Texas AG candidate’s blunt message: Vote for me, or don’t. Just don’t re-elect Ken Paxton
Mark Ash, the Libertarian candidate for Texas attorney general, does, in fact, want you to vote for him.
But he also understands that few of you will. So, he’s urging those who can’t quite bear to go third party to support Democrat Rochelle Garza — chiefly because she’s not Ken Paxton, the two-term Republican incumbent.
“Ken Paxton is a poor excuse for an attorney general and needs to be replaced,” Ash said by phone last week.
The messaging two-step prompted a bit of confusion. Ash said he’s recommending Garza over Paxton but stopping short of a full-blown endorsement, which is what the Texas Democratic Party excitedly called his announcement in a news release.
“I’m a realist, and I realized that many people do not want to vote for a candidate that they don’t think has a realistic possibility of winning,” Ash said. “I am saying that Rochelle Garza is a better candidate than Ken Paxton.”
It’s yet another odd twist in Paxton’s political saga. The McKinney Republican has been indicted, accused of bribery by close aides, pilloried for running a dysfunctional workplace, and challenged by three well-known fellow Republicans, a rarity for an incumbent officeholder. He doubled down on 2020 election denial. And yet, despite it all, he will probably cruise to re-election.
Ash, 59, a Houston criminal defense lawyer, stressed that he remains in the AG race. But “realistically, I understand that some voters would not want to vote for a third-party candidate, thinking that that vote may be thrown away,” he said.
Ash argues that Garza is a better fit than Paxton for key parts of the Libertarian agenda of curtailing government power, especially on two issues: marijuana legalization and construction of a border wall. He also mentioned abortion, particularly the idea that the Legislature might try to block women from leaving the state if they want to have the procedure.
But the overarching way she’s better than Paxton, Ash said, is that she understands and respects the rule of law.
His analysis is interesting and nuanced. Most people figure Libertarians draw away votes from conservative Republicans, given their shared disdain for government and embrace of free markets. But issues such as drug legalization make them more of a wild card. With political realignment changing the Republican Party especially, the lines are even more blurred.
Ash understands, too, that while Libertarians often seem in pre-election polls to be drawing enough support to swing a race, they often don’t get a similar share of votes. He acknowledged that he “can’t tell” if his move will have any effect on the race. He said he’s had no contact with either Garza or Paxton or their campaigns.
“I’m not thinking one way or another. If it moves and she wins, well, that would be great,” he said. “I don’t look at Libertarian voters as being a solid block. I look at people who vote Libertarian … as sometimes thinking their vote is more of a message.”
Ash has run several times for statewide elected courts, and the best he’s done in a race in which both major parties also fielded candidates is 3.7% of the vote. Even if he were to draw that much this time, and even if he could throw all of it to Garza, it probably wouldn’t be enough to put her over the top.
That should be astonishing. Just this year, we’ve learned that the AG office we all pay for and rely on is a mess, that Paxton sicced his followers on a Republican-controlled court whose ruling he disdained, that he’s created confusion and potential chaos for elections officials, and that he has once again used state resources to try to help his dear pal Donald Trump.
Paxton has campaigned — if you can call it that — entirely before friendly crowds. He declined to appear with his Republican primary opponents or face Garza in a debate. And he grants interviews only to friendly media outlets.
At times, it seemed that if any statewide Republican incumbent could be in trouble, it would be Paxton. His winning margin in 2018 was tiny. But partisanship is strong, it’s a Republican state, and 2022 is shaping up as a strong Republican year.
Ash knows this. He deserves credit for doing what he can, even if it won’t make much of a difference.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 11:48 AM.
