Men's Lifestyle November 5, 2026 0 Comments

Texas’s New Attorney General Takes Aim at Elon Musk: Will This Bold Move Shake the Billionaire’s Empire?

Five minutes. That’s all it takes to get a pulse on the seismic shifts rattling the state houses across America—a quick yet potent dive into the real laboratories where democracy flexes its muscles and shakes off the dust of yesterday’s chaos. You ever wonder what happens when the dust settles after a political tsunami? Well, spoiler alert: there’s plenty of rubble, but also a shiny new blueprint emerging from places like Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas. It’s like watching democracy deadlifting its way back to health after a brutal workout. And trust me, the moves being made by fresh faces—like Texas’ newly minted Democratic attorney general promising a back-to-basics hustle—aren’t just reps for the spotlight; they’re redefining the game. So, how’s your own civic fitness routine looking? Ready to sweat the small stuff that’s actually massive? Buckle up, ’cause this week’s breakdown is your five-minute read to see democracy in beast mode. LEARN MORE

5 min read

This Week in the Laboratories of Democracy

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done, and where I dreamed I saw St. Augustine, alive as you or me.

(The preceding sentence is a tribute to Bob’s meeting the Pope, who was, prior to the papacy, an Augustinian priest.)

There’s no news out there in the several states except the scattered GOP rubble left behind by the tsunami that brought about the Great Day of Reckoning, and there’s a lot of significant rubble left behind in state governments as well.

On Xwitter, Daniel Nichanian of the invaluable Bolts magazine provided a valuable assessment.

—Dems flip U.S. Senate, by a lot

—Dems flip U.S. House, by a lot

—AZ, PA, WI, MN, MI have new Dem trifectas

—Dem sweep of statewide offices in GA, TX

—Dems flip governorships in GA, IA, OH, TX, breaking GOP trifectas. GOP trifecta also broken in NH. Election deniers lose secretary of state bids

—Florida bucks night with GOP wins, but Dem gains

—Country elects first ever Black woman as gov

—Dems flip Tarrant Co, Hillsborough Co.

—Virginians abolish Jim-Crow era lifetime voting ban.

—Progressive wins Minneapolis prosecutor. Abortion rights wins in VA, MO

—MO blocks gerrymander

—Voter ID loses AZ, CA, wins elsewhere

—Left wins Tallahassee city

—Wins for direct democracy

—Notorious pro-ICE sheriffs lose

—ND rejects free lunch for kids

—Public transit wins Bay Area, Lawrence, Charleston

…

Democrats have won gained full control of 6 state governments. Arizona, for the first time since the 1960s. Pennsylvania, for the first time since the 1990s. Wisconsin, for the first time since 2010. Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada.

That last bit is enormously important. These situations in the states—including vital ones like Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin—will maintain through the 2028 election cycle, which means the potential for conservative monkey mischief in those places has pretty much evaporated. Yafckinghoo!

For my money, the most interesting state politician elected Tuesday is Nathan Johnson, the first Democrat elected as attorney general of Texas since 1994. From The Texas Tribune:

“I’ve tried to run a very serious, substantive campaign from the very beginning, because I think people are hungry for very serious, very substantive work from their elected officials,” he said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. Johnson is betting there’s a bloc of voters who are so fed up with the agency’s embrace of culture war fights—a hallmark of outgoing incumbent Ken Paxton’s tenure—that they will throw off the shackles of party loyalty to vote for the guy promising a back-to-basics approach.

“I read something in the electorate [in 2018] and I’m reading the exact same thing statewide now,” he said. “After eight years of culture wars and base drum-beating bravado, people are anxious about their lives, they’re anxious about costs, they’re anxious about employment … and the arguments and tricks of the Republican Party have worn out.”

One of the biggest accomplishments of Johnson’s tenure, however, is already behind him. In reclaiming this agency from Republican control, he has kneecapped the conservative legal movement, at least temporarily, said Paul Nolette, a political scientist who studies attorneys general at Marquette University. “It would be a sea change,” Nolette said. “The biggest effect would not even be that there is a Democrat in the office, but that it’s not a Republican. Who becomes the new leader of the Republican pack? That’s an open question.”

Johnson is hitting the ground running. He has announced that he will not sue out-of-state doctors who ship oral contraception pills to Texas. And he already dropped this ominous campaign promise on Elon Musk, who moved his operation to Texas because California was far too liberal for him. (Nice timing, genius.) From The Guardian:

A Texas Democrat running to become the state’s attorney general has said he will investigate Elon Musk’s SpaceX company if elected, saying it “sure looks like” corruption was involved in a deal he said handed the world’s richest person $110m of taxpayers’ money.

…

Johnson, who won the Democratic primary runoff for attorney general in May, said the award by Texas Republicans of 99% of the available grant funds to a company led by billionaire Musk, a Donald Trump ally, was lopsided. “I am not declaring that corruption was at work in this instance. I am saying that it sure looks like it,” Johnson, a state senator, told the Dallas News. “Public confidence in the bidding process has been undermined.”

Hearing footsteps yet, Apartheid Boy?

We move along to Maine, where, blue tsunami be damned, an old friend of the shebeen has returned. Yes, the Human Bowling Jacket is boasting that he is back on the scene, Gene. From WABI-TV in Bangor:

“Public numbers have us up about 4,000, and the team has been calling all the towns that haven’t come in yet, and there’s no path to victory for my opponent,” [Paul] LePage said. “We’re very, very pleased for the outcome. Looking forward to going to Washington and doing what I said I was going to do is work for the Maine people.”

“This is something that I was looking forward to, and I know a lot of my constituents were looking forward to,” said Rep. Jim Thorne, who represents Carmel and Hermon. “He has an open dialogue with the President of the United States, which bodes well for Maine and some of the things that we want to accomplish.”

I can’t wait for his first floor speech. [Editor’s note: Maine’s congressional race will come down to a ranked-choice runoff.]

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Official Cultural Ambassador Friedman of the Algarve brings us a chorus of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” From Oklahoma Voice:

Democrats not only maintained their existing seats, but gained six more in the state House by ousting five Republican incumbents and winning one other open seat previously held by the other party. … House Minority Leader Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said her caucus knew there was a need for the Democratic Party to focus on solutions for working families, so this election they honed in on finding candidates who aligned with solving these issues. She said there’s excitement mixed with disappointment over Tuesday night’s outcomes. Nationally, Democrats made huge gains in other states winning governorships, statewide offices, and congressional seats. Oklahoma didn’t see a similar blue wave as the GOP continued its dominance.

Sing it, Oklahoma!

This is your democracy again, America. Cherish it.