Texas Attorney General

Attorney General of Texas
Seal of the Attorney General
Incumbent Ken Paxton since January 5, 2015 Suspended: May 27, 2023 – September 16, 2023
Executive branch of the Government of Texas
Style	The Honorable
Term length	Four years, no term limits
Inaugural holder	Volney E. Howard
Formation	Texas Constitution
Salary	$153,750
Website	Official website

The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer ^[1] of the U.S. state of Texas. The current officeholder, Republican Ken Paxton, has served in the position since January 5, 2015.

History

The Office of the Attorney General was first established by executive ordinance of the Republic of Texas government in 1836. The attorneys general of the Republic of Texas and the first four attorneys general under the 1845 state constitution were appointed by the governor. The office was made elective in 1850 by constitutional amendment.

The William P. Clements State Office Building houses some of the Office of the Attorney General.

Attorney generals are elected to four-year terms. In 2013, former Attorney General Greg Abbott announced he would not seek reelection and would run for governor. In November 2014, he was elected as the governor of Texas. Ken Paxton defeated former House Representative Dan Branch in the Republican primary by a 26% margin and was elected easily in the general election as the 50th attorney general of Texas, ^[2] (there is a historical dispute whether he is the 50th or 51st attorney general). ^[3] Paxton was sworn in on January 5, 2015, in the Senate Chamber in the Texas Capitol. Governor Rick Perry, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, United States Senator Ted Cruz, and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Dan Patrick all participated in the swearing-in ceremony. ^[4]

Duties and responsibilities

The attorney general is charged by the state constitution to represent the state in civil litigation ^[1] and approve public bond issues. ^[5] There are nearly 2,000 references to the Office of the Attorney General in state laws.

The Office of the Attorney General serves as legal counsel to all boards and agencies of state government, issues legal opinions when requested by the governor, heads of state agencies and other officials and commissions, and defends challenges to state laws and suits against both state agencies and individual employees of the state. These duties include representing the Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in appeals from criminal convictions in federal courts.

The Texas Constitution gives the attorney general no general law-enforcement powers; instead it limits the attorney general's authority in criminal cases to that dictated by statute. ^[1] The Texas Legislature has not given the attorney general broad law-enforcement authority, but permits the attorney general to act in criminal cases at the request of prosecutors. ^[6]

The Office of the Attorney General, Law Enforcement Division ^[7] conducts criminal investigations and apprehensions including cases involving cyber-crimes such as child pornography, online solicitation of minors, identity theft, election fraud, locating and apprehending convicted sex offenders who have failed to comply with mandated sex offender registration requirements, and conducting digital forensics investigations. The Office of the Attorney General also operates the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit which investigates criminal fraud by Medicaid providers, abuse and neglect of patients in health care facilities operated by the Medicaid program, and helps local and federal authorities with prosecutions.

Its child support division is responsible for the establishment and enforcement of child support. ^[7]

