Tuesday’s decisive Democratic wave reached deep into down-ballot races, including those for critical state attorney general (AG) offices. Democrats won nearly all of the closely contested AG races and gained five offices, bringing them to 29 AGs to Republicans’ 22. The flips include Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas, states where Republicans had held the office for years and, in Texas, for decades. The results reflected an electorate voting largely along party lines, with very little ticket splitting, and powerful coattail effects from top-of-the-ballot US Senate races. In Georgia, for example, the Democratic AG candidate’s vote share ran within a few points of the party’s candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state. 

These results will reshape the state AG landscape. Texas and Georgia, with their current Republican AGs, had been among the most active Republican offices challenging federal policy under the Biden Administration, and, more recently, supporting the Trump Administration’s agenda. Now, both states’ Democratic AGs-elect have made clear they will push back on the Trump Administration where they see federal overreach.

Many of the incoming AGs have signaled a degree of AI skepticism, and virtually all of them have focused on the issues of affordability (especially with respect to utility costs), consumer protection, antitrust and competition, and corporate accountability. This likely means even more scrutiny of pricing, market concentration, scams, and AI-related consumer harms. 

Below, we briefly profile each of the new AGs and assess what their arrival portends for companies within their reach.

Flipped Seats and Surprise Outcomes

Georgia 

Democratic State Representative Tanya Miller was elected as Georgia AG, defeating Republican State Senator Brian Strickland by roughly 11 points. She replaces Republican Chris Carr and will be the first woman to serve as Georgia’s AG and the first Democrat to hold the office since 2010. Miller, a former federal prosecutor, ran on a platform of public safety, consumer protection, and government accountability. She pledged to make the office Georgians’ “law firm.”

• Consumer protection and competition. AG-elect Miller has vowed to use the state’s consumer protection tools and the office’s “full anti-trust authority.” Miller’s focus on grocery prices, utilities, and antitrust suggests heightened scrutiny of pricing and market concentration, along with enforcement against scams, robocalls, and predatory lending.
• Public safety. In addition to her top priorities related to crime, her pledge to pursue businesses that enable human trafficking could expand scrutiny of companies in affected industries.
• Federal and multistate litigation. Miller has said she would potentially but not reflexively join Democratic AGs in multistate litigation against Trump Administration policies, depending on whether doing so would help Georgians.

AG-elect Miller has spent more than two decades as a courtroom litigator, including as a federal prosecutor in New York and as Chief Senior District Attorney in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. She has served in the Georgia House since 2023, and her colleagues elected her House Democratic Caucus Chair in November 2024.

Iowa

Iowa voters elected Democrat Nate Willems as AG, defeating Republican incumbent Brenna Bird 51–49. Prior to Bird’s election in 2022, the seat was long held by Democrat Tom Miller. Willems campaigned on workers’ rights, affordability, consumer protection, corporate accountability, public safety, protection for Iowa seniors, and environmental protection. 

• Labor and employment. Similar to a number of other Democratic AGs, Willems promised to create a dedicated Wage Theft Recovery Unit to investigate employers not only for alleged wage theft but also for worker misclassification and other labor law violations; such units often receive referrals from local organized labor chapters regarding nonunion shops.
• Environment. Willems also emphasized holding corporations accountable for pollution and has pledged not to accept campaign contributions from corporate actors that are under investigation or have been found responsible for pollution. His plans additionally call for notifying nearby residents when settlements involving pollution incidents are reached.
• Federal and multistate litigation. Willems has pledged to focus on issues directly affecting Iowans rather than national political litigation. 

AG-elect Willems is a workers’ compensation and labor attorney at a private law firm. He has longstanding ties to organized labor, serving on the executive board of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Willems was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2008 and served from 2009 to 2013, including on the Labor, Education, and Ways and Means Committees. He served as vice chair of the Labor Committee during his first term and ranking member of the Education Committee during his second.

