{"id":166837,"date":"2026-11-05T16:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T00:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/05\/republican-attorneys-general-crash-and-burn\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T16:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T00:55:50","slug":"republican-attorneys-general-crash-and-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/05\/republican-attorneys-general-crash-and-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Attorneys General Crash And Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Republican Mayes Middleton ran for attorney general as \u201cMAGA Mayes,\u201d which was sort of like running as \u201cTommy the Asbestos King\u201d circa 1980. After years of success, the brand no longer held much appeal. Having pitched voters that he would \u201cuse every resource and tool to back up President Trump<\/a>,\u201d the people of Texas \u2014 Texas! \u2014 told him to take a hike. State Sen. Nathan Johnson beat Middleton<\/a> 52.4 percent to 45.9 percent by most recent tally, becoming the first Democratic attorney general in Texas this millennium. <\/p>\n

And Texas wasn\u2019t alone in telling right-wing AG candidates to pound sand. Former federal prosecutor Tanya Miller beat State Sen. Brian Strickland<\/a> in Georgia. Iowa\u2019s Brenna Bird has conceded<\/a> to Nate Willems. The Ohio race hasn\u2019t been called yet, but Republican Keith Faber called John Kulewicz to concede<\/a>, and in Kansas, Chris Mann has declared victory<\/a> over Kris Kobach based on Mann\u2019s nearly 13,000 vote lead.<\/p>\n

Voters don\u2019t necessarily get into the weeds when it comes to an AG race, but these losses have major implications for the legal system. Because Republicans had transformed state AGs \u2014 in particular the Texas office \u2014 into activist litigation shops at taxpayer expense. <\/p>\n

Cynics may claim that every elected AG is political. Democratic AGs have filed over 100 lawsuits<\/a> against the second Trump administration. But it\u2019s one thing to assert the state\u2019s rights against the federal government, and another to manufacture opportunities to rewrite national constitutional law from Amarillo.<\/p>\n

The urtext of activist AG action is Texas v. Pennsylvania<\/em>, where former Texas AG and now-thoroughly defeated Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin directly in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the 2020 election. The Court wouldn\u2019t even let him file, seeing as Texas has no judicially cognizable interest in how other states run their elections. But winning wasn\u2019t so much the point \u2014 throwing a performative tantrum that Paxton could convert into fundraising and notoriety was.<\/p>\n

Paxton used the office and taxpayer funds to harass out-of-state medical providers to bolster culture war credibility. He defended the \u201cabortion vigilante\u201d law. And he took routine advantage of judge shopping<\/a> opportunities to seek nationwide injunctions on everything from border policy to Title IX protections from the only judge in Amarillo. Bemoaning this turn of events, Professor Josh Blackman writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I would suspect that all of the conservative strategic litigation cases brought by Attorney General Paxton will be dismissed. Indeed, it is conceivable that the new Texas Attorney General would not defend the Texas Ten Commandments Law if cert is granted. (The BIO will be filed soon.) The Texas Attorney General will also not bring original jurisdiction actions before the Supreme Court of Texas. Going forward, all of the strategic forums in Texas will be severely underutilized. The only court where the Texas Attorney General might file cases will be in Austin. I should note that one seat on the Western District of Texas remained vacant for two years, and will likely remain vacant. But beyond the strategic litigation, the Texas Attorney General will now be able to investigate all of the corporations that moved to Texas. There are a lot of them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s probably right. And with this switch in Texas, there won\u2019t be nearly as many batshit setups for the loons on the Fifth Circuit to capitalize upon. Blackman laments, \u201cthe Fifth Circuit will likely be a lot quieter, given the lack of Texas Attorney General cases.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Iowa, Bird had come to office by promising to take Joe Biden to court. Some of her suits against the federal government involved real, honest-to-Iowa fights, like the battle over biofuel sales. But she also joined a 22-state brief in the mifepristone fight despite having no connection to Iowa law and the state having no cognizable interest beyond Bird\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n

The incoming AG Willems said over the summer<\/a> that he wanted \u201cthe office a bit more focused on Iowa, on Iowa law.\u201d That really is the distinction between Republican and Democratic AGs at this point.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kris Kobach has been a recurring character on this site for so long he has his<\/a> own<\/a> genre. As Secretary of State, Kobach defended Kansas\u2019s proof-of-citizenship voting law and made such a terrible hash of it the court ordered him to take remedial CLE. His shenanigans left the state owing $1.9 million<\/a> to the lawyers who beat him. Sadly, Kansas voters responded to this epic display of legal incompetence by making him the state\u2019s top lawyer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mann, a former cop turned prosecutor, pitched an office focused on the work instead of \u201ctheatrics,\u201d per the Kansas News Service<\/a>. Notice a trend here?<\/p>\n

Ohio\u2019s Dave Yost left the AG\u2019s office in June to become a vice president at Alliance Defending Freedom, an SPLC-recognized hate group, which praised him<\/a> for \u201cleading one of the most active and consequential state AG offices in the nation.\u201d Title IX suits, the gender-affirming care bans, a six-week abortion ban, a campaign against the 2023 reproductive rights amendment\u2026 Yost inserted the Ohio AG\u2019s office into every culture war grievance. Now he\u2019s joining an outside conservative activist group, which is basically the exact same job but without taxpayer funding.<\/p>\n

