Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Former US President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to silence claims …
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced his bid for the U.S. Senate.
He is looking to unseat longtime Sen. John Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since his first election in 2002.
Will Paxton have to resign as AG to run for Senate?
What we know:
The answer is no.
Under Article XVI, Sec. 65 of the Texas Constitution, a person is only required to resign when seeking another office if they are a:
- District Clerk
- County Clerk
- County Judge
- Judge of the County Courts at Law, County Criminal Courts, County Probate Courts and County Domestic Relations Courts
- County Treasurer
- Criminal District Attorney
- County Surveyor
- County Commissioner
- Justice of the Peace
- Sheriff
- Assessor and Collector of Taxes
- District Attorney
- County Attorney
- Public Weigher; and/or
- Constable
If they have over a year and 30 days left in their term, their candidacy announcement would "constitute an automatic resignation" and the vacancy would be filled pursuant to law.
Resign-to-run laws
Big picture view:
Texas is only one of five states with a "resign-to-run" law on the books.
Four of the five, including Texas, only require a person serving in specific public offices to resign from their current office to run for another. The other three are Arizona, Florida and Georgia.
Hawaii is the only U.S. state that does not limit which public offices a person should have to resign from. However, in Cobb v State (1986), the Hawaii Supreme Court did clarify that a sitting state senator did not have to resign to run for Congress.
The Source: Information in this report comes from the Texas Constitution, Ballotpedia and previous reporting.