DALLAS — Congressman Chip Roy, R-21st District, says anyone looking objectively at the Republican race for Texas Attorney General will describe it as neck and neck and within the margin of error.
In other words, it’s still anybody’s race.
“We feel very good. We’re going across the state of Texas getting a lot of great response,” Roy told us on Inside Texas Politics. “And you know, there’s one key difference in this election than the March 3 election is that we’re coming in hard with ads and we’re doing contrast ads against my opponent.”
Roy’s opponent in the GOP runoff is state Senator Mayes Middleton, R-District 11.
In one of the latest surveys by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, Sen. Middleton leads Congressman Roy 48% – 39%. Some 13% still said they weren’t sure how they were voting.
About 1,200 Republican voters were contacted via text message for the survey, which has a margin of error of +/- 2.83%.
Roy says he doesn’t buy those results because the survey was conducted via text messaging. He says his internal polling has the race within two or three points with him trending in the lead.
And Roy says he’s now going to “punch back” and come out with some hard ads against Middleton which he says will show the contrast between the two candidates.
“I’m a real lawyer. He’s not. And you need a real lawyer as the Attorney General of the state of Texas… it’s not the secretary of law; it’s the Attorney General. You need to be a lawyer who can show up in a court and actually do the work,” Roy explained. “You need somebody who’s got that experience, who’s been in court and who’s done the job. And I think that message is resonating strong across the state of Texas.”
In terms of that experience, Roy points not only to his own legal background, but also to his time as Ken Paxton’s first Assistant Attorney General.
Roy also told us his priorities if he wins the runoff and the general.
“Priority one is to make sure you’ve got the best team in place to be able to execute and deliver on open records, open government, and to make sure child support is delivering, and make sure we’re continuing to carry out the litigation against the federal government,” he said.
In the Democratic race for Texas Attorney General, state Senator Nathan Johnson, D-District 16, will face former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski in the runoff election, which will be held May 26.
Early voting runs May 18 – 22.