State Sen. Nathan Johnson and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski faced off again.
AUSTIN, Texas — We now know the Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General.
Current Republican AG Ken Paxton chose to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, leaving his position open for the first time in more than a decade. But after no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the primary election, both the Republican and Democratic races for AG went to a runoff.
State Sen. Nathan Johnson and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski faced off again.
About Nathan Johnson
In a recent interview with KVUE, Johnson said the Attorney General’s Office has become hyper-partisan and he wants to move away from that, but he also recognizes that it always operates in a “very political environment.”
“To really be effective, you’re going to have to understand that environment,” Johnson said. “Eight years of serving in the Texas legislature, of fighting with Republicans, of working with Republicans – of figuring out, you know, ‘When’s time to throw a punch? When’s time to lend a hand?’ – that kind of stuff comes through experience.”
According to his campaign website, Johnson’s main issues include rooting out corruption, protecting consumers and “leading the fight against the MAGA machine’s assault on our individual rights, against the looting of our tax dollars, and against federal overreach.” But when speaking with KVUE, Johnson said his No. 1 priority is rebuilding the Office of the Attorney General.
“It has been sapped of talent; it has been sapped of civic spirit and corporate culture,” he said. “People do not want to work under Ken Paxton, do not want to work under a Mayes Middleton or a Chip Roy administration because they – good public servants aren’t there to put on a show to please a right wing, ‘wheels off’ president. And it’s not surprising that a lot of really good people – some conservative, some progressive – have left the attorney general’s office … My No. 1 job is to get great people in the office.”
For years, the Texas AG’s Office has continuously challenged federal legislation – and with decades of Republican attorneys general, that has meant challenging Democratic policies. KVUE asked Johnson how he would approach that process if he were to be elected as the state’s first Democratic AG since 1999.
“The question is whether or not the presidential administration is violating the American Constitution, violating federal law, violating Texans’ rights – individual civil rights, voting rights, human rights … The Trump administration has a choice to make: they can either get sued by me frequently, or they can stop breaking the law,” Johnson said, adding, “I do not wanna have to spend my time suing the Trump administration, but I absolutely will spend time and resource suing the Trump administration when they’re harming the people of my state.”
Johnson is a litigator and mediator at Thomas Coburn LLP in Dallas and has composed musical scores for the anime series “Dragon Ball Z.” He has served in the Texas Senate since 2019, representing District 16, which covers Dallas County. In that time, he says he has authored more than 400 bills and passed 134 into law.
Johnson has a B.S. in physics from the University of Arizona and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
About Joe Jaworski
Jaworski, an attorney and former mayor of Galveston, says he has spent his career “taking on corruption and fighting for justice” and he would continue to do so if elected as the state attorney general. In a recent interview with KVUE, he described himself as the “certified progressive candidate.”
Jaworski was elected to serve as Galveston’s 55th mayor after 2008’s Hurricane Ike. According to his campaign website, he is “widely regarded as the city’s most responsive and accessible mayor” and led the city’s “transformative recovery” from the hurricane.
Jaworski’s priorities include “protecting democracy and voting rights,” environmental justice, “reproductive freedom,” public education and affordable college, immigrant rights, and workers’ rights, among other things.
When speaking with KVUE, Jaworski described what he would do on Day 1 in the Attorney General’s Office if he were to be elected.
“I think the top priority is going to be to go down the list of all the existing lawsuits that Ken Paxton has filed and dismiss them or, in cases where he’s appeared after someone else filed them, probably reversing the state’s position,” Jaworski said, giving the specific example of the Texas DREAM Act, which allowed eligible undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public universities and colleges.
The state of Texas has not had a Democratic attorney general since 1999. When asked by KVUE how he might handle being charged with defending laws passed by the majority Republican state Legislature, Jaworski said as an officer of the court, he owes a duty of candor to judges, and he may voice a contrary position.
“If there is a position that is literally frivolous – and that is a legal term that means not on any basis of understood law – then I have a duty to tell the court that. So, if there is a law that the Texas Legislature passed from the world of politics … if Republican attorneys general let these unconstitutional laws pass, well, I may have a different viewpoint on things,” Jaworksi said.
Jaworski graduated from the University of Texas School of Law and previously clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge John R. Brown.