DALLAS — Dallas-based attorney and civil rights activist Lee Merritt this weekend announced he will run to unseat Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton via an announcement on Twitter.

“I am running for Attorney General of Texas. Texas deserves an attorney general that will fight for the constitutional rights of all citizens,” he wrote.

Merritt has represented the families of several people killed in police shootings. That includes the families of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old man who in 2018 was shot and killed in his home by an off-duty police officer, and Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman who was shot and killed in her home by a Fort Worth police officer.

It’s anticipated Paxton will run for a third term in office.

The attorney general has spent most of his time in office under felony indictment. Paxton pleaded not guilty in 2015 to three state securities fraud charges but is yet to face trial.

In 2020, much of Paxton’s senior staff accused him of committing crimes to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, whom some of the Republican’s former deputies now say had a hand in work done on Paxton’s home. Following the remarkable revolt that riled Texas politics, all of Paxton’s accusers quit or were fired and four later sued the attorney general under the state’s whistleblower law.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.