“A former top aide to Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, is appearing in a new online ad endorsing his Democratic rival, James Talarico, in one of the most hotly contested and costly U.S. Senate races in the country,” the New York Times reports.“The aide, David Maxwell, served as Mr. Paxton’s director of law enforcement for several years until 2020, when he and other high-level staffers accused Mr. Paxton of abusing the power of his office to help a campaign donor under federal investigation.”