Congressman Chip Roy and State Sen. Mayes Middleton are squaring off for the Republicans as Democrats State Sen. Nathan Johnson and Joe Jaworski face each other.
AUSTIN, Texas — Voters on both sides of the aisle are headed to the polls Tuesday to choose their nominees for Texas attorney general.
No candidate for either party received a majority vote in the primary back in March, so the two leading candidates for each race are now going head-to-head on the runoff ballot. Whoever wins the runoff will appear on the ballot in November.
Get to know the Republican candidates, Congressman Chip Roy and State Sen. Mayes Middleton, and the Democratic candidates, State Sen. Nathan Johnson and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski, below.
About Republican Chip Roy
Roy first announced his intention to run for attorney general last August. In an interview with KVUE in January, he explained that he joined the race late because he was working in Congress to finish the “Big Beautiful Bill,” as well as serving his Central Texas constituents following the deadly flooding last July.
“God’s given me a certain moment in time, with a certain set of skills, after four terms in Congress, to come back and be attorney general,” Roy said. “As a former federal prosecutor, former first assistant attorney general, [my] first legal job was as a clerk in the Attorney General’s Office, I feel passionately about that agency and the people there, the law enforcement connection, and the importance of that job. I want to come back and serve the people of Texas at this important time.”
Roy describes himself as a “genuine conservative” who is running for AG to “defend Texas families, secure our communities, and preserve the Lone Star State’s legacy of freedom.”
In a recent interview with KVUE, he said some of his top priorities include getting a good team together in the Office of the Attorney General; focusing on “non-headline issues” like child support and government transparency; going after “DAs and judges that are putting criminals” on the street; standing up “against the march of Islam through the state of Texas”; and making sure data centers are in compliance with state law.
In Congress, Roy serves on the Rules, Budget and Judiciary committees and chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution. He is also the policy director of the House Freedom Caucus.
Prior to his time in Congress, Roy served as first assistant attorney general under Ken Paxton, chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, senior counsel to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas.
Roy earned a B.S. and an M.S. from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
About Republican Mayes Middleton
Middleton first announced his intention to run for attorney general in April 2025, shortly after Paxton announced he would be challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Cornyn. In the time since, Middleton has branded himself as “MAGA Mayes,” aligning himself with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
“This is a calling for me – it is not a job. The most important thing in the attorney general’s role is defeating the left, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past seven years in the Legislature,” Middleton said in a recent interview with KVUE, adding, “This is a ‘show me, don’t tell me’ business. We are tired of politicians telling us what they’re gonna do; they’ve gotta show us the results. And that’s exactly what I can do.”
On his campaign website, Middleton says he is committed to “protecting Texas values, defending common sense, and putting hardworking families first.” His priorities include securing the border, cracking down on crime and holding “rogue district attorneys accountable,” shutting down “the woke-left’s radical gender agenda” and eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse in government,” among other things.
Middleton is an attorney and president of the Middleton Oil Company, and he also runs ranching, cattle and farming operations. In the Texas Senate, he represents Senate District 11, which covers portions of Brazoria, Galveston and Harris counties. He says during his time in the Texas Legislature, he has “consistently ranked among the most conservative members.”
Prior to his time in the Texas Senate, Middleton served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives, representing Chambers and Galveston counties. During his final term in the house, he served as chairman of the Texas House Freedom Caucus.
He has a law degree from the University of Texas Law School.
About Democrat 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 Democrat 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.