Democrat Nathan Johnson defeated Republican Mayes Middleton in the November 3, 2026 election, becoming Texas's first Democratic attorney general in 32 years with 53.4% of the vote. The victory flips a major conservative stronghold that oversaw over 100 lawsuits against the Biden administration. As part of a broader Democratic midterm wave that included victories for governor and Senate, Johnson pledged to refocus the office's 750 attorneys on consumer protection and core state legal duties while challenging federal overreach.
2026 Texas election results
- ▪Democrat Nathan Johnson earned 53.4 percent of the vote to defeat Republican Mayes Middleton to become Texas attorney general-elect
- ▪Republican candidate Mayes Middleton spent nearly $20 million of his own money to defeat U.S. Representative Chip Roy in the Texas attorney general primary runoff before losing the 2026 Texas attorney general election to Nathan Johnson
- ▪Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the Texas gubernatorial election on November 3, 2026 as part of a Democratic midterm wave in Texas
- ▪Nathan Johnson's victory in the November 3, 2026 election makes him the first Democrat elected as Texas attorney general since 1994
- ▪Democrat James Talarico won a Senate election in Texas on November 3, 2026, marking the state's first Democratic Senate victory in over 30 years
Nathan Johnson's priorities for the AG office
- ▪Nathan Johnson campaigned on refocusing the Texas Attorney General's Office on core duties, including consumer protection, public safety, anti-corruption investigation, and child support enforcement
- ▪Nathan Johnson stated that his office will file legal challenges against Donald Trump's administration when he believes the federal government oversteps its authority in Texas
Impact of Johnson's victory on national litigation
- ▪Political scientist Paul Nolette stated that Texas will become a smaller player in national litigation following Nathan Johnson's 2026 Texas attorney general election victory
- ▪Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette stated that Nathan Johnson's election victory deprives the conservative legal movement of Texas as its primary leader in national multistate litigation
Background on outgoing AG Ken Paxton
- ▪Outgoing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lost his bid for the U.S. Senate in the November 3, 2026 election
- ▪Under outgoing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General's Office filed more than 100 lawsuits challenging the Biden administration and nearly 50 against the Obama administration
Texas AG legal authority and venue selection
- ▪In 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas had standing to challenge an Obama-era immigration program due to costs from issuing driver's licenses
- ▪Rules in Texas federal trial courts allow plaintiffs to select specific single-judge divisions, enabling conservative litigants to handpick trial judges for policy challenges
- ▪Anti-abortion activists selected Texas U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in 2022 to hear a lawsuit seeking to ban the abortion drug mifepristone
- ▪Federal court decisions in Texas appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where conservative judges frequently rule against Democratic administration policies
- ▪Under the Supreme Court precedent Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), states receive special solicitude in standing analysis, enabling state attorneys general to bring federal lawsuits unavailable to private litigants
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