Texas state senator, and the author of an open letter that Woolf's Transformer reporting describes as a "bombshell" in the fight over federal preemption of state AI regulation. A Republican from McKinney, she opposed federal preemption of state AI laws through 2025, first against the moratorium in the 2025 reconciliation bill and then, in a November 2025 letter she led on behalf of 16 state senators, against renewed federal efforts to restrict state AI regulation (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025); Source: thetexan.news).
Background
Paxton told Transformer that she was a teacher and school counselor for more than 20 years before entering the legislature, and described herself as a mother and grandmother (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025)). She has cited reports of AI being used to generate child sexual abuse material, and of chatbots that encouraged people to commit suicide, as motivating her advocacy for AI regulation in Texas (Source: texastribune.org).
The letter
Paxton called for the Senate to remove the moratorium provision, framing the position as consistent with a deregulatory posture rather than opposed to it. In remarks to Transformer she said, "I want Texas to continue to be a light touch regulation state so that we don't inhibit innovation," added that "it's really important we have guardrails – in particular when it has to do with protecting children," and, after describing her background, said "I just think it's really important that we don't beta-test on our kids" (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025)).
Paxton learned of the proposed 10-year moratorium in late June or early July 2025, after the Texas Legislature had ended its biennial session. Her first reaction, she told Transformer, was that Texas had just passed legislation protecting children in relation to AI technology, that the moratorium would undo it, and that the legislature could not act again for two years (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025)). Her early-July letter was addressed to Texas's U.S. senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, urging them to strip the provision; Cruz had spearheaded the moratorium with Marsha Blackburn (Source: thetexan.news). After the Senate adopted the Blackburn–Cantwell amendment removing the moratorium by 99 votes to one, Paxton posted "WE DID IT" (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025)).
The position separates opposition to preemption from support for regulation generally: a state legislator in a light-touch state objecting to having the option removed, rather than to the absence of federal rules. The opposition to the moratorium spanned the political spectrum, from Democratic Senators Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders and union leaders to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon (How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025)).
Opposition to later federal preemption efforts
In November 2025 Paxton led a letter from 16 Texas state senators, nine Republicans and seven Democrats and a majority of the 31-member chamber, asking Cruz and Cornyn to oppose any federal preemption of state AI regulation for the foreseeable future. The letter was nearly identical to her July letter. It stated that AI is anticipated to develop into artificial general intelligence within the next few years and that this raises "serious moral, ethical, legal, and policy questions" for state lawmakers. It cited the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA), authored by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, as a law a federal freeze would block, and warned that a moratorium would render moot Texas's work "on preventing child pornography, protecting data privacy, preventing discrimination, and holding Big Tech accountable." Signatories included Sens. Carol Alvarado, Nathan Johnson, Cesar Blanco, José Menéndez, Sarah Eckhardt, Robert Nichols, Brent Hagenbuch, Tan Parker, Bob Hall, Charles Perry, Adam Hinojosa, Kevin Sparks, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, Royce West and Lois Kolkhorst (Source: thetexan.news).
After President Trump signed a December 2025 executive order threatening to withhold federal broadband funding from states with AI laws the administration deems "onerous and excessive" (Executive Order 14365), Paxton said she shared the goal of Texas leading in AI but did not want Texas "to be a leader in AI generated child porn." She called it "baffling" that Congress had been unable to agree on a national regulatory framework and said states should not be "locked down" in the meantime. The order exempts state laws relating to child-safety protections, but Paxton and other opponents said it could still chill state legislative efforts (Source: texastribune.org).
Relationships
- related: How MAGA learned to love AI safety — Nicky Woolf (Transformer, October 2025) — the canonical citation
- related: State-Level AI Regulation, AI and Children, Marjorie Taylor Greene
- supports: Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA / HB 149) — defended the state law against federal preemption
- contradicts: Executive Order 14365 — opposed the order's pressure on state AI laws
- related: Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn — recipients and sponsors in the 2025 moratorium fight