Former U.S. Attorney John Bash, who serves as legal counsel to Elon Musk, announced a GOP bid to replace Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I’m running for Texas Attorney General because our great State needs the toughest, most battle-tested attorney to lead the fight to keep our communities safe, defend our constitutional rights, and make sure Texas remains a leader in innovation and growth,” Bash wrote in a statement to X.
The news makes Bash the first candidate to launch a campaign for Texas attorney general. It comes after Paxton revealed Tuesday he would mount a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), leaving his attorney general position vacant.
Like Paxton, Bash has strong ties to President Donald Trump, which could give him a boost in the race to replace the outgoing attorney general. Bash served as the Trump administration’s top federal prosecutor in Texas during the president’s first term in office and as special assistant and associate counsel to Trump.
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Bash graduated from Harvard and clerked for Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Brett Kavanaugh, saying he “has briefed and argued high-stakes cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and courts across the country.” From 2012 to 2017, Bash served as the assistant to the solicitor general at the Justice Department. He also worked as a senior counsel to Paxton and deputy policy director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), according to USA Today.
Bash is currently defending Musk, a senior adviser to Trump, in a Texas defamation lawsuit against a former college student who accused the tech mogul of spreading lies about him on X.
