Aaron Reitz Files for Attorney General After Resigning DOJ Post

Aaron Reitz on Thursday became the second Republican candidate running to succeed Ken Paxton as Texas’s attorney general in the party primary next March, the Texas Tribune reported.

Reitz spent years in Texas working closely with the state’s top conservative lawyers before earlier this year being appointed to a top position in the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump.

His campaign site emphasizes his closeness with Trump, listing “Fight Alongside President Trump” first on his list of policy issues and arguing that the size of the Texas Attorney General’s Office makes it “most important state attorney general office in the country to advance the America First Agenda.”

“We are in a fight for the soul of Texas, our nation and Western Civilization itself,” Reitz said in a press release, as quoted by the Tribune. “If we lose Texas, we lose the Republic. As attorney general, I’ll use every ounce of legal firepower to defend President Trump, crush the radical Left, advance the America and Texas First agenda, and look out for everyday Texans.”

Reitz clerked for Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Blacklock after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, then served as the deputy attorney general for legal strategy under Ken Paxton.

It was there that Reitz helped to coordinate Paxton’s legal attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election on the unfounded basis of widespread voter fraud in key swing states that year. His website maintains that the election was fraudulent and describes his involvement in the suit with pride.

“When President Trump was looking for a champion to challenge the constitutionality of the 2020 presidential election, too many squishy Republicans all over the country were nowhere to be found,” the website states. “It was Aaron alongside Attorney General Paxton who took the lead to ensure Texas brought justice to a stolen election.”

Reitz’s campaign site notes with pride the litigation that he helped the state bring against President Joe Biden, filing 46 suits in four years, or about one lawsuit every month. That aligns with Reitz’s stated belief that the state attorney general’s office should be a space for “lawfare,” wielding lawsuits as weapons to achieve political ends.

After that, Reitz served as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s chief of staff before Trump tapped him to lead the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, which advises the U.S. attorney general and deputy attorney general on policy and strategy and coordinates judicial appointments.

Trump in nominating Reitz called him “a true MAGA attorney, a warrior for our Constitution.” Reitz’s appointment eventually was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote, despite significant resistance from Democrats.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee, called him a “danger to the rule of law” and “completely unfit to serve in any role in the Department of Justice,” according to the Tribune.

FBI Director Kash Patel and other Trump allies supported Reitz’s candidacy on social media, calling him “a personal friend, great American, and a relentless advocate for law and order.”

The only other Republican candidate who has filed for the attorney general’s race is state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston. 

Paxton, meanwhile, is exiting his spot as attorney general to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for his Senate seat in the March primary, setting up a political fight that promises to be as bruising as it is expensive.