Garza hammers Paxton on ethics, abortion

Sep. 17—Democrat Rochelle Garza slammed Republican incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton over the issues of abortion and ethics during an appearance in Greenville on Thursday.

Garza, who opposes Paxton in the race for attorney general, was among a cadre of Democratic hopefuls who paid a visit to the city. Besides Garza, candidates included Jonathan Cocks, who is running to represent state Senate District 8; Sandeep Srivastava, a candidate for Congress from District 3; and Alex Cornwallis, who is running to represent District 12 on the State Board of Education. Roughly two-dozen people were assembled at the Texan Theater to hear them speak.

Garza hails from Brownsville in South Texas and was raised by two public school teachers. She has worked as a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas and as a managing partner of Garza & Garza Law PLLC.

"The law is a tool. It can either build or destroy," she said, adding that the law should apply equally to everybody no matter how humble or how powerful.

"Ken Paxton, my opponent, believes he is above its reach," she charged. "He is our illustrious attorney general who is under criminal indictment and has been under criminal indictment for seven years without trial. No regular Texan would ever be able to get away with that. Eighty-three percent of cases like his are resolved in one year."

Paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015 and he maintains he did nothing wrong.

"He is also under FBI investigation for bribery," Garza said. "He is also at risk for losing his law license because he tried to overturn the 2020 election. He does not believe the law applies to him and he is dangerous for this state."

Paxton has framed the FBI investigation in political terms, blaming the Biden administration for the probe into his office.

"That's the Biden FBI, the Biden DOJ," Mr. Paxton told a Fox News reporter. "They were under investigation by my office. I don't know what they are going to do. All I can tell you is that we were doing the right thing. We are going to continue to do the right thing. I don't control what the Biden White House does."

Garza also went after Paxton for his positions on abortion.

"Women's rights, access to abortion care is absolutely fundamental to our ability to be treated as equals. ... Right now abortion care is completely illegal. It is unavailable in the state of Texas. There are no exceptions for rape, there are no exceptions for incest, it doesn't matter how young you are."

Paxton, she said, has gone so far as to sue the Biden administration to prevent doctors from performing emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.

In announcing his lawsuit, Paxton said: "This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions. I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court's important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration's unlawful agenda."

Polls show a competitive race for Texas attorney general. A recent poll by The University of Texas at Austin/Texas Politics Project showed Paxton with 38% of the vote and Garza with 33%.