Trump doesn't have many endearing qualities, but one is his relentless joy punishing the people who are 99.99% sycophants instead of 100%.
Trump might be unpopular, but he still rules the kind of people who vote in Republican primaries. And Ken Paxton is the perfect contemporary Republican.
I don't put any confidence in Dems winning statewide anything Texas, and I'll probably annoyed at all the money wasted on a doomed effort, but I suppose I could be wrong!