Six attorney general races to watch on Election Day

Original article can be found here.

(Legal Newsline) – Some states could soon have top lawyers with wildly different platforms than their predecessors, as voters in 28 states will decide on their next attorney general on Tuesday.

Democrats hold 16 of them currently and Republicans 12 (two GOP AGs are running unopposed), and while the majority of states are likely to keep the same party in office, places like Georgia, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Iowa and Minnesota could see a change.

A majority for one party does little for it. Attorneys general are not required to seek approval from colleagues before they take actions like challenging federal policies or filing consumer-protection lawsuits against the country’s biggest companies.

But like-minded AGs often team up for their causes. Twenty joined an FTC lawsuit just last week against Dollar General, asserting claims under their respective state’s laws. And AGs from both parties often hire private lawyers to file lawsuits on contingency fees, which gives those firms the power of the State when taking a shot at winning a percentage of large settlements and verdicts.

That’s on display in climate change litigation, where several Democrat AGs have sued companies like Exxon, Chevron and BP under a novel theory of public nuisance soon to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Georgia

Incumbent Republican Chris Carr ran unsuccessfully for governor, and the race to replace him has a shot to upset the all-GOP leadership in the state. A Democrat has not served as governor, attorney general or secretary of state since 2011, and Republicans hold a safe majority in both houses of the legislature.

But Democrat Tanya Miller, a member of the House of Representatives, is threatening to bust up the party, with a recent poll showing a 2.2% lead over Brian Strickland, a state senator. Strickland has raised more money than Miller, whose previous runs for House received $9,000 from the state’s trial lawyer association.

Her AG campaign received $16,800 from Access to Justice for Georgia, a group that was dedicated to defeating tort-reform legislation that ultimately passed. Strickland, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted for its passage, while Miller, who plans to be “laser focused” on consumer protection, voted against it.

Other top contributors submitting $16,800 to Miller are the personal injury firms Banks Weaver and My 25% Lawyer.

Kansas

Incumbent Republican Kris Kobach has his hands full with Democrat Chris Mann, who is shown to be slightly ahead in a poll by the Democratic Attorneys General Association. The state hasn’t elected a Democrat to the office since Paul Morrison, who resigned when an extramarital affair came to light in 2007.

Kobach is in his first term, and he recently joined the case against Dollar General and was part of eight states suing OpenAI over ChatGPT’s effects on children. His challenger, Mann, is outraising him by nearly three times, the Sunflower State Journal reported Oct. 27.

It’s a rematch from 2022, when Kobach drew 16,000 more votes than Mann, a former police officer who lists crime prevention as his top priority while vowing to “protect consumers from the constant barrage of scams and fraud.”

Mann’s latest campaign finance report lists dozens of donors who have given $4,000, including from Middle of the Road PAC – an initiative by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to elect moderate candidates.

Texas

With longtime Republican AG Ken Paxton donning a MAHA hat and running for U.S. Senate, he leaves a trail of recently filed lawsuits for either Democrat Nathan Johnson or Republican Mayes Middleton to inherit.

Middleton, a member of the Texas Senate whose campaign site calls him “a steadfast ally of President Trump,” has a nearly 6% edge over Johnson, likewise a state senator whose law practice at Thompson Coburn focuses on commercial litigation and bankruptcy.

Paxton developed a habit of using private lawyers to sue on behalf of the State on contingency fees – a strategy formerly used almost exclusively by Democrat AGs. But that’s not the case anymore, and trial lawyers are actually throwing their money behind Middleton.

Middleton, an oil and gas executive who has spent millions of his own dollars, is also receiving help from legal reform groups and business interests. Attorney Greg Fibich of Fibich, Leebron, Copeland & Briggs, a Houston law firm that represented Harris County in its opioid lawsuit, donated $5,000.

One of the larger attorney contributions ($25,000) was made by James Stanton. Other sizable trial lawyer contributions include: a $10,000 donation from Foley & Lardner, a $5,000 donation from Scott West of The West Law Firm in Richmond; a $5,000 donation from Noah Wexler of Arnold & Itkin; and a $2,500 donation from Jennifer Womack.

While not quite as lucrative, Johnson is still receiving trial lawyer support, including a $20,000 donation made by Aldous Law and a $15,000 contribution coming from attorney Lance Ramsey of Gjerset & Lorenz.

Ohio

A recent Marist Poll shows Democrats have strong support in Ohio, including in the gubernatorial race. Should that continue in the AG race, Ohio would elect its first Dem to the office since Richard Cordray, who later left to become the first director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in 2008.

Republican Dave Yost similarly stepped down for another job in 2026, and his predecessor Andy Wilson is not running. That leaves Democrat John Kulewicz, a longtime lawyer now serving on the Upper Arlington City Council, and Republican Keith Faber, the state auditor.

Kulewicz has raised close to $2 million, with the largest donation ($45,500) coming from the state Democratic Party. Faber has about $1 million more.

Iowa

Democrat Nate Willems has mounted a challenge to incumbent Brenna Bird, despite a Republican presence in Iowa that heavily favored Donald Trump in the 2024 election. On Point Politics currently gives Willems a 78% chance of victory.

Willems, a labor lawyer and former state legislator, has pledged to take his experiences to the AG’s office to create a Wage Enforcement Unit and also utilize the Consumer Protection Division more than Bird has.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association has supplied nearly half of the $6.34 million Willems has raised. The PAC for the state’s trial lawyers group has given about $25,000 to Willems, who titled a campaign commercial “Birdsh*t.”

Minnesota

Incumbent Democrat Keith Ellison won re-election in 2022 by 20,000 votes but might not be so fortunate this time, with polls showing an extremely close race with Ron Schutz. Ellison is a former member of Congress who started as AG in 2019 and is among the group that have filed climate change cases. He, like others, hired the firm Sher Edling for the litigation.

Ellison, who has spent the past couple of years challenging the policies of Trump, possibly lost some popularity thanks to a Somali family’s fraud scandal. Several members of it have pleaded guilty after allegedly taking $14 million from a federal child nutrition program.

Before those accusations came to light, the family was at a meeting between Ellison and members of the Somali community. One of them mentioned “putting our dollars in the right place” and “supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests.” Ellison responded, “That’s right.”

The man then gave Ellison the maximum $2,500 donation. Ellison has denied wrongdoing and returned the money to the Department of Justice. SurveyUSA’s first poll still had Ellison ahead by seven percentage points in June, but the Republican tied him in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth, 45%-43%.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association has labeled Schutz “too extreme for Minnesota” because of his support of Trump administration policies. One of Ellison’s current court fights is with the Department of Justice, which has sued Minnesota to stop Ellison’s climate change lawsuit.

Editor’s note: Phil Davidson contributed to this article.