So across the board, change is coming to a number of states, but it won\u2019t be easy. Nathan Johnson, asked what he\u2019d do with the Texas office, offered: \u201cThere is some damage to undo.\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Republican Attorneys General Crash And Burn<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas Republican Mayes Middleton ran for attorney general as \u201cMAGA Mayes,\u201d which was sort of like running as \u201cTommy the Asbestos King\u201d circa 1980. After years of success, the brand no longer held much appeal. Having pitched voters that he would \u201cuse every resource and tool to back up President Trump<\/a>,\u201d the people of Texas \u2014 Texas! \u2014 told him to take a hike. State Sen. Nathan Johnson beat Middleton<\/a> 52.4 percent to 45.9 percent by most recent tally, becoming the first Democratic attorney general in Texas this millennium. <\/p>\n

And Texas wasn\u2019t alone in telling right-wing AG candidates to pound sand. Former federal prosecutor Tanya Miller beat State Sen. Brian Strickland<\/a> in Georgia. Iowa\u2019s Brenna Bird has conceded<\/a> to Nate Willems. The Ohio race hasn\u2019t been called yet, but Republican Keith Faber called John Kulewicz to concede<\/a>, and in Kansas, Chris Mann has declared victory<\/a> over Kris Kobach based on Mann\u2019s nearly 13,000 vote lead.<\/p>\n

Voters don\u2019t necessarily get into the weeds when it comes to an AG race, but these losses have major implications for the legal system. Because Republicans had transformed state AGs \u2014 in particular the Texas office \u2014 into activist litigation shops at taxpayer expense. <\/p>\n

Cynics may claim that every elected AG is political. Democratic AGs have filed over 100 lawsuits<\/a> against the second Trump administration. But it\u2019s one thing to assert the state\u2019s rights against the federal government, and another to manufacture opportunities to rewrite national constitutional law from Amarillo.<\/p>\n

The urtext of activist AG action is Texas v. Pennsylvania<\/em>, where former Texas AG and now-thoroughly defeated Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin directly in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the 2020 election. The Court wouldn\u2019t even let him file, seeing as Texas has no judicially cognizable interest in how other states run their elections. But winning wasn\u2019t so much the point \u2014 throwing a performative tantrum that Paxton could convert into fundraising and notoriety was.<\/p>\n

Paxton used the office and taxpayer funds to harass out-of-state medical providers to bolster culture war credibility. He defended the \u201cabortion vigilante\u201d law. And he took routine advantage of judge shopping<\/a> opportunities to seek nationwide injunctions on everything from border policy to Title IX protections from the only judge in Amarillo. Bemoaning this turn of events, Professor Josh Blackman writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I would suspect that all of the conservative strategic litigation cases brought by Attorney General Paxton will be dismissed. Indeed, it is conceivable that the new Texas Attorney General would not defend the Texas Ten Commandments Law if cert is granted. (The BIO will be filed soon.) The Texas Attorney General will also not bring original jurisdiction actions before the Supreme Court of Texas. Going forward, all of the strategic forums in Texas will be severely underutilized. The only court where the Texas Attorney General might file cases will be in Austin. I should note that one seat on the Western District of Texas remained vacant for two years, and will likely remain vacant. But beyond the strategic litigation, the Texas Attorney General will now be able to investigate all of the corporations that moved to Texas. There are a lot of them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s probably right. And with this switch in Texas, there won\u2019t be nearly as many batshit setups for the loons on the Fifth Circuit to capitalize upon. Blackman laments, \u201cthe Fifth Circuit will likely be a lot quieter, given the lack of Texas Attorney General cases.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Iowa, Bird had come to office by promising to take Joe Biden to court. Some of her suits against the federal government involved real, honest-to-Iowa fights, like the battle over biofuel sales. But she also joined a 22-state brief in the mifepristone fight despite having no connection to Iowa law and the state having no cognizable interest beyond Bird\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n

The incoming AG Willems said over the summer<\/a> that he wanted \u201cthe office a bit more focused on Iowa, on Iowa law.\u201d That really is the distinction between Republican and Democratic AGs at this point.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kris Kobach has been a recurring character on this site for so long he has his<\/a> own<\/a> genre. As Secretary of State, Kobach defended Kansas\u2019s proof-of-citizenship voting law and made such a terrible hash of it the court ordered him to take remedial CLE. His shenanigans left the state owing $1.9 million<\/a> to the lawyers who beat him. Sadly, Kansas voters responded to this epic display of legal incompetence by making him the state\u2019s top lawyer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mann, a former cop turned prosecutor, pitched an office focused on the work instead of \u201ctheatrics,\u201d per the Kansas News Service<\/a>. Notice a trend here?<\/p>\n

Ohio\u2019s Dave Yost left the AG\u2019s office in June to become a vice president at Alliance Defending Freedom, an SPLC-recognized hate group, which praised him<\/a> for \u201cleading one of the most active and consequential state AG offices in the nation.\u201d Title IX suits, the gender-affirming care bans, a six-week abortion ban, a campaign against the 2023 reproductive rights amendment\u2026 Yost inserted the Ohio AG\u2019s office into every culture war grievance. Now he\u2019s joining an outside conservative activist group, which is basically the exact same job but without taxpayer funding.<\/p>\n

So across the board, change is coming to a number of states, but it won\u2019t be easy. Nathan Johnson, asked what he\u2019d do with the Texas office, offered: \u201cThere is some damage to undo.\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Republican Attorneys General Crash And Burn<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Republican Mayes Middleton ran for attorney general as \u201cMAGA Mayes,\u201d which was sort of like running as \u201cTommy the Asbestos King\u201d circa 1980. After years of success, the brand no longer held much appeal. Having pitched voters that he would \u201cuse every resource and tool to back up President Trump,\u201d the people of Texas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}