior Reporter and Editor Lise Olsen asks whether history will repeat itself.
  • Paxton is Burning: Correspondent Nancy Goldstein takes a closer look at why the Texas Republican party suddenly turned against Ken Paxton after years of open corruption and abuse of power and the law.

is the Texas Observer's staff cartoonist. He launched his career drawing editorial cartoons for the Austin American-Statesman in 1974. He was born in Amarillo into a newspaper family and learned the printing trade from age 12 and started working for the local daily as a proof runner at 14. He attended Amarillo College and received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. Sargent won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1982. He has also received awards from Women in Communications, Inc., Common Cause of Texas, and Cox Newspapers. He is the author of Texas Statehouse Blues (1980) and Big Brother Blues (1984).

Tags:

Enjoy this story? Want to support the writer? We are a journalism non-profit that relies on readers—not corporations or special interests—so we can always tell the unvarnished truth. Help us keep up the fight for Texas by donating to our tip jar.

You May Also Like