Texas AG questions Supreme Court ruling, says 'this was our only chance'

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lamented the Supreme Court's decision not to hear his case against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin challenging those state's elections.

In an interview with Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Paxton questioned the court's decision that his state lacked standing -- that Texas had not shown a legal interest in how other states carry out their elections. He pushed back on the idea that the state had not suffered harm.

"I view them as having been harmed by the fact that other states didn’t follow their election laws and didn’t follow the Constitution," Paxton asked. "How do I address the fact that my voters are affected by a national election that potentially was not done correctly, where there was fraud, and the state law and federal law was not followed? So you know, I don’t know what else we could have done other than ask the court to at least hear our arguments."

The attorney general regretted that he will never get to have his argument heard in court.

“You know this was our only chance," he said. "Unlike other cases, when you sue another state — when one state sues another, in this case we ended up with seven states suing four, our only place to go was the U.S. Supreme Court to be heard. So normally we’d be able to go to a District Court and have our case heard. In this case we asked the court, the Supreme Court, to hear our case and we never got that opportunity.”

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FOX 7 Discussion: Texas sues four states over 2020 election

Travis County GOP Chairman Matt Mackowiak and Ed Espinoza from Progress Texas talk about Texas AG Ken Paxton's decision to sue other states.

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Paxton pointed to the "tremendous" support his case received in the days after he first filed paperwork with the Supreme Court. Six other states joined the case, and briefs in support of their position came in from more than a dozen states.

He then warned what the outcome of his case could mean for future election challenges, specifically the Georgia Senate elections scheduled for January that will determine which party controls the chamber.

“So now going forward, how do we know in Georgia whether we can trust those results either?" Paxton asked. "And those also affect use because the U.S. Senate, obviously if it flips it affects my state in having an ability to get things done.”