Kansas 

In a rematch of their 2022 race, Democrat Chris Mann is expected to narrowly defeat incumbent Republican AG Kris Kobach (as of publication, Kobach has not conceded). Kobach had won that earlier race by fewer than 16,000 votes. Mann successfully ran as a nonpartisan, law enforcement-first candidate under the line “not Team Red or Team Blue, but Team Kansas.” His campaign drew support across party lines, as well as the endorsement of the Kansas State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, its first for a Democratic AG candidate since 2002. Several of AG-elect Mann’s priorities bear directly on business.

• AI, technology, and privacy. Mann has said he will work with the legislature on guardrails against the unauthorized use of consumer data. He has also called for protecting children from unregulated AI chatbots.
• Consumer protection and competition. Mann has made consumer fraud and scams a centerpiece, citing more than $30 million in Kansas scam losses in the first half of 2026. He has also pledged to go after deceptive pricing, including surge pricing and individualized pricing based on a consumer’s purchase history. Expect the office to expand its consumer protection enforcement, especially with respect to data privacy, algorithmic and dynamic pricing, and AI products aimed at minors.
• Agriculture and natural resources. He has also proposed a new Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the AG’s office.
• Public safety. Mann has also emphasized traditional public safety work, including fentanyl and drug trafficking, elder abuse, and domestic violence.
• Federal and multistate litigation. Mann criticized Kobach for spending state resources on culture-war litigation at the expense of supporting local prosecutors. Mann’s victory likely means the end of Kansas’s role as a high-profile conservative litigant in cases involving federal policy, a role it played prominently under Kobach. His law enforcement background and nonpartisan positioning point to a pragmatic office rather than a reflexively progressive one, particularly on federal issues. Expect Mann to look for opportunities to participate in bipartisan coalitions, including ones that are state-interest-based rather than politically oriented.

AG-elect Mann is a former police officer and later served as prosecutor in Wyandotte County and as a senior staff attorney at the Kansas Securities Commission, where he handled fraud and scams. Since 2016, he has run his own law firm, focusing on representing victims of drunk driving. He previously served on the national board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and helped pass Kansas’s ignition-interlock law for DUI offenders.

Ohio 

Democrat John J. Kulewicz defeated Republican State Auditor Keith Faber in a close race. Kulewicz will be the first Democrat to lead the Ohio AG’s Office since Richard Cordray, later Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, left the office in 2011. Kulewicz ran on getting “back to the basic issues that Ohioans care about,” which means “taking on corrupt politicians,” “price-fixing monopolies, scam artists and robocallers,” and “Medicaid provider and nursing home fraudsters.”

• AI, technology, and privacy. Kulewicz’s comments on data privacy and “algorithmic decision-makers” signal potential focus on data collection, cybersecurity and privacy, and AI-based decision-making.
• Consumer protection and competition. Kulewicz emphasized a focus on addressing rising prices for necessities such as groceries, fuel, and utilities, as well as robocalls, scams, and Medicaid and nursing home fraud.
• Utilities. He has said he will focus on accountability at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as a priority.
• Federal and multistate litigation. Kulewicz has criticized the office’s direction under former AG Dave Yost, saying he would have “far less interest in taking part in culture war cases around the nation.” Consistent with other new Democratic AGs, we expect Ohio to step back from national Republican-led multistate litigation and instead selectively join Democratic or bipartisan coalitions in consumer protection and antitrust cases. 

AG-elect Kulewicz is a 44-year member of the Columbus-based law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP. 

Texas

Texas voters elected Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson as AG, defeating Republican State Senator Mayes Middleton by roughly seven points. AG-elect Johnson will be the first Democratic AG in Texas since Dan Morales left the office in 1999. He replaces Ken Paxton, who ran for US Senate and lost. Johnson ran on a “back-to-basics” platform of public safety, consumer protection, and anti-corruption. His stated top priority is ending the use of the office as a “publicly-funded law firm” for one political faction and rebuilding its staff.

