DALLAS — Civil Rights attorney Lee Merritt has officially launched his campaign for Texas attorney general in a bid to unseat incumbent Ken Paxton.
Merritt launched the campaign from Austin, Texas on Tuesday, which came months after he announced his plans to run back in March.
"Texas Republicans have launched an all-out assault on voter rights and civil liberties," Merritt said in a statement announcing his campaign launch. "This campaign is a response from the people of Texas. We are fighting for an executive branch in Texas that serves the needs of all its citizens and not just the elite. It's our turn."
Merritt has notedly represented the families of Black men and woman who have been killed in officer-involved shootings both nationally and locally - including Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, UNT student Darius Tarver and Marvin Scott III.
Merritt said it's this work as a constitutional lawyer that makes him "uniquely qualified for the job."
However, Merritt said his campaign will also focus on "fixing Texas' failing power grid, reigning in soaring property taxes, ending mass incarceration and challenging gubernatorial overreach."
Merritt's challenge to Paxton, who has been the state's attorney general since 2014, joins that of former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
Guzman, who abruptly announced her resignation from the Supreme Court, filed to run June 14. Bush, meanwhile, announced his campaign for attorney general on June 2, sharply criticizing Paxton over his legal troubles.
The attorney general's race has already drawn the most action of any statewide contest on the ballot next year. In addition to the high-profile Republican primary, Joe Jaworski, a Galveston lawyer and former mayor of the city, is campaigning against Paxton on the Democratic side.
Reporting included in this article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune.
