ACLU lawyer enters the race for Texas AG
Rochelle Garza, a former ACLU attorney, will run in the Democratic primary for attorney general, instead of running for Congress after redistricting lowered her odds of success in a South Texas seat.
Since July, Garza had sought to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-brownsville, in the 34th Congressional District. But redistricting pushed Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-mcallen, to decide to run for re-election in the 34th District instead of his own neighboring 15th District after the new boundaries made it more competitive for Republicans. Gonzalez and Vela have endorsed Garza.
“As an attorney, I've fought Trump, Kavanaugh, and indicted Ken Paxton before — and won,” Garza said in a tweet Monday that accompanied a bilingual campaign announcement video. “Now, I'm running to be your Texas Attorney General to hold those in power accountable to Texans. Of the people. By the people. For the people.”
The Harlingen-born and Brownsville-raised lawyer, who could not immediately be reached for comment, will compete in the March 1 Democratic primary against Joe Jaworski, a mediator and former Galveston mayor, and Lee Merritt, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney.
A Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation/rice University poll released Monday found that the majority of likely primary voters, or 60 percent, were still undecided in the race. Jaworski and Merritt each had about 20 percent support.
In announcing her campaign, Garza highlighted her experience winning a 2017 case against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Trump administration in which she represented a 17-yearold unauthorized immigrant in detention who sought access to abortion care. A federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., ruled in the girl's favor.
“She knows what it's like to represent the interests of everyday Texans as they interact with our legal system — from representing parents seeking child support to defending people's due process rights,” her campaign website reads.
Expanding access to health care is also one of her campaign priorities, an issue she became passionate about because of the difficulties her family went through in raising her oldest brother, Robby, who suffered a brain injury during childbirth and grew up with disabilities.
Her mother left her teaching job to care for Robby, according to her campaign site, and the family struggled with denials of coverage for items including a wheelchair lift to get him to school.
Prior to joining the ACLU as a staff attorney, she practiced with her family law firm, Garza & Garza Law. She has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and law degree from the University of Houston Law Center.
The Republican primary for attorney general is also a crowded one, as Paxton's personal legal troubles increase.
Paxton, who is seeking a third term, has been indicted since 2015 on felony securities fraud charges and is under FBI investigation for bribery, abuse of office and other corruption charges alleged by his former aides, some of whom are now suing him in a whistleblower retaliation suit. He has denied all wrongdoing.
The same THPF/RICE poll showed Paxton had 50 percent support, compared with 17 percent for Land Commissioner George P. Bush, 6 percent for former Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and 2 percent for state Rep. Matt Krause, R-fort Worth.