By Casey Murray
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
James Talarico can add Thomas J. Henry, a prominent Texas trial attorney, to his list of endorsements – even though the law firm is one of his opponent’s top donors.
“I’m here to announce my support for James Talarico,” Henry says in a video posted to social media on Wednesday. “The reason I’m supporting James is I had the opportunity to meet him in person” and his approach to issues is “balanced, straightforward and honest.”
Henry’s law firm previously donated more than $600,000 to a PAC supporting Talarico’s opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, during his GOP primary race against incumbent John Cornyn.
Henry, whose billboards are ubiquitous across Texas, acknowledged that in the video, saying, “I supported Paxton in the race against Cornyn.”
“One of the reasons I did that was because Cornyn had been in office way too long,” Henry explains. “Politicians shouldn’t serve endless terms in the U.S. Senate.”
The law firm gave one donation of $250,000 on May 7 and one of nearly $400,000 on May 12. The runoff was May 26. The firm didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Cornyn was more closely aligned with tort-reform groups that have helped transform the state’s legal landscape in favor of businesses, the most powerful being Texans for Lawsuit Reform. The group built political prominence in the state GOP after the party took control from Democrats in the early 2000s. It generally favors limiting payouts for individuals from companies, like in medical malpractice cases.
Trial lawyers like Henry have largely been on the outs since then, and are generally more closely aligned with Democrats, but in recent years have made some overtures to anti-establishment Republicans, including Paxton, who are less friendly to big business. Henry’s past donations mostly went to Democrats.
Paxton has other donors who are trial attorneys, like Houston-based personal injury attorney Muhammad Aziz, who gave nearly $300,000 to groups supporting Paxton, and who has also supported Democrats in the past.
State Politics Reporter
Casey Murray is a state politics reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login