Freedom Caucus Conservative
Eyes Bid in Crowded Pack for AG

Capitol Inside
September 6, 2021

A Fort Worth Republican who's been one of the Texas House's most conservative members for almost a decade appears to be testing the waters for a potential bid to be the state's top lawyer.

State Rep. Matt Krause's name is being floated as a potential candidate in a crowded field for the job that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plans to seek again in 2022. Krause would join Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former state Supreme Court member Eva Guzman in the pack of challengers in the race for AG if he entered the competition.

Krause and Paxton have been allies up to now. Krause was one of several House Republicans who'd been viewed as Paxton proteges when they were elected initially in 2012. Paxton received a promotion to the Texas Senate that year after 10 years in the House.

Krause would appear to have the worst starting odds on paper in a primary field that features Paxton as the incumbent and a battle for a second spot in a probable GOP primary runoff that Guzman and Bush already have under way for a spot in a runoff next year.

But Krause would have a much better chance if Paxton isn't on the ballot again as a possible consequences of personal tribulations that include criminal charges that he's facing in a securities fraud case and a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into allegations of bribery that former assistants at the AG office lodged last year.

A premature exit by Paxton would give Krause a shot at the conservative base that the incumbent appears to have all but locked up with an endorsement from Donald Trump. Paxton has been close to Trump since he filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court late last year in an attempt to overturn defeats in battleground states.

The attorney general appeared on the stage with his wife - GOP State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney - at the Trump rally that triggered the riot that killed a police officer and four others at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Paxton the current legislator has insisted that she and her husband had no way to know that Trump supporters in the audience were going to storm the Capitol despite the dog whistle syntax that unleashed the attempt coup while Congress was certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory last fall.

Paxton the AG falsely claimed that the leftist movement Antifa had been responsible with radical socialists posing at MAGA supporters. Paxton backed off the claims, however, when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick dismissed them as fiction, acknowledging that Trump supporters were responsible for the bloodshed in Washington D.C. on that fateful day.

Krause would give the Trump base a more stable contender than the radioactive incumbent. But Trump already has endorsed Paxton while giving Bush relatively positive reviews as well after the land boss sought to curry his favor earlier this year in a visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Krause is a charter member of the Texas Freedom Caucus - a group a dozen conservatives that emerged during the 2017 regular session. Krause and the other caucus members were ineffective when Republican Joe Straus had been leading the lower chamber as the speaker during a 10 year stint. Krause passed a total of three bills in his first three regular sessions combined.

But Krause sought to repair his relations with House leaders with the GOP's Dennis Bonnen in the speaker's office in 2019 - guiding 12 pieces of legislation to success that year. Krause landed his first leadership position early this year when Republican Speaker Dade Phelan appointed him to chair the General Investigating Committee.