# Mayes Middleton **David Mayes Middleton II** is a Texas oil-and-gas executive and state senator (SD-11, Galveston, since 2023) who in 2026 won the Republican nomination for Texas Attorney General, beating [[Chip Roy]] in the May 26 runoff. He is a textbook specimen of the Texas model the KB tracks: extraction wealth converted directly into hard-right political power through self-funding. ## Background Born in Wallisville, Chambers County, to a family with oil money; Kinkaid School, UT Austin finance degree, UT Law JD. President of **Middleton Oil Company**, an independent producer operating in South Texas and the Gulf Coast, alongside ranching and farming operations. Before entering office he served on the board of the [[Texas Public Policy Foundation]] — the Dunn/Wilks-network think tank that functions as the policy shop of the Texas far right. ## Legislative Career - **Texas House (2019–2023, HD-23):** Won the seat by primarying a Republican incumbent from the right in 2018, largely self-funded — the pattern that would define his career. Chaired the **Texas House Freedom Caucus**, the state-level analogue of the congressional [[House Freedom Caucus]] - **Texas Senate (2023–present, SD-11):** Consistently ranked among the most conservative members of the legislature; a reliable vote and author across the hard-right agenda — border enforcement, school vouchers and religion-in-schools measures, anti-ESG financial legislation, and election-law tightening ## The 2026 Attorney General Race When [[Ken Paxton]] vacated the AG's office to primary [[John Cornyn]] for U.S. Senate, Middleton entered the race against Chip Roy, the better-known frontrunner. His path to the nomination is the race's lesson: a **self-funded "MAGA Mayes" ad blitz** saturated airwaves and mailboxes, framing Middleton as the purer Trump-aligned choice against Roy's movement-conservative procedural résumé. Middleton forced the March 3 runoff, then won it on May 26, 2026. He pledges continuity with Paxton's model of the office — border litigation, election-fraud enforcement, and aggressive suits against the federal government — and faces the Democratic nominee in November 2026. ## Why He Matters for the KB Middleton matters on three tracks. First, he is a live 2026-cycle data point: self-funding plus Trump-brand alignment beat institutional conservative credentials in a Republican statewide primary, even against a Freedom Caucus standard-bearer. Second, if elected he inherits the **Texas AG office as weaponized institution** — the Paxton-built model of state-AG litigation as the right's offensive legal infrastructure. Third, his career is a clean specimen of the oil-money-to-office pipeline that runs through the [[Texas Public Policy Foundation]] network: the same extraction-wealth ecosystem funding the think tank, the PACs, and now potentially the state's top law-enforcement office.