Dominion lawyer in Fox News lawsuit almost won race for Texas attorney general in 2018

One of the lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems — who helped broker the settlement agreement that forces Fox News and its parent corporation to pay the election technology company nearly $800 million in a defamation case over spurious claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election — came within 3.7 percentage points of being elected Texas attorney general in 2018 despite running a nearly shoestring campaign.

Justin Nelson, a partner in the Houston law firm Susman Godfrey who also teaches at the University of Texas Law School, was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general to challenge incumbent Republican Ken Paxton. By then, Paxton was under indictment and accused of securities fraud.

Despite the high-profile race, much of the state's political oxygen that cycle was sucked up by the epic battle between Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke. Cruz, who had run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and before that was at the center of a government shutdown fight in the Senate, was despised by the Democratic establishment nationwide. And therefore, all of the available Democratic money was gobbled up by O'Rourke, a U.S. representative from El Paso.

On Tuesday, it was Nelson who proved the magnet for national headlines when he announced the amount Fox News had agreed to pay Dominion to settle the defamation case just as the trial was set to begin. Nelson told The New York Times, and then confirmed to the USA Today Network, that Fox News had agreed to pay $787.5 million in one of the highest-profile defamation cases involving a news outlet in decades.

In 2021, Dominion sued for $1.6 billion, alleging that Fox News and some its most prominent anchors and commentators knowingly spread information they knew to be false about Dominion's voting machines as they promoted unfounded claims that the 2020 election in which Joe Biden, a former vice president and senator, defeated President Donald Trump was somehow tainted.

More: Fox News and Dominion reach $787.5M settlement just before defamation trial was set to begin

“The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Nelson said in a statement provided to the USA Today Network. “Over two years ago, a torrent of lies swept Dominion election officials across America into an alternative universe of conspiracy theories causing grievous harm to Dominion and the country.”

When he made his first run for public office in 2018, Nelson sought to parlay his reputation as a one-time law clerk for then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and his status as one of Texas' top private attorneys into a victory in his uphill effort to unseat Paxton. He sought to play up Paxton's legal trouble, which the incumbent insisted was unfounded and politically motivated.

Nelson's most memorable campaign commercial featured courthouse security footage of Paxton pocketing an expensive pen that was left in a basket by the person who had preceded him into the metal-detecting equipment.

"Vote Justin Nelson for Texas attorney general," the announcer said at the ad's end. "He will fight on behalf of all Texans, and he won't steal your pen."

The piece was picked up by HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

Nelson graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1997 and earned his law degree from Yale three years later. He is an adjunct professor at the UT Law School. He is referred to as "the go-to lawyer for high-stakes litigation" on the Susman Godfrey webpage, which offers examples of two multimillion-dollar judgments on behalf of the firm's clients.

“Justin is a giant slayer," one of the clients says in a testimonial. "He wins. It is so impressive to watch him in action."

Margaret Justus, a veteran Texas Democratic campaign operative and Nelson's former press director, said Texas voters missed a major opportunity in 2018 when they took a pass on the high-powered lawyer.

"He is bright, honest, and he would make an ethical attorney general," Justus said. "I hope he'll run again for office."

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson was 2018 Democrat nominee for Texas AG