Middleton, a conservative state senator and oil and gas executive, put more than $16 million of his own money into the race.
Galveston state Sen. Mayes Middleton is the GOP nominee for attorney general, after defeating U.S. Rep. Chip Roy. Middleton, one of the most conservative state legislators and an oil and gas executive, put almost $17 million of his own money into the race.
The race, like others in recent weeks, proved the GOP’s continued loyalty to President Donald Trump, as “MAGA Mayes” pummeled Roy for saying Trump engaged in “clearly impeachable conduct” on Jan. 6, 2021, and supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed 2024 presidential bid.
This is the first open race for attorney general in more than a decade, after Attorney General Ken Paxton decided to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. Under Paxton, the agency has become the linchpin of a national effort to push conservative causes through the courts, an effort Middleton and Roy both vowed to continue.
Middleton came from behind to beat Roy’s name ID lead during the primary, thanks in large part to the millions he put into television ads and mailers, promoting his loyalty to the president. While Trump didn’t endorse in the race, Middleton touted the president’s previous positive comments about him, promising to work hand-in-hand with the Trump administration on conservative goals.
He also ran on his record of passing hard-right legislation, including limiting what bathrooms trans people can use, barring trans people from sports teams that align with the gender they identify as, and putting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Roy offered a nearly identical ideological vision for the agency, promising to use it to go after Muslim organizations, left-leaning district attorneys and election fraud. After entering the race as the presumptive frontrunner on name recognition alone, he faced an uphill climb over his relationship with Trump and the MAGA movement.
Roy, a fourth-term Austin congressman, former federal prosecutor and top aide to Paxton at the attorney general’s office, criticized Middleton as inexperienced and unprepared for the job. Middleton is a licensed attorney, but has worked exclusively for his family oil business. He says he has practiced civil law as part of his work.
A cadre of GOP donors stepped up in the homestretch to help Roy get that message out, making the most expensive attorney general’s race in U.S. history all the more costly. Roy outspent Middleton on ads during the runoff, although Middleton spent more during the entire cycle.
Roy carved a solitary path in Congress as a conservative firebrand with an uncompromising commitment to small government. He delayed and derailed priority legislation, clashed frequently with party leaders and took on often quixotic battles with fellow conservatives over spending limits and constitutional law.
Roy’s tension with Trump, and GOP leadership, showed he had the independence necessary to be Texas’ next attorney general, he said, often citing Trump’s comment from last summer saying Roy is “not easy, but he’s good.”
“There’s no greater compliment that [Trump] could give me,” Roy said at a campaign stop earlier this month. “The guy that we praise for the Art of the Deal, the guy that we think is so strong in negotiating with other countries, to say that I’m not easy, but I’m good? That’s what I want in our attorney general, whether it’s me or someone else.”
While Trump’s approval ratings have bottomed out nationally, he remains extremely popular among Texas Republicans, with 82% approving of the job he’s doing as of April.
“Roy has had a problem there, and he chose to lean into those conflicts and use that as potentially as a strength,” said Joshua Blank, research director at the Texas Politics Project. “But if recent races are any guide, deviation from the president is not of any value in the Republican primary.”
Source: Eleanor Klibanoff,
Photo Credit: State Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, speaks at a debate hosted by the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) at the Grenada Theater in Dallas on February 17, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Trib
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