Update, May 27: Runoff results are in. Mayes Middleton defeated Chip Roy with roughly 55% of the vote in the Republican runoff. Nathan Johnson defeated Joe Jaworski with 60% in the Democratic runoff.
The November general election is now Johnson vs. Middleton. Candidate profiles and comparison below.
Johnson vs. Middleton
For the first time in 12 years, someone other than Ken Paxton will be Texas Attorney General. The question is whether the office returns to consumer protection or goes further right than Paxton took it.
| Nathan Johnson (D) | Mayes Middleton (R) | |
|---|---|---|
| Current office | State Senator, District 16 (Dallas) | State Senator, District 11 (Galveston) |
| Background | Litigator and mediator at Thompson Coburn | President, Middleton Oil Company |
| Education | Physics (U of Arizona), JD (UT Austin) | Finance (UT Austin), JD (UT Austin) |
| Elected | 2018, flipped a Republican-held seat | 2019, inherited a safe Republican seat |
| Self-funding | No | $17 million of his own money |
| Key legislation | Medicaid expansion, power grid reform after Winter Storm Uri | Anti-transgender bills, state preemption of local ordinances |
| AG priority | Consumer protection, antitrust enforcement | Border enforcement, conservative social agenda |
| On Paxton’s legacy | ”It’s been so long since people thought of the AG as someone on their side” | Wants to continue and expand Paxton’s approach |
| Major donor ties | Grassroots, Democratic small-dollar | Empower Texans PAC, $300K+ in oil and gas money to conservative PACs |
| Runoff margin | Won 60-40 over Jaworski | Won 55-45 over Chip Roy |
Who Is Nathan Johnson
Nathan Johnson is a 16th District state senator from Dallas. He is a litigator and mediator (and, in an earlier career, a composer who scored music for Dragon Ball Z). He flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, beating incumbent Don Huffines, the first Democrat to hold the district in over three decades.
In the Senate, Johnson became the legislature’s leading voice on Medicaid expansion. He played a central role in power grid reform after Winter Storm Uri killed over 200 Texans. He pushed consumer protection legislation that Paxton’s office ignored.
His AG platform centers on antitrust enforcement and consumer protection. He points to the 2021 power grid collapse, where Paxton took no enforcement action against energy companies that sent families $10,000 electric bills. Johnson argues the office has spent a decade chasing headlines instead of protecting Texans from price gouging and corporate fraud.
Who Is Mayes Middleton
Mayes Middleton is an 11th District state senator from Galveston and president of Middleton Oil Company, an independent oil and gas company operating in South Texas and the Gulf Coast. He inherited the company and its wealth when his father died in 2013.
Over the past 15 years, Middleton has spent millions from his oil fortune on conservative candidates and causes. He donated over $300,000 to Empower Texans PAC, a force that pulled the Texas GOP sharply to the right. He self-funded nearly $17 million of his AG campaign.
$17 million of his own oil money to fund his AG campaign. $300,000 to the PAC that pulled the Texas GOP to the right.
In the Senate, Middleton pushed some of the most conservative legislation in the chamber, including bills targeting transgender Texans and expanding state preemption of local ordinances. He represents the faction that wants the AG’s office to go further than Paxton on social issues. He was backed by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC.
The Office Paxton Built
Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration 48 times. He targeted sanctuary cities and went after transgender healthcare providers. He challenged the 2020 election results at the Supreme Court.
He used the Texas AG’s office as the most politically aggressive in the country, and now he has left it to run for Senate.
The next AG will decide whether Texas continues to lead multistate challenges against federal environmental regulations and immigration policy. They will decide whether cities like Austin and Houston can pass local worker protections or get preempted by the state.
This is not a symbolic office. It is the single most powerful legal position in a state of 30 million people. Florida and Missouri both copied Paxton’s playbook of using taxpayer money to pursue ideological lawsuits. The next AG decides whether that playbook continues.
What You Can Do
- Check your registration for November at vote.org. The general election is November 3. Texas registration deadline is October 5.
- Tell one person about the AG race. Most voters will focus on Paxton vs. Talarico for Senate and not know who is on the rest of the ballot.
- Follow the race. The Texas Tribune will have ongoing coverage of Johnson vs. Middleton.
Update, July 7, 2026: A joint investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found that Ken Paxton, who vacated the Texas attorney general’s office this year to run for U.S. Senate, appears to have voted in six elections over the past two years using a Collin County address where he no longer lives. State Sen. Angela Paxton stated in a 2025 divorce filing that Paxton moved out of their shared Collin County home roughly one year before the filing.
Three election lawyers told the news organizations that Paxton may have violated the same Texas election law his office cited in public guidance, which prohibits misrepresenting one’s residence on election records. Voting while ineligible is a second-degree felony under Texas law, carrying penalties of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy declined to answer specific questions from reporters and called the investigation “a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story.”
David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told the news organizations that the situation is particularly problematic given Paxton’s record of prosecuting voters on residency grounds. ProPublica and the Tribune linked Paxton to a property in neighboring Denton County since February 2026. Paxton did not respond to reporter outreach on at least three separate occasions before publication.