Attorney General, Democrat and Republican primaries

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Background

The below reporting comes from the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek. Read more from this story on the Tribune’s website.

The hottest statewide primary is easily the Republican race for attorney general. Paxton faces three well-known challengers in Texas politics: Land Commissioner George P. Bush, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler and Eva Guzman, a former justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

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They are all assailing Paxton over his legal problems, which include a 2015 securities fraud indictment that he is still fighting, plus a more recent FBI probe of claims by former deputies that he abused his office to aid a wealthy donor. He has denied wrongdoing in both cases.

Paxton, who boasts the endorsement of Trump, is hoping for an outright win, but polls show that is not certain. Bush is confident he is headed for a runoff and has been speaking about it as a foregone conclusion in recent days.

However, the primary has turned into a political fog of war in its homestretch. Paxton has been attacking Gohmert, who is most ideologically similar to the incumbent, while Bush and Guzman have been brawling against one another.

Paxton piled on against Guzman on Friday with a last-minute TV ad backed by nearly $1 million. The commercial accuses Guzman of organizing a “woke critical race theory summit” when she was a judge, a reference to a 2016 summit on race and law enforcement that the state’s top two courts hosted after the fatal shooting of a group of Dallas cops earlier that year.

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Guzman pushed back with a bevy of digital ads over the weekend, saying, “I oppose CRT — period.” And she has said Paxton’s own office sent a representative to the 2016 event.

Regardless, the late target on her back has raised speculation that she is rising at the end.

“Judging by the actions by my opponent, I think we are doing extremely well,” Guzman told Lubbock radio host Chad Hasty on Friday. “What are you so afraid of, Ken?”

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