• AI and technology. Johnson’s focus on antitrust and AI scams suggests continued attention to tech, pricing, and market consolidation, but with a different lens than Paxton’s.
• Consumer protection and competition. Johnson has also identified consumer protection and the enforcement of market-competition laws as his second priority, after reforming the office itself. He has said he will use state and federal antitrust law and other business-practice laws against market consolidation, predatory pricing, fraud, and scams.
• Federal and multistate litigation. Under Paxton, the office was a hub for conservative multistate litigation and filed more than 100 suits against the Biden Administration. Johnson pledged to push back on federal overreach, which means Texans will see an AG’s office opposed to Trump Administration policies for the first time. Clients should expect Johnson to move Texas away from the role it played under AG Paxton as a close partner of the Trump Administration and a leader of Republican multistate initiatives. He may also join Democratic-led coalitions on consumer protection, antitrust, and, potentially, challenges to federal action.

AG-elect Johnson is a commercial litigator and mediator in the Dallas office of Thompson Coburn LLP. He has also served in the state Senate since 2019, where he passed bills including 2026 legislation establishing state oversight of data brokers and 2025 legislation authorizing the AG to prosecute AI-enabled scams. 

New AGs in Continuing-Party States

Alabama 

Alabama voters elected Republican Katherine Robertson as AG over Democratic former State Representative Jeff McLaughlin. She succeeds Steve Marshall, who has held the office since 2017, was term-limited, and finished third in the Republican US Senate primary. She ran on continuity, saying she wants to make the office more effective while maintaining its current priorities, and that her “goal is to be the most effective and most conservative AG in the country.” After the election, Robertson said she would bring her experience in criminal, consumer protection, and constitutional defense cases to the job.

• AI, technology, and privacy. Robertson has said regulation of license-plate cameras will be on her 2027 legislative agenda. Her stated aim is to protect privacy while keeping the cameras as a law enforcement tool, and she said, “I really want Alabama to lead the nation in that conversation.”
• Federal and multistate litigation. Robertson’s campaign noted that she helped lead the office’s fights “against Joe Biden’s federal overreach” and on women’s sports, free speech, and abortion. She has said multistate litigation is core to the job: “I don’t see national lawsuits as something separate in any way from the in-state work,” and those cases can address “wrongs done to either Alabama’s consumers or to our state sovereignty as a whole.”

AG-elect Robertson began her public service in Washington as clerk and counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions on the US Senate Judiciary Committee. She later served as Vice President of the Alabama Policy Institute, and was Chief Counsel to AG Steve Marshall for nearly a decade.

Michigan 

Michigan voters elected Democrat Eli Savit as AG over Republican Doug Lloyd by nearly eight points. He will succeed term-limited AG Dana Nessel, preserving Democratic control of an office the party has held since 2019. His victory was part of a broader Democratic sweep of Michigan’s statewide executive offices and legislative chambers. Savit campaigned on consumer protection, workers’ rights, environmental enforcement, civil rights, reproductive freedom, and public safety.

• AI, technology, and privacy. Savit pledged to use the AG’s rulemaking authority under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act during his first 100 days to issue rules addressing the misuse of artificial intelligence. Those rules could target AI-driven pricing and deceptive marketing. He also identified regulating AI products that could harm children as a priority.
• Consumer protection and competition. Savit pledged to litigate against price gouging, deceptive business practices, and other consumer abuses.
• Labor and employment. Savit also campaigned to combat wage theft, payroll fraud, labor trafficking, and unsafe working conditions.
• Environment, energy, and utilities. Environmental and utility matters are likely to remain prominent. Savit pledged to hold corporate polluters accountable, continue Michigan’s litigation concerning Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, oppose utility price gouging, and protect residential customers from bearing the energy costs associated with data centers.
• Federal and multistate litigation. He also said he would sue the federal government when necessary to protect Michigan elections, public funding, and constitutional rights.

AG-elect Savit is an experienced public law attorney: he was elected the County Prosecutor in 2020, and previously served as Assistant City Counsel for the City of Detroit. As county prosecutor, Savit created units focused on economic justice and conviction integrity and expungement. While at the City of Detroit, Savit led litigation against the opioid industry. He is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School and is a former law clerk for US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Nevada

Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro was elected as Nevada AG, defeating Republican Adriana Guzmán Fralick, former chair of Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board. AG-elect Cannizzaro’s stated first-year priorities are protecting children online, cracking down on financial fraud schemes that target vulnerable Nevadans, and targeting organized retail theft.

