When Armin Mizani won the GOP primary for a north Texas House district in March, warning bells went off in certain Republican circles.
It’s not his political ideology. Mizani is a die-hard conservative who, as mayor of Keller, proudly partnered with federal immigration officials, denounced Sharia law and slashed property taxes.
It’s his profession: Mizani is a personal injury lawyer, a career path once so closely intertwined with Democratic politics that both were pushed to the sidelines when Republicans gained control in Texas in the early 2000s.
But now, a quarter century later, some trial lawyers are reclaiming their political relevance by aligning with Republicans. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association, once the de facto war chest of the Texas Democratic Party, sponsored the state GOP convention. Wealthy personal injury lawyers are throwing cash behind conservative candidates, including Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate bid.
And trial lawyers themselves are running as Republicans on their record representing “average Texans against powerful insurance companies,” as Mizani said at a candidate forum. “America First Republicans care more about how policy impacts everyday Texans than about corporate profits and special interests,” he added.
Hidden from view of the average Texas voter, this realignment is the result of a complete upheaval of the power base within the Texas GOP. The traditional, business-first Republicans who rose to power by sharply restricting personal injury suits have been supplanted by a MAGA wing that scorns “corporate welfare,” crusades against Big Tech, and is open to the idea that Texas’ legal system has gotten too friendly to big business over the little guy.
Last legislative session, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the longtime capitol kingmaker responsible for creating Texas’ business-friendly legal environment, saw its efforts to further restrict lawsuits fail for the first time in decades. And now they’re watching, aghast, as Republicans up and down the ballot rake in cash from trial lawyers.
“For decades, TLR would blame every problem on trial lawyers in Texas,” said Adam Loewy, a personal injury lawyer and social media political commentator who has recently begun donating heavily to GOP candidates. “The Republican grassroots, they don’t believe that shit anymore. And that’s very different from 25 years ago.”
“Own goals”
In the 1970s and 80s, Texas was the “Wild West of lawsuits,” where plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely won massive judgments on behalf of injured clients. The companies who were forced to pay up saw this as a runaway system of jackpot justice. And they loathed the wealthy, flamboyant trial lawyers who bankrolled the Democratic politicians running the state.