In Texas politics, old controversies never truly disappear; campaigns simply repurpose them. As the high-stakes battle for the U.S. Senate heats up, both Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico are digging deep into each other’s political archives to sway voters.

Conservative groups frequently circulate older footage of Talarico discussing human gender theory and questioning whether God possesses a biological sex. While Talarico recently characterized those past remarks as “cringey” phrasing meant to illustrate broader concepts, the clips remain a staple in attack ads against him.

Meanwhile, Talarico consistently reminds the electorate of Paxton’s extensive legal troubles. Paxton faced felony securities fraud charges for nearly a decade before resolving the case through a pretrial intervention program that required $271,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service, and 15 hours of legal ethics courses. Talarico’s campaign also emphasizes Paxton’s 2023 impeachment by the Texas House on 16 charges, including bribery and abuse of office, though the Republican-controlled Texas Senate ultimately acquitted the attorney general on all counts.

Beyond the serious legal and cultural debates, the race’s most unconventional recycled attack involves a luxury pen and a courthouse security camera.

The incident occurred while Paxton served as a state senator and frequented the Collin County courthouse. Security footage captured him pocketing a $1,000 Montblanc pen left behind in a screening bin. The high-end writing instrument belonged to Dallas attorney Joe Joplin, who had received it as a gift from his wife. After security identified the mistake, Paxton returned the pen, with his team dismissing the situation as an accidental mix-up.

Democratic operative Matt Angle later unearthed the surveillance tape through a public records request during the 2018 election cycle. Paxton’s then-challenger, Justin Nelson, used the footage in a campaign commercial poking fun at the incident, closing with the tagline that Nelson “won’t steal your pen.”

Although Nelson ran a competitive race, his campaign lacked the resources to keep the ad in heavy rotation alongside that year’s dominant Cruz-O’Rourke Senate contest.

With substantial campaign funding now backing Talarico’s current Senate bid, his team has revitalized the 2018 strategy. On Friday, Talarico launched a refreshed version of the commercial featuring the original courthouse footage alongside a new development: a direct campaign endorsement from Joplin, the pen’s original owner.

Margaret Justus, who directed communications for Nelson in 2018, welcomed the revival of the concept, noting her excitement that the ad remains relevant and expressing hope that the decade-old controversy still carries weight with voters.

The exchange highlights a permanent reality of modern digital campaigns: archival footage and political missteps remain permanently preserved, ready to re-emerge whenever the stakes are high enough.