Guzman Could See Path to Higher Office
with AG Bid after Sudden SC Departure
Capitol Inside
June 8, 2021
Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman threw an expected curve into GOP primary politics on Monday with an abrupt resignation that could be a sign of a race for attorney general in the making.
People who know Guzman well think she's leaning toward a campaign in 2022 for the job that Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking again with Land Commissioner George P. Bush already in his path.
Such a scenario would have been more believable if Bush hadn't already taken aim at Paxton with an announcement last week on his intentions to pursue the position as the state's top lawyer next year.
Bush has been playing to the conservative base with an attempt to court Donald Trump's support or to minimize it in a fight with an incumbent who'd been a major ally in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Guzman's potential emergence as a candidate could dampen or kill Bush's hopes for strong support from the business establishment to combine with conservatives who he siphons from the Paxton base on the far right.
With Bush running sharply to the right in the early going, Guzman could have a potential opening closer to the middle in a primary battle that would have the state land chief and Paxton dueling for died-in-the-wool Trump conservatives.
Guzman in such a case would give business forces that have been relegated to background in Trump's GOP a possible savior who would have an even better shot if she's the only woman in the competition for AG.
Guzman was raised in the Houston area with six siblings in a family with parents who were immigrants from Mexico. She's been one of nine Republicans on the state's highest court since Republican Rick Perry appointed her to the bench in 2009.
Guzman captured a six-year term at the polls in 2010 when she beat a Democrat with more than 60 percent of the vote. She received more votes than any Republican on the ballot in Texas when she was re-elected to the state's highest court in 2016.
The timing of Guzman's exit, which becomes official on Friday, will give Governor Greg Abbott an ample opportunity to fill the vacancy that she's leaving with someone who will be in position to reclaim the post in 2022. |
