For the first time in more than a decade, Texans will pick their next attorney general from a field of candidates that doesn’t include incumbent Republican Ken Paxton, who is giving up the office to run for the U.S. Senate.
On the Democratic side, three candidates are seeking the nomination in the March 3 primary, a contest that will be settled in a May runoff if nobody clears 50% of the vote. The winner will take on the Republican nominee in November. No Democrat has won statewide office since 1994, so whoever wins the primary will be entering the general as the underdog.
Whoever wins this seat will take over one of the largest and most powerful attorney general’s offices in the country. The agency handles legal affairs that impact everyday Texans’ lives, like enforcing child support judgments, stopping waste and fraud in government programs and investigating deceptive charities, unscrupulous businesses and fraudulent billing. It also defends state agencies and statutes against legal challenges and puts out opinions interpreting state law.
Under Paxton, the office has prioritized headline-grabbing conservative litigation. He has brought a deluge of lawsuits against the federal government, nonprofits and private companies, testing novel legal theories in friendly courtrooms across the state and establishing the agency as a leader in the conservative legal movement.
The next attorney general will get to decide what the agency’s priority should be. To help primary voters distinguish between the three Democratic hopefuls, we asked each of them to share their views on the office’s major issues. See where they stand, and how they differ.
Question topics
The three candidates are current State Sen. Nathan Johnson (whose term is not up so he will remain in office if he ultimately loses), former Galveston Mayor and previous candidate for AG Joe Jaworski, and private practice attorney Tony Box, about whom I know basically nothing. I’m still undecided in this race after reading their responses, which is good in the sense that none of the three disqualified themselves in my view. If you want to know more, Progress Texas did a podcast episode with Johnson and Jaworski (Box was invited bur declined to participate), which you can get on Apple Podcasts. Finally, if you want to see what demented things the other guys are planning to do, here’s the Trib Q&A with the Republican candidates. This may contain toxic levels of exposure to Mayes Middleton and Chip Roy, so proceed with caution.