The first candidate to announce a bid for Texas attorney general has dropped out of the race.
This week, former U.S. Attorney John Bash said he would be withdrawing from the race to replace Ken Paxton. Paxton has said he will be running for U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent John Cornyn, a fellow Republican.
Bash served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas from 2017 to 2020. He announced his campaign for AG on April 10.
“He was the first candidate to throw his hat in the ring after Paxton announced his Senate bid. And it’s still pretty early,” said Jasper Scherer, politics reporter with the Texas Tribune. “We don’t know exactly why Bash dropped out, other than he was citing family personal reasons. He said that there was a health scare. So now we’re down to one candidate in that race.”
That candidate is Republican state Sen. Mayes Middleton, who represents the Galveston area.
“It does appear that Middleton is trying to carve out some early momentum, just saying he’s going to spend a bunch of his own money in this race and racking up early endorsements,” Scherer said. “So I think he is trying to clear the field as much as he can, but I would expect a few other names to get in.”
Hear more stories from the week in Texas politics in the audio player above.