Officeholders

Attorneys general by party affiliation

Party	Attorneys general
Democratic	44
Republican	4
Union	3

Attorneys general in chronological order, showing party affiliation

No.	Image	Name	Term of service	Political party
1		Volney Howard	1846	Democratic
2		John W. Harris	1846–1849	Democratic
3		Henry Percy Brewster	1849–1850	Democratic
4		Andrew Jackson Hamilton	1850	Democratic
5		Ebenezer Allen 1	1850–1852	Democratic
6		Thomas J. Jennings	1852–1856	Democratic
7		James Willie	1856–1858	Democratic
8		Malcolm D. Graham	1858–1860	Democratic
9		George M. Flournoy	1860–1862	Democratic
10		Nathan G. Shelley	1862–1864	Democratic
11		Benjamin E. Tarver	1864–1865	Democratic
12		William Alexander	1865–1866	Unionist
13		William M. Walton	1866–1867	Democratic
14		Ezekiel B. Turner	1867–1870	Unionist
15		William Alexander	1870–1874	Republican
16		George W. Clark	1874–1876	Democratic
17		Hannibal Boone	1876–1878	Democratic
18		George McCormick	1878–1880	Democratic
19		James H. McLeary	1880–1882	Democratic
20		John D. Templeton	1882–1886	Democratic
21		Jim Hogg	1886–1890	Democratic
22		Charles Allen Culberson	1890–1894	Democratic
23		Martin McNulty Crane	1894–1898	Democratic
24		Thomas Slater Smith	1898–1901	Democratic
25		Charles K. Bell	1901–1904	Democratic
26		Robert V. Davidson	1904–1910	Democratic
27		Jewel P. Lightfoot	1910–1912	Democratic
28		James D. Walthall	1912–1913	Democratic
29		B. F. Looney	1913–1919	Democratic
30		Calvin Maples Cureton	1919–1921	Democratic
31		Walter Angus Keeling	1921–1925	Democratic
32		Dan Moody	1925–1927	Democratic
33		Claude Pollard 2	1927–1929	Democratic
34		Robert L. Bobbitt 3	1929–1931	Democratic
35		James V. Allred	1931–1935	Democratic
36		William McCraw	1935–1939	Democratic
37		Gerald Mann	1939–1943	Democratic
38		Grover Sellers	1943–1947	Democratic
39		Price Daniel	1947–1953	Democratic
40		John Ben Shepperd	1953–1957	Democratic
41		Will Wilson	1957–1963	Democratic
42		Waggoner Carr	1963–1967	Democratic
43		Crawford Martin	1967–1972	Democratic
44		John Hill	1973–1979	Democratic
45		Mark White	1979–1983	Democratic
46		Jim Mattox	1983–1991	Democratic
47		Dan Morales	1991–1999	Democratic
48		John Cornyn	1999–2002	Republican
49		Greg Abbott	2002–2015	Republican
50		Ken Paxton Incumbent	2015–present Suspended May 27, 2023 – September 16, 2023	Republican
–		Brent Webster Acting	May 27, 2023 – May 31, 2023 Served during the suspension of Ken Paxton	Republican
–		John Scott Interim	May 31, 2023 – July 14, 2023 Served during the suspension of Ken Paxton	Republican
–		Angela Colmenero Interim	July 14, 2023 – September 16, 2023 Served during the suspension of Ken Paxton	Republican

Political prominence

Many leading political figures in Texas history have served as attorney general, several of them using the office as a jumping-off place to other offices in the state and national government. Attorneys general James S. Hogg, Charles A. Culberson, Dan Moody, James V. Allred, Price Daniel, Mark White, and Greg Abbott were elected governor. Culberson, Daniel, and John Cornyn were later elected to the United States Senate. ^[8]

Notes

1. First elected attorney general (AG) of state of Texas; previously elected AG of the Republic of Texas
2. Resigned
3. Appointed

References

1. Texas Constitution Article 4 Section 22.
2. Texas attorney general election, 2014, Ballotpedia.
3. Jeffers, Gromer Jr. (May 27, 2014). "Dan Branch concedes Republican attorney general's race to Ken Paxton". The Dallas Morning News . Archived from the original on September 7, 2014.
4. Barnett, Marissa (January 2015). "Ken Paxton vows to continue Abbott's federal fights as attorney general". The Dallas Morning News . Retrieved October 8, 2017.
5. Texas Constitution Article 3 Section 49.
6. Texas Government Code section 402.028.
7. "All Divisions | Office of the Attorney General".
8. Attorney General from the Handbook of Texas Online

External links

• Texas Attorney General official website
• Texas Attorney General articles at ABA Journal
• News and Commentary at FindLaw
• U.S. Supreme Court Opinions – "Cases with title containing: State of Texas" at FindLaw
• State Bar of Texas
• Texas Attorney General Opinions, hosted by the Portal to Texas History