Republicans Queuing Up for 2026 Primary to Succeed Ken Paxton as Texas AG

Texas State Senator Joan Huffman added her name to the growing list of Republicans vying to succeed Ken Paxton as the next attorney general for the Lone Star State. Paxton is not running for re-election and will run to unseat Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in the 2026 Republican Primary Election.

In announcing her candidacy for Texas Attorney General, Senator Huffman (R-Houston) said she is the “best-qualified, most experienced candidate who understands the intricacies of every function of state government.”

Huffman says her decades of public service as an assistant district attorney in Harris County, a district court judge, and chair of several key committees in the Texas Senate give her an understanding of “every function of state government.”

“You want an experienced attorney,” Huffman said in her announcement, “not someone who’s never seen the inside of a courtroom or is simply a young politician climbing the political ladder.”

The Texas Tribune said Huffman’s comment was a shot at her already announced opponents in the race to be the top attorney in the Texas government.

The Tribune wrote:

State Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who is one of the Legislature’s most conservative lawmakers, entered the race for attorney general with in April with a promise to spend $10 million of his own money on the campaign. Aaron Reitz, a former senior official at the Department of Justice and veteran of the Texas conservative legal movement, announced his bid earlier this month.

Reitz responded to Huffman’s announcement, saying, “The liberals now have their candidate,” the Texas Tribune reported. However, in the Tribune’s recent conservative ranking of Republican state senators, Huffman ranked in the middle tier of senators.

The other announced candidate for Texas Attorney General in the Republican Primary is Huffman’s senate colleague, Senator Mays Middleton (R-Galveston) does not appear to have responded to Huffman’s announcement. He is ranked in the Texas Tribune article as the second-most conservative Texas Senator.

Ken Paxton will be leaving the Office of the Texas Attorney General at the end of this term. He announced his candidacy to unseat Senator Cornyn in the 2026 primary. In May, Breitbart’s Bradley Jaye reported that Cornyn “might be insurmountable behind” Paxton in the polls.

Cornyn trails Paxton a staggering 56 to 40 in a head-to-head matchup, according to two people briefed on the survey, Punchbowl News reports. The report continues:

In a three-way contest with Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), who is considering a run, Cornyn is down 10. Paxton pulled 44% to Cornyn’s 34%. Hunt got 19% in the three-way race.

The survey, which was conducted from April 27 to May 1 by The Tarrance Group, also tested a general election contest between each potential Republican candidate and former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who is mulling another Senate run. Cornyn led Allred by 6 points in the poll. Hunt was up 4 points. Paxton was down by 1 point.

The polling above suggests that Paxton could be vulnerable in the General Election should he win the primary. Former Democrat Representative Colin Allred leads Paxton in the Punchbowl News poll by one point. Cornyn and Congressman Wesley Hunt would beat Allred by six and four points, respectively.