Texas Attorney General Candidate Justin Nelson gives a press conference in front of his rolling billboard in downtown Tyler on Monday Oct. 29, 2018. Nelson is running against current Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The mobile billboard features Paxton's mug shot from three years ago when he was indicted and booked on felony fraud charges. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

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The Democrat running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made a campaign stop Monday in Tyler accompanied by a billboard truck highlighting Paxton’s 3-year-old felony indictments.

Justin Nelson, an attorney and law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, faces Paxton in the Nov. 6 general election. Early voting started Oct. 22 and ends Friday.

Nelson spoke to a crowd of people across the street from the R.B. Hubbard Center, also known as The Hub, at 304 E. Ferguson St., an early voting location, in front of a billboard truck that says in capital letters “Ken Paxton Indicted” next to Paxton’s 2015 mugshot.

A grand jury in Collin County indicted Paxton in 2015 on two first-degree felony counts of securities fraud and one third-degree felony count of failing to register as an investment adviser. Experts say Paxton won’t face trial until after the election, likely in 2019, according to a Dallas Morning News report. 

Paxton, a former state representative and state senator, was first elected to a four-year term as Texas attorney general in 2014. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary this year, and polls have shown him well ahead of Nelson in the general election race.

Texas attorney general is a statewide, independently elected office. The office’s main duty is to represent the state in litigation, such as when it has sued the federal government over laws the state disagrees with, or when the state has been sued by others over controversial legislation.

Nelson is one of several statewide candidates on the Nov. 6 ballot who have visited Tyler during the early voting period. He said he planned to campaign in Longview and Nacodoches later on Monday.

“I’m going everywhere in the state,” Nelson said. “I’m not writing off a single vote because this race is about who’s most qualified to be a lawyer for Texas, and I don’t think it’s right versus left. It’s right versus wrong.

“And I think, across the state, just because you’re more conservative or anything else, that doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters in this race is, ‘Who is going to best serve the people of Texas?’”

Nelson said he has an ethics plan for the attorney general’s office that is more strict than any candidate for the office has proposed. One part of the plan would bar his staff members from becoming lobbyists for five years after they leave the attorney general’s office.

“You shouldn’t know whether your attorney general is a Republican or a Democrat,” Nelson said. “You want someone to call things fairly and accurately and according to the Constitution.” He said he learned to separate politics from law when he clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Nelson said that Paxton cannot legally buy a gun, serve on a jury or argue in court because of his felony indictments. He added: “He faces 99 years in prison. The only reason why he’s walking the streets right now is because he’s free on $35,000 bail. It’s crazy.”

Paxton has not agreed to debate Nelson in the race, according to The Associated Press. However, their campaigns have run attack ads. Nelson’s campaign has been highlighting the indictments, and has run footage of Paxton allegedly stealing a pen from a metal detector tray next to a security line. Paxton’s campaign has run ads saying Nelson has an “extreme liberal agenda.”

Paxton’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment before deadline. His spokesman previously has called the indictments politically motivated.

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