Democrat Nathan Johnson has won the Texas attorney general’s race, ending three decades of Republican control of the state’s most powerful legal office.
The Associated Press called the race for Johnson on Nov. 4, Click2Houston reported. Unofficial results compiled by USA TODAY show Johnson with 5,133,740 votes (52.4%) to Republican Mayes Middleton’s 4,502,855 (45.9%), a margin of about 630,885 votes.
Johnson, a Dallas state senator and corporate litigator, is the first Democrat elected Texas attorney general since 1994, The Texas Tribune’s Eleanor Klibanoff reported. Middleton conceded by phone, according to a Johnson campaign spokesperson.
The seat opens because Ken Paxton left after more than a decade as attorney general to run for U.S. Senate. Paxton lost that race to Democrat James Talarico, also according to an Associated Press call.
Johnson’s win is part of a statewide Democratic sweep that also toppled Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Tribune wrote. Republicans lost the attorney general’s office that had become one of the most influential conservative legal posts in the country.
Middleton, a Galveston-area state senator and oil-and-gas heir, spent close to $20 million of his own money to defeat Rep. Chip Roy in a bitter primary and runoff. He then pulled back in the general election as top-ticket races sucked up attention and cash.
He ran as a hard Trump ally, promising to “use every resource and tool to back up the president” on border security and deportations. Johnson ran ads casting himself as the serious alternative focused on the office’s core duties.
“My strategy is to let them be crazy and unproductive, and run from my side as the serious guy,” Johnson told the Tribune before the election. “I think people are tired of being treated like they’re stupid.”
Johnson has vowed to emphasize consumer protection, anti-corruption work and child support enforcement. He also said his office will sue the Trump administration when he believes the federal government is overstepping in Texas.
NBC News framed the upset as Democrats taking what critics call “MAGA’s own private law firm,” noting Texas AG litigation has shaped nationwide conservative legal fights for years. The Hill likewise highlighted Johnson flipping the office after 32 years of Republican control.
Political scientist Paul Nolette told the Tribune the shift would be a “sea change” for the conservative legal movement that relied on Texas to lead multi-state suits. “The biggest effect would not even be that there is a Democrat in the office, but that it’s not a Republican,” he said.
Johnson takes office in January 2027. Conservatives who used the Texas AG’s office as a national litigation engine now face a Democratic steward of the same machinery — and a blue statewide ticket that few Republicans expected Tuesday night.
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