Garza says she sees an opportunity for the office to hone in on issues of inequity for...
Rochelle Garza, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, speaks during a rally with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, at Imagen Venues Escapade 2001 in Houston.One of Democrat Rochelle Garza’s top campaign promises if elected attorney general is to create a dedicated group of attorneys within the office who would focus on civil rights.
“The attorney general's office always has and will continue to defend the civil rights and liberties of Texans, with or without continuing to add an addition of a bloated, bureaucratic division,” Hubbard said. “Such suggestions are more about pandering to leftist activists — individuals who have never seen a government agency at any level they don’t want to expand.”
Garza said she would work hand-in-hand with the Texas Workforce Commission, the state agency that investigates housing and employment discrimination complaints. Still, as the state’s Republican majority takes a deeper interest in policies that curb LGBT rights, there remain many areas where a Democratic attorney general could file lawsuits or issue opinions to push back.
“Simply having a group of lawyers who have expertise in human rights and civil rights would certainly reduce the number of frivolous harmful legal opinions coming out of the attorney general’s office,” Gooch said. “It would add an extra level of protection when other members of the executive branch take actions that violate Texans’ civil rights.
Garza also plans to scrap Paxton’s top-priority election integrity unit, which she said has been used as a “means of suppressing the vote” and replace it with a voting rights subdivision. The subdivision would complement and bolster the work that advocacy groups are already doing in suing over restrictive laws and policies statewide, she said.