Texas Attorney General & Cooke County Judge race headed to primary runoff

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - There are two republican races grabbing voters’ attention during the Texas primary runoff on Tuesday.

In Texas, all eyes are on the race for attorney general.

Incumbent Ken Paxton led the primary against three other candidates with 43 percent of the vote.

He’s held the seat since 2015 but faces criticism after being indicted on security fraud charges seven years ago, and the FBI is investigating him following accusations of corruption.

Paxton has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, he could 5 to 99 years in prison.

His opponent is former Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

Locally, Former Cooke County Judge John Roane hopes to get the seat back.

He stepped down in 2015 to care for his late wife.

This time around said he wants to finish what he started and address upcoming growth.

“The population is also growing,” said John Roane. “The need for more county personnel, especially service personnel, such as EMS, our volunteer fire department, but also the county government itself. So far, all of the growth in the county government has been right on the square.”

He’ll face Precinct 4 Commissioner Leon Klement.

“Taxes is my number one,” said Leon Klement. “We have to at least get control of it. When we set the tax rate in the budget, we actually went up two cents. I thought that was offensive. I thought that was offensive to the taxpayer. I didn’t think we treated our citizens right by going up those two cents, so I decided I’d take a stab at this.”

Klement said it’s too early to rule if he’ll lower taxes but said he would not raise it anymore than he would have too.

Roane said he also wants to ease the burden on tax payers.

The winner of the runoff will face Democrat Denny Hook in November.

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