Rep. Louie Gohmert Joins Crowded GOP Race For Texas Attorney General

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a staunch Donald Trump ally and extremist right-winger, is jumping into a crowded 2022 primary election to unseat scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s also a Republican.

Gohmert was testing whether he could raise $1 million in 10 days before making the announcement ― and he did, he said in a video launching his campaign. (Watch it below.)

Gohmert said he’ll focus on “election integrity” and immigration issues.

He’ll have tough competition in next year’s Republican primary from state Land Commissioner George P. Bush —grandson of George H.W., nephew of George W. and son of Jeb Bush — as well as from former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and state Rep. Matt Krause.

Trump has already endorsed Paxton, who is battling a criminal indictment charging securities fraud and a separate FBI corruption investigation.

Gohmert has warned that Paxton’s legal problems could jeopardize the attorney general’s office for Republicans.

“We’ve got to have an attorney general that’s undistracted by moral and legal issues of his own and who can get elected a year from now,” Gohmert said early this month.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association mocked news of Gohmert’s expected candidacy at the time, calling the burgeoning GOP field to unseat a Republican a “Texas-sized embarrassment for the Republican Party.”

Former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt and former ACLU lawyer Rochelle Garza are running for the Democratic nomination.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.