Middleton defeats Roy in Texas attorney general runoff, advances to November

Mayes Middleton turned a crowded and combative Republican contest into a referendum on Donald Trump, spending more than $16 million of his own money to beat U.S. Rep. Chip Roy in the Texas attorney general runoff and claim a place on the November ballot.

Middleton, a conservative state senator and Galveston oil and gas executive, emerged from the May 26 runoff after the March 3 primary had forced the race into a second round. Middleton led that first vote with 39% and 808,728 votes, while Roy finished second with 32% and 653,384. In the runoff, Middleton closed the deal and will now face Democrat Nathan Johnson and Libertarian Tom Oxford in the November 3 general election.

The result was more than a primary upset. It showed how sharply the Texas Republican Party has tilted toward Trump-aligned politics, and how much money now matters in a statewide race that once would have been decided by party establishment networks. Middleton cast Roy as insufficiently loyal to the president, while Roy argued that Middleton lacked the experience to run the office. Middleton’s victory suggested that, in today’s Texas GOP, ideological purity and personal wealth can outweigh a member of Congress’s résumé.

The attorney general’s office has long been a launchpad in Texas politics, and the stakes around this race reflected that history. Ken Paxton is leaving the office to run for U.S. Senate, and previous Texas attorneys general, including John Cornyn and Greg Abbott, used the post as a springboard to higher office. Middleton’s win keeps that tradition alive while placing another hard-line Republican in line to wield one of the state’s most aggressive legal offices.

That matters because the attorney general in Texas is not just a lawyer for the state. The office has become a central weapon in fights over immigration, abortion, voting rules and the broader conflict between Texas and Washington. A Middleton victory points to a future in which the office may be used even more forcefully in those battles, particularly if the next attorney general is expected to advance the same Trump-first instincts that drove this runoff.

Paxton’s parallel victory over Cornyn in the GOP Senate runoff on the same day sharpened that picture. Together, the two results underscored the depth of the MAGA wing’s influence inside the Texas Republican Party, and showed that the party’s center of gravity has moved decisively toward candidates willing to frame every major contest as a loyalty test.