Why did the Texas GOP finally go after Ken Paxton?

The best explainer I've seen so far is by Chris Hooks at the Monthly.

Hooks first describes Paxton's near-decade long alleged legal malfeasance that's been on the state docket, and successfully dodged so far, for the unfamiliar. He also adds in a brief backgrounder of the previous decade of alleged criminality before THAT.

Next is noting the omerta that Texas elected officials practice toward each other, with this as the kicker: 

Nihilism is the WD-40 of Texas politics: everything goes down easier if you accept that nothing really changes and nothing really matters. Until, suddenly, it does.

He then notes that Warren Paxton asking the Lege to approve the state paying off his lawsuit settlement was a bridge too far for a variety of reasons. (Sidebar: The House Investigations Committee began looking at Paxton then, long before Bryan Slaton; his impeachment wasn't out of the blue.)

He says other Rethugs balked at eating Kenny Boy's turd sandwich because it would appear to reflect on him.

Paxton easily won his last primary, and there's no indication anything would be different in 2026 unless the feds had a conviction by then. And, contra the Tex-ass level Blue Anons, there's nothing to indicate the 2026 general would be different than 2022. So, with an opportunity to impeach, they did. And, before this, Hooks notes they really didn't have a case for impeachment.

And, this, again, is why I scoffed at Tex-ass Blue Anons when they said Dan Patrick would never have a Senate trial. Most of them are tired of him. That includes Strangeabbott; naming John Scott as temporary AG rather than the permanent No. 2, Brett Webster, running the shop, probably should be seen as an Abbott endorsement of kicking Kenny Boy to the curb.

Hooks then notes the knots his 21 House defenders tied themselves into.

Hooks does have a stumble or two. He takes Harold Dutton's "due process" comment at face value without noting his Blue Anon tweet that he wanted Kenny Boy to have to be on the next ballot.