Image of alleged Ken Paxton billboard in Texas is doctored
- Published on June 30, 2026 at 18:21
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Republican US Senate candidate Ken Paxton is facing a strong challenge from his Democratic opponent James Talarico in the state of Texas, where Paxton's party has not lost a statewide contest since the 1990s. But a widespread image purporting to show a billboard supporting him with the slogan, "Pedos ain't that bad," is altered; the actual sign offers a generic pro-conservative message that in no way mentions pedophilia.
"New Trump/Ken Paxton billboard spotted in Texas," says a June 23, 2026 post from "The Other 98%," a liberal Facebook page AFP has previously fact-checked.
Similar posts circulated across Facebook and other platforms, including Threads and X.
The image comes as Paxton, the state's attorney general, ramps up his campaign to represent Texas in the US Senate against Talarico, a state legislator and middle school teacher, ahead of November's midterm elections. Polling from the second half of June shows the campaigns running even, despite Texas being a traditional Republican stronghold.
Paxton, backed by President Donald Trump, has survived years of legal, ethical and personal scandal -- including a 2023 impeachment by the Republican-led Texas House, allegations of bribery and misconduct and a messy divorce.
But the image claimed online to show a billboard purchased to boost Paxton's campaign is altered.
Reverse image searches surfaced an unedited version of the photo posted to Facebook on June 7. The original picture is otherwise identical, except that the billboard reads, "No blue state BS. Just red state success. Keep Texas red!" (archived here).
The Facebook user who published it, "Texan Made," confirmed in a June 29 direct message to AFP that they snapped the photo themselves.
"I took the pic," the poster said, adding that the location was near the city of San Marcos and along Interstate 35, also known as Monarch Highway.
AFP geolocated the billboard by searching along the highway in Google Maps for Manufacturing Housing Consultants, another business whose own street sign is visible in the photo. The latest Google Street View imagery, from April 2026, shows the billboard with the same "red state success" message (archived here).
The Google Street View imagery also revealed a phone number on the back of the billboard for buyers interesting in leasing it (archived here).
Corridor Billboards, the company linked to the phone number, confirmed in a June 29 call with AFP that the billboard was still carrying the "red state success" message and had done so since January 2025. The ad was paid for by a private Republican donor, the company said.
Previous Google Street View captures show the billboard hosting other pro-Republican advertisements as far back as November 2018.
The doctored image, meanwhile, appears to have been first shared June 8, 2026 in a Facebook group called "Anti-Trump Art." The group's "about" section says it is "a place for artists to express their horror and disgust for all things Donald Trump."
AFP reached out to the original poster for comment, but no response was immediately forthcoming.
However, in response to a commenter suggesting the image could have been the work of artificial intelligence, the poster replied that it was "just me doodling." In another comment, he referred to the visual as a "meme."
AFP previously debunked a similar altered image here.
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