After filing paperwork last week, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman formally launched a run for attorney general Monday becoming the latest challenger to embattled GOP incumbent Ken Paxton.
Guzman, a Republican who spent more than a decade on Texas' highest court before stepping down this month, joins Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush in what may be the state's most contested primary in 2022. On the Democratic side, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski have also announced campaigns to run for the office.
Guzman is a longtime judge who became the first Latina to join the Texas Supreme Court in 2009. Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn are also former justices who were later elected attorney general.
Paxton did not draw a primary challenger in 2018 but now has at least two as his legal problems mount.
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He is under FBI investigation following an extraordinary revolt by his top aides, who accused him of abusing his office in the service of a donor, and he is still awaiting trial on separate charges of securities fraud.
The Texas bar association is also investigating whether Paxton's failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud amounted to professional misconduct. Paxton has pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges and has denied the other accusations as politically motivated.
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