The September episode with the method server of their driveway was maybe essentially the most dramatic instance of Ms. Paxton’s performing to help her embattled husband, who by that time was dealing with not solely political opposition on the abortion subject, but in addition prison indictment for securities fraud and a federal investigation into his firing of high aides who had accused him of corruption. But it was removed from the one time she had performed so.

In 2019, months after taking workplace, Ms. Paxton launched considered one of her first items of laws: a invoice to alter the regulation concerning funding recommendation that her husband had been accused of violating. The proposal went nowhere.

“No one should think of Angela Paxton as the scorned wife here,” stated Matt Angle, the director of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic political group. “She’s a full partner.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, Ms. Paxton stood on stage subsequent to her husband throughout a rally with President Donald J. Trump close to the U.S. Capitol as he listed his efforts to problem the outcomes of the 2020 election in a number of states, hoping to overturn them.

By that time, most of the accusations in opposition to Mr. Paxton, together with the affair, had been already largely identified. “Thank God for a Legislature in Texas, like my senator, Angela Paxton, my wife, who put in place laws that protect against fraud,” Mr. Paxton told the crowd in Washington that day, as she nodded beside him. As they walked from the stage, she gave him a fast kiss.

And she was with him smiling at his swearing-in for a third term this yr.

“They’re not hating on each other,” stated Pastor Ellis, who stated he supplied an official prayer in the course of the swearing-in ceremony. “If she were trying to make a statement, that would be a pretty easy way to make one,” by not exhibiting up, he stated. “I have yet to meet a Christian couple that does not have challenges, and the fact that they’re still together should tell everybody something.”

Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.