Aside from the GOP primary runoff battle for U.S. Senate in Texas, the other races generating a lot of buzz for the May 26 runoff are the Republican and Democratic contests for Texas Attorney General. 

The current attorney general, Ken Paxton, is leaving the office at the end of the year and is running for U.S. Senate. 

The Republican candidates, State Senator Mayes Middleton and Central Texas Congressman Chip Roy, are in a very contentious fight. 

They emerged from the March 3 primary, finishing in the top two. Middleton received more than 39% of the vote, while Roy finished with nearly 32%. 

Middleton also received the endorsement from another Republican candidate, Aaron Reitz. 

No word yet from the fourth candidate in the GOP primary, State Senator Joan Huffman, if she will make an endorsement in the runoff. 

Last week, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick predicted that Middleton would win. 

Mayes Middleton on his campaign

In an interview with CBS News Texas, Middleton said there is a reason he came in first place in the March 3 election. 

“We did very well here in Dallas County, a double-digit win here. The DFW region, a double-digit win,” Middleton said. “The reason why is Texas is Trump country. They want a conservative fighter that will back up the president and make sure that we use every resource and tool to advance his conservative agenda in Texas.” 

Middleton said he wasn’t surprised Roy finished behind him in the first round. “The reason why he did so badly on Election Day is because his record of fighting President Trump caught up to him,” he said. “It’s funny when politicians like Chip and Liz Cheney are surprised all of a sudden when that record catches up to them and haunts them.” 

Middleton continued his criticism of Roy. 

“He said President Trump needed to be impeached. He said that Liz Cheney needed to be commended and not condemned. He spent a career fighting against the MAGA agenda,” he said. 

Chip Roy on his campaign

Roy rejected Middleton’s claims about his record in an interview with CBS News Texas. 

“Each one of those claims is either an outright lie or intentionally misleading,” he said. 

“Let’s go through them. If you look at the issue with respect to impeachment, I fought both impeachments of President Trump vigorously. I voted against both impeachments of President Trump. On the issue of Liz Cheney, we were working through at the time the votes of what was necessary with respect to the conference chair. We didn’t have the votes to remove Liz Cheney. I worked with the speaker. We figured out what the best path was. How do we unite? So, we basically made an arrangement.” 

Roy went on to say, “Let’s all unite. We’ll support Liz right now in order to try to move the conference forward. But if she looks backward and attacks the president, then we’ll unite to call for her to step down. Two weeks later, she was criticizing the president. I was the first to step out, go to the steps of the House, and say Liz had to go. The speaker followed, and then it took about a month and a half to still build the coalition to change the conference chair. That’s what you have to do when you’re actually in the arena.”

Roy said his message to Republican voters has been clear. 

“You can choose someone who has been in a courtroom, who’s been a prosecutor, who’s practiced law, who’s been the first assistant attorney general,” he said, referencing himself. 

“Or you can try to hire somebody for on-the-job training who’s never actually practiced law and has never done the job. For the most part, he’s managed his family business, which means really administering royalties that he inherited from his family. That’s not somebody that is prepared to be the attorney general of the state of Texas.”

In response to Roy’s comments, Middleton shot back, “I am a practicing attorney in oil and gas law.” 

“This is Texas, so I think it’s ridiculous for someone to say that practicing oil and gas law in Texas is not practicing law. Going back to how Paxton can get elected. In 2013, the reason why we supported him for attorney general was not because he was a civil attorney like me. It was because he was a proven conservative in the Texas Senate, top one or two most conservative members. That’s why we supported him. That’s what this is about, a proven conservative record. Like our president, this is calling for me. This is not a job.”

Next week, Eye On Politics will feature interviews with the two Democrats in the primary runoff for attorney general: State Senator Nathan Johnson of Dallas and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski.

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