Texas House of Representatives
State Rep. Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) on Tuesday morning said he will drop his bid to run for state attorney general and instead turn his full attention to replacing outgoing Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson.
“I was humbled by the number of individuals in Tarrant County who asked me to consider running for the position,” Krause said in a statement. “After much prayer and consideration, our family is excited about the opportunity to serve our home county as the next Criminal District Attorney and carry on the great work and legacy of CDA Wilson.”
Krause, who has served in the state Legislature since 2013 out of District 93, which includes parts of Fort Worth and Arlington, announced earlier that he would leave the state capitol to make a bid for what promises to be a hotly contested Republican primary for attorney general pitting incumbent Ken Paxton against George P. Bush, and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert.
Wilson, a two-time incumbent, announced earlier this month that she would not run for another term.
Krause joins a field vying to replace Wilson that includes Republicans Phil Sorrells, a county court judge; Mollee Westfall, a district court judge; and Democrat Tiffany Burks, an assistant district attorney in Wilson’s office. Sorrells on Monday picked up the endorsement of former Gov. Rick Perry. Westfall enjoys the support of John Cayce, a former chief justice of Texas' Second Court of Appeals and now a partner at Kelly Hart in Fort Worth, who was thought to have an interest in the job before throwing in for the district court judge.
The Texas primary is March 1. The deadline for candidates to file for a place on the ballot is Dec. 13. Krause said he would file after the Thanksgiving holiday.
“I am committed to protecting the rights and liberties of Texans and will remain a faithful, conservative fighter as District Attorney for the people of Tarrant County,” Krause said.
Over the past four years, Krause has served as a member of the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence which has jurisdiction and oversight over judicial districts and the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Krause, who studied law at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, recently made headlines in his role as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating when he sent notice to the Texas Education Agency that the committee would be beginning an inquiry “into Texas school district content.”
Included in a letter uncovered by the Texas Tribune, Krause said his committee wanted to know if school districts possessed copies from a list of 850 titles and how much the district spent on them. The committee also sought information on any other title that might be in violation of the so-called “critical race theory law” that was designed to regulate how race-related subjects are addressed in public schools.
According to House Bill 3979, a teacher or school cannot “require or make part of a course” that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” or that one is “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive” based on their race or sex.
Among those books on the list included The Confessions of Nat Turner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by William Styron, and Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot.
Other titles of concern to the committee included books addressing subjects about teen pregnancy, abortion, and homosexuality.
Krause is a founding member of the Texas Freedom Caucus, a consortium of the Texas House of Representatives “committed to amplifying the voice of liberty-minded, grassroots Texans who want bold action to protect life, strengthen families, defend the U.S. and Texas Bills of Rights, restrain government, and revitalize personal and economic freedoms in the State of Texas.”