Talarico lands endorsement from lawyer who defended Paxton in impeachment, securities fraud cases

WASHINGTON — One of the lawyers who defended Attorney General Ken Paxton during his three-year-old impeachment trial endorsed Democrat James Talarico Monday in Texas’ U.S. Senate race.

Dan Cogdell, a veteran Houston attorney who represented Paxton in his long-running felony securities fraud case and his 2023 impeachment, announced his support for Talarico in an interview with the attorney general’s Democratic opponent on the lawyer’s podcast.

“I defended Ken Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and in state criminal cases,” Cogdell said on his podcast. “But in my view, respectfully, I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas. And unlike Ken, I believe to my core, James, that you believe in unity over division and that you know how to assemble not only Democrats, but independents and Republicans — and we need that right now.”

Well-known in Texas courtrooms, Cogdell helped steer Paxton through legal battles for nearly a decade. The attorney general first hired him in 2015 after he was indicted for securities fraud, a case that went on until 2024, when prosecutors dropped the charges in exchange for Paxton taking legal ethics courses and paying six figures in restitution. And he served on Paxton’s defense team in his 2023 impeachment trial, which ended in an acquittal by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate.

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https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/08/texas-ken-paxton-impeachment-lawyer-dan-cogdell-james-talarico-endorsement-senate/