Nathan Johnson selected as Democratic candidate for Texas attorney general race after winning primary runoff

Democrats in Texas have selected Nathan Johnson as their candidate in the race for Texas attorney general as they vie for the seat soon to be left open by Republican Ken Paxton, CBS News projects.

Tuesday's runoff elections saw former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and current State Sen. Johnson compete for the nod.

In the March 3 primary, Jaworski almost won with more than 48% of the vote; he needed 50% plus one vote to avoid the runoff. He also edged out Dallas attorney Tony Box, who told CBS News Texas he would not endorse either Jaworski or Johnson and instead remain neutral.

In a previous interview with CBS News Texas, Johnson claimed the state's Ten Commandments law violated the U.S. Constitution.

"I will not defend the legislature's passage of unconstitutional laws and laws that violate individual rights. I will not defend the legislature's passage of a requirement that schools place the Ten Commandments in classrooms because it's unconstitutional," he said at the time.

Johnson also indicated the state might have to hire private attorneys to defend the law.

"That might be a good conversation for me to have with the legislature before they pass the next ill-advised and unconstitutional law," he added.

Johnson also said his goal is not to sue the administration of President Donald Trump, but did say he'd protect Texas from federal overreach.

"I probably would have already sued the Trump administration literally dozens of times. It's just because he's so prolific and violating the constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act and state law and individual rights," Johnson said. "It's not because I want to sue the president, but whether it's a Democratic president or a Republican president, there is a temptation, a tendency right now in the United States, globally, for the executive to be overly assertive. I believe in the separation of powers." 

Johnson also said one of his priorities is rebuilding the culture of the Attorney General's Office.

"My top priority is to populate the Attorney General's Office with really good people. Four thousand employees, 800 lawyers. The ideologues can go somewhere else. People with institutional expertise who are committed to public service, whether they're currently working in the Ken Paxton Attorney General's Office or new," he said.

Johnson also promised to ensure that the marketplace will remain competitive.

"Quality has gone down. Prices have gone up, and consumers are being manipulated and taken advantage of in the commercial sector," he said. "Attorneys General are supposed to make sure that the competitive market is competitive. It is the natural tendency of powerful corporations to try to get more powerful. It is the duty of government to make sure that they don't control the rules of the game and are forced to compete."