TLR Nod and Cash Establishes Guzman
as Serious Contender in GOP AG Fight

Capitol Inside
June 21, 2021

The old-school party establishment is launching a bid take the GOP in Texas back with the Texans for Lawsuit Reform preparing to pour millions of dollars into Republican Eva Guzman's campaign for Texas attorney general in 2022.

The state's biggest giving political action committee could be inclined to play in another potential statewide fight in the GOP primary next year with outgoing State Rep. James White of Hillister on the apparent verge of a bid to unseat Agriculture commissioner Sid Miller.

Guzman - the first and only Latina to win statewide in Texas during a dozen years a state Supreme Court judge - reaped an endorsement on Monday from the TLR PAC in a bid for the post that Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking again next year.

Land Commissioner George P. Bush entered the GOP primary competition for the job as the state's top lawyer several weeks before Guzman stepped down from the high court in a surprise move that cleared the path for a race for higher office in a three-way fight that's shaping up to be the most competitive down-ballot contest at the statewide level here.

White - the only Texas Republican lawmaker who's Black - would have a shot at making history himself if he won the farm chief's job as the first Black to serve statewide in a position that's higher on the hierarchy chart here than railroad commissioner.

As the Republicans' leading source of campaign cash for more than two decades, TLR is concerned that Democrats will flip the AG's office with Paxton on the ballot as an incumbent who's bringing more baggage to the race than any statewide leader in Texas in modern times. Paxton is facing securities fraud charges at the same time he's been the target of a Federal Bureau Investigation probe into his private dealings with a donor.

The TLR PAC had contributed in the neighborhood of $2 million or more to Paxton in two AG races and races for the Legislature before the promotion statewide.

But Paxton has been undaunted by his personal woes - having established himself as a hero within the Donald Trump base in light of a failed lawsuit to overturn Democratic President Joe Biden's victory in 2020 at the United States Supreme Court. Paxton appeared as a guest speaker at the rally that sparked the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January 6.

But Bush has been posturing himself for Trump love as well - and TLR's unprecedented intervention on Guzman's behalf in a hotly contested GOP primary election has the potential to hurt the state land boss the most if it doesn't kill his hopes in the scramble for attorney general.

White, Guzman and Bush, whose mother is Colombian, all face the challenge of overcoming the colors of their skin in a party that's experienced a dramatic surge in racism since Donald Trump emerged as the supreme ruler of the GOP in Texas and beyond.

The Republicans' number one priority during the 2021 regular session was a bill that was designed to restrict access to the polls for Black and Hispanic voters. GOP leaders and lawmakers have repeatedly denied that their election bill is racist despite portrayals as such by major corporate leaders, professionals, Democrats and countless numbers of Republicans who aren't elected officials.

The Republican majorities united behind another piece of legislation that will limit the ability of Texas schools to teach students about the dominant influence that slavery and race on the evolution of the state and the country. Governor Greg Abbott signed the prohibition on critical race theory into law last week when he said that he wanted lawmakers to approve it again in special session with even more restrictions.

The critical race theory ban's sponsors argued that it was needed to alleviate the guilt and shame that they say white children have been forced to endure as a belated price of their ancestors' behavior.

Guzman - and White perhaps - could be the last chance that the business establishment has to abort the hijacking of the Republicans by forces on the hard right in the nation's second largest state and most critical electoral battleground.

There's speculation at the statehouse on the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC being poised to contribute as much as $4 million if not more to the Guzman campaign for AG. That would seal her status as a primetime contender in the AG sweepstakes next year.

One of seven children of parents who migrated to Texas from Mexico, Guzman had been a judge on the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in her home base of Houston before Republican Rick Perry appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009. She won the seat on the bench in 2010 before her re-election in 2016 with more votes than any candidate in a statewide race here including Donald Trump.

Guzman's potential path to attorney general could be to the left of her major primary foes amid expectations of Paxton and Bush splitting the hardcore conservative vote with their attempts to wrap themselves in Trump.

“Texans can count on her to run a first-class Attorney General’s Office and to fight encroachment by the federal government on our individual liberties and Texas’ rights under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” TLR PAC Chairman Richard J. Trabulsi Jr. said of the former justice.

“Justice Guzman has the breadth of legal experience and the personal and professional integrity that we must require of our state’s highest legal officer. TLRPAC is proud to support her candidacy for Texas Attorney General,” Trabulsi added.