For the first time in a decade, Texas voters will have the chance to select a new attorney general without an incumbent in the race.
At The Texas Tribune Festival on Friday, candidates from both sides of the aisle pitched themselves as the best person to take the place of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is stepping down to challenge Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary.
Since 2014, Paxton, a Republican, has reimagined the office as a conservative battering ram against Democratic presidents and priorities, a tradition Aaron Reitz, Paxton’s former deputy and one of the candidates vying for the office, said he would continue if elected.
“I’m the only one in this race with actual recent and relevant experience litigating, investigating, suing, defending and appealing on all of the major issues on behalf of the State of Texas and Texans’ constitutional rights,” Reitz said on stage.
Reitz was Paxton’s “offensive coordinator” for three years before going to work as GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s chief of staff. Earlier this year, he was confirmed by the Senate to run the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump. He left the office to run for Texas attorney general.
Reitz proudly quoted Trump, who called him a “true MAGA attorney.” And he boasted how U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, called him “a danger to democracy and a menace to the rule of law” during Reitz’s confirmation hearing. Reitz called the characterization “insane, hyperbolic left-wing talking points.”
Despite his conservative credentials, Reitz is a relative political newcomer whose only experience as a candidate is placing fourth in a state House primary in 2020. Reitz is battling low name recognition, which he dismissed as concerns from the “haters and losers,” noting that he raised $2 million in the early weeks of his campaign.
State Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican, is also running for attorney general. On Friday, she touted her experience working as a Harris County district judge and prosecutor, as well as overseeing redistricting and the budget process on behalf of the Texas Senate.
She noted that she would be the first woman and mother to serve as attorney general if elected.
“You want someone who is going to defend your freedom, who’s going to defend your rights, but will also aggressively prosecute and go after those who want to harm you, your families or your communities,” she said.
The Texas Office of the Attorney General is primarily a civil agency, while counties handle criminal prosecutions. Huffman said the attorney general’s office used to work more closely with local law enforcement and county and district attorneys, and she would like to see that trust rebuilt.
As a senator, Huffman authored a bill that widened the circumstances under which a prosecutor can be removed from office — a policy aimed at the elected county and district attorneys in Texas’ largest, left-leaning counties.
Reitz echoed this concern, saying he would try to remove Travis County District Attorney José Garza and Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, both Democrats, from office “almost immediately,” if he were to be elected attorney general.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy and state Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston, the two other Republican candidates running for attorney general, were invited to the festival but did not attend.
On the Democratic side, candidates are pitching a realignment of priorities for the state agency.
State Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski both said they would aim for transparency, especially when settling disputes about what government records are public. They vowed to empower the office’s lawyers in charge of collecting child support payments and to set aside political battles, which they said Paxton focuses too much on.
Following the 2020 election, Paxton unsuccessfully tried to overturn the results in four battleground states to keep Donald Trump in power. During the Biden administration, Paxton challenged many of the White House’s immigration policies. He has targeted groups in Texas that help immigrants. And he defended the state in federal court as Texas undertook its own border clampdown — along the way creating a constitutional conflict because courts have long held that immigration law is the sole responsibility of the federal government to enforce.
Jaworski suggested he would enforce a part of the state’s election code that requires high schools to offer opportunities for seniors to register to vote. Most 18-year-olds in the state are not registered to vote and the state does not track compliance with the law.
“How are they not all registered?” Jaworski asked.
Meanwhile, Johnson said he would try to limit the use of external lawyers — an expensive practice that Paxton has increasingly relied on — and instead seek to hire the best attorneys in the state to his staff.
“We’re gonna do most of this stuff in the house,” Johnson said.
Tony Box, a Dallas attorney, is also running for the Democratic nomination.
