James Talarico’s Senate campaign is celebrating an endorsement from an unlikely political figure — a Texas attorney who once accused Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton of stealing his $1,000 Montblanc pen.
Joe Joplin’s pen, a gift from his wife, became a source of controversy after he left it in a dish near a courthouse metal detector, after which a security camera captured Paxton picking it up and walking away.
At the time, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general explained that he had made a mistake. But Paxton’s 2018 Democratic opponent for attorney general highlighted the incident.
This month, Talarico’s campaign filmed Joplin posing with the pen and making his support official. The Democrat wants to draw more attention to accusations of corruption against Paxton, and to Talarico’s own drive to collect supplies for students heading back to school.
Campaign spokesman JT Ellis called Paxton “the kind of guy who steals your pen” and Talarico “the kind of guy who’d let you borrow his.”