Dallas attorney Tony Box is running to be the Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general, he announced this week, becoming the third member of his party vying to replace outgoing incumbent Ken Paxton.
Box, a first-time candidate, is an Army veteran, former FBI agent and former federal prosecutor who now works in private practice in Dallas. He will face former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and state Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas in the March 3 primary.
Paxton, who has led the office for a decade, is giving up his post to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
In a press release, Box said he was seeking to “bring decades of public service and law enforcement experience to an office plagued by corruption and political theater.”
"The AG should be protecting consumers, cracking down on fraud and partnering with law enforcement, but Ken Paxton has turned this office into a laughingstock,” Box said in a statement. “I've spent my entire career fighting corruption, prosecuting criminals and standing up to powerful people who abuse their positions. Texans deserve better.”
Box’s journey to running for attorney general began when he was 16 years old and got shot in the stomach while protecting a coworker from a robbery. The episode prompted him to “dedicate his life to the service of others,” he said in a press release.
After graduating from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Box entered the Army. He was deployed to Iraq as a judge advocate general, the military’s version of a lawyer, and served as an investigator for the Congressional Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped uncover $30 billion of waste and fraud, according to his campaign press release.
Box spent a decade as an FBI special agent, serving on the SWAT team and deploying as part of the agency’s September 11th response, he said. In the meantime, he went to law school at night.
In 2018, Box joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri handling tax investigations and prosecutions, according to his LinkedIn. In 2022, he joined the law firm Gray Reed in Dallas, where he represents businesses and “high net-worth individuals” in civil and criminal tax cases, white-collar defense and regulatory investigations.
“The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas and the people of this state deserve a leader who is looking out for them, not corrupt politicians and their cronies,” Box said in a statement.
Across the aisle, four Republicans are competing to succeed Paxton as the GOP nominee: state Sens. Joan Huffman of Houston and Mayes Middleton of Galveston, former Paxton deputy Aaron Reitz and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
