Democratic Runoff In Texas Attorney General Race Set; Dallas Civil Rights Attorney Lee Merritt Concedes

HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM) - After being up in the air for more than a week, the Democratic Primary for Texas Attorney General is now set.

Former ACLU staff attorney Rochelle Garza will face former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski who's now an attorney in private practice.

In Houston Thursday afternoon, March 10, candidate Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney, announced he's suspending his campaign.

He conceded after falling further behind Jaworski.

Merritt also announced he's endorsing Garza.

"She's demonstrated she can run a campaign that can energize our base that reflects the diversity of our party. She and I had a conversation just yesterday about my plans to join her on the campaign trail," he said.

In a statement minutes after the announcement, Garza said, "Lee Merritt is a fearless fighter for civil rights. To Mr. Merritt's supporters, I am committed to continuing to fight for our civil rights and to earn your support in this runoff election..."

Another candidate in the race, Mike Fields is also backing Garza.

Jaworski issued a statement as well saying, "…I'm looking forward to a robust runoff campaign with Ms. Garza, so that Texas voters can choose the best candidate to defeat Ken Paxton in November..."

Paxton, the two-term incumbent, isn't the Republican nominee yet.

He faces a runoff against George P. Bush, the current Texas Land Commissioner.

The primary runoff election is Tuesday, May 24.

The Democratic primary had been up in the air since last week, when Jaworski led Merritt by more than 1,400 votes.

But over the weekend, Harris County posted documents on its website showing officials didn't include more than 10,000 mail-in ballots in its vote count.

Once the county updated its numbers, Jaworski increased his lead to more than 3,000 votes over Merritt.

Harris County's mistake led its elections administrator to announce her resignation.