Texas election costs conservatives a legal powerhouse

By Sara Randazzo

Nov 6 (Reuters) - The conservative legal movement lost one of its most powerful institutions this week, with a Democrat set to take over an attorney general’s office in Texas that for nearly three decades has served as a training ground for lawyers on the right and a primary antagonist of Democratic presidents.

The office counts among its alumni US Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, federal appellate judges, Chevron's general counsel and law-firm partners. The state became known for challenging federal policies under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, including immigration, health care and environmental regulations. Even when such challenges failed, they succeeded in gumming up the Democratic agenda.

In the attorney general race, Democrat Nathan Johnson, a Texas state senator and commercial litigator, captured 52.4% of the vote to beat Republican Mayes Middleton, an oil and gas executive, state politician and ally of President Trump's. Outgoing Attorney General Ken Paxton, meanwhile, lost his US Senate race Tuesday in the blue wave that swept Texas and the nation.

“It’s nothing less than the single largest conservative public-interest shop in the country being handed over to the Democrats,” said Judd Stone, a Texas lawyer who served as solicitor general under Paxton from 2021 to 2023.

Johnson’s victory raises immediate questions about the fate of Texas lawsuits over abortion, transgender rights, immigration and other Republican priorities. But for the conservative legal movement, the bigger question may be what can replace an office that for a generation has provided resources and lawyers and led challenges to Democratic administrations.

NOT A PRIVATE LAW FIRM

In an interview, Johnson said he plans to depoliticize the office of around 4,000, including 800 lawyers. He said he knows some of his actions will be viewed as liberal if, for example, he sues the Trump administration. "I sue presidents when they break the law," he said. That'll extend to suing Democrats, he said, if they act outside the scope of their powers.

The attorney general's office, in Johnson's view, is "not supposed to be a private law firm for a political party," and he does "not intend to announce it’s now the progressive movement’s legal division." That said, he praised Democratic attorneys general who have sued the Trump administration over immigration policies, tariffs and federal funding freezes.

Johnson said he still needs to assess the merits of each active matter brought under Paxton to determine which ones he will support and dismiss. "Everything will be examined," he said.

The Texas attorney general's office has long been seen as the most important such office nationwide for conservatives, both handling cases on its own and leading multistate coalitions, said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University who studies attorneys general. Beyond its size, Texas has also offered conservatives a favorable judicial landscape, with its federal courts feeding into the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, often viewed as the nation’s most conservative federal appeals court.

In the run-up to the election, Republican Attorneys General Association Executive Director Adam Piper called the Texas race "one of the most consequential attorney general contests in the country," citing the office as "America's armory of legal talent." Nolette and office alumni said it's been an attractive employer for conservative lawyers, even attracting young lawyers from other states, though some say its recruiting prowess has faded in recent years.

NATIONAL ACTOR

Decades ago, attorney general offices were sleepier affairs, focused primarily on their own states.

The last Democratic attorney general in Texas, Dan Morales, served until 1999. That same year, the Republican Attorneys General Association formed, helping accelerate the politicization of the role and the shift from largely state-focused officials into national players seeking to influence federal policy.

The Texas attorney general role has since been held by Cornyn, who went on to be a US Senator, Greg Abbott on his way to the governor’s office, and, for the last decade, by Paxton.

Abbott “pioneered the idea of the Texas attorney general as this national actor,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. His office routinely sued the Obama administration over health care policies, immigration and environmental regulation. Abbott became known for quipping that he would go into the office in the morning, sue the federal government, and go home.

Paxton carried on that tradition, suing the Biden administration more than 100 times, according to his office. His tenure was at times overshadowed by scandals, including securities-fraud charges, allegations from senior aides that he used his office to benefit a political donor, and his impeachment in 2023 by a Republican-controlled Texas House. “Paxton became increasingly toxic,” said Jones.

Paxton's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

Johnson said rebuilding the office — and clearing out right-wing ideologues — will be his top priority once he takes over the role in January. He said he expects hundreds of career public servants to stay on, while he hires his own people to fill out leadership ranks. "Disagreement is welcome," he said. Those clinging to dogma and ideological views, he said, are not.

After Tuesday’s election, there are still prominent Republican attorneys general in big and small states nationwide, including Louisiana, Missouri and Florida, all of which have played significant roles in Republican-led challenges to federal policies.

“This is a huge blow,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. “Texas has been ground zero during Democratic administrations to challenge executive action—and that’s gone.”