Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is weirdly 'obsessed' with Alyssa Edwards

This story originally appeared on Out."Ken Paxton seems to be obsessed with my client, Alyssa Edwards," declared Dallas publicist Waylon Tate in social media posts on Tuesday, referring to the Texas attorney general who is running to replace Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Edwards, of course, is the RuPaul's Drag Race season 5 and All Stars 2 alum from Mesquite, Texas, aka 46-year-old drag artist Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson.Paxton's "obsession" is evident in his recent social media posts, in which he's been dragging his Democratic opponent, front-runner James Talarico for daring to name his favorite drag queen. "What normal person can name their favorite drag queen this quickly?" is the caption on Paxton's post on X on Sept. 14, accompanied by a video of Talarico answering that question at a campaign event. "When James Talarico isn’t advocating for children to dress in drag, he’s watching drag performances and saying that Texas produces the best drag queens. James Talarico is too weird and too radical for Texas."On Tuesday, Paxton doubled-down with a new post, targeting Edwards herself topped with a "VIEWER WARNING:" "Meet Alyssa Edwards: James Talarico’s favorite sick and twisted drag queen."The video mixes Talarico's answer with clips of Edwards performing, including in front of and with young children whose faces are blurred. It ends with an ominous full-screen message in black and red, all-caps: "James Talarico: Too Weird, Too Radical for Texas."This was enough for Tate, Edwards' rep, to step in. "Alyssa's name is being used as political ammunition in a U.S.-centered race she isn't running in," he said in Tuesday's post on Instagram and Threads. Tate goes on to explain his responsibility as a public relations agent, and what he called "the part of PR nobody really sees.""Sometimes I write a statement and sometimes I make the phone call, sometimes I tell a client we're not touching this," said Tate. "And sometimes I watch the same politician repeatedly use my cl