• AI, technology, and privacy. Cannizzaro’s focus on children’s online safety, AI, housing, and data centers suggests continued scrutiny of technology platforms, institutional homebuyers, and large energy and water users.
• Consumer protection and competition. Cannizzaro has also pledged to bring consumer protection cases against corporations for price fixing and unfair trade practices. Her focus on pricing signals more focus on price-fixing, personalized pricing (so-called “surveillance” pricing), and consumer fraud.
• Energy and data centers. During the campaign, Cannizzaro released a plan for how the office would handle the rapid growth of data centers in the state.
• Federal and multistate litigation. How often the AG’s office should sue the federal government was a central issue in the Nevada race, and Cannizzaro said she would “absolutely” sue the Trump Administration, protect reproductive rights in court, including if the federal government or other states try to infringe on them, and be open to challenging the recently announced cuts to Nevada’s Colorado River water allocation.

AG-elect Cannizzaro previously served as a prosecutor in the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, where she became Chief Deputy District Attorney in the Gang Unit. She has served in the Nevada Senate since 2016, and in 2019 she became the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader.

Oklahoma 

Republican Jon Echols defeated Democrat Nick Coffey with about 55% of the vote. Echols succeeds AG Gentner Drummond, who ran for governor but narrowly lost the Republican primary. AG-elect Echols ran as the “public safety candidate,” with illegal immigration, defending the “conservative way of life,” fighting fentanyl, and shutting down illegal marijuana grows as his top priorities. Current AG Drummond often clashed with outgoing Governor Kevin Stitt. AG-elect Echols, by contrast, has said he expects to work closely with the next governor and to raise any disagreements privately first.

• Consumer protection and competition. For businesses, the key question is continuity. Under Drummond, Oklahoma brought high-profile consumer protection and corporate cases, including suits against Roblox and Allstate. Echols’s consumer protection background suggests that enforcement will continue.
• Environment and energy. Echols has pledged to protect Oklahoma farmland from foreign adversaries, support the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, and oppose “environmental extremists” targeting the state’s energy industry. His stated priorities point toward criminal enforcement, alignment with federal policy, and support for the energy sector rather than environmental litigation.
• Healthcare. Echols has argued that rebates under the federal 340B drug program are being siphoned off by providers instead of reaching low-income patients.

AG-elect Echols served 12 years in the Oklahoma House, eight of them as majority floor leader, the longest anyone has held that role. He practices family law in Oklahoma City and has co-founded healthcare and construction companies. In the legislature, he wrote the bill creating the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority and a 2023 law giving the AG full authority to enforce the state’s medical marijuana laws, as well as the state’s 2019 “Constitutional Carry” law.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island voters elected Democrat Kim Ahern as AG, defeating Republican Alan Gordon by nearly 33 points. Ahern will succeed term-limited Democratic AG Peter Neronha, maintaining Democratic control of the office. Ahern will become Rhode Island’s first Democratic woman elected AG and the second woman overall to hold the office. Ahern ran on consumer protection, healthcare oversight and challenging federal policies she considers unlawful. Ahern said her top priority would be to establish a Reproductive Justice Unit within the AG’s Office to protect reproductive and abortion rights. Ahern’s victory signals continuity with the active healthcare and consumer protection enforcement posture of outgoing AG Peter Neronha’s Administration, with potential expansion into emerging technology issues. 

• AI, technology, and privacy. Ahern said she will “prosecute platforms that violate data privacy laws, promote harmful algorithmic content, or fail to protect minors,” and ensure that “Rhode Island is leading the charge to protect children from AI-generated deepfakes and the potential super-charging of other digital harms.”
• Consumer protection and competition. She pledged to make enforcement “a top priority” and to go after “landlords who jack up rents through price fixing; grocery stores that price gouge shoppers; or businesses tagging junk fees on to our daily purchases.”
• Healthcare and utilities. Ahern has also pledged to closely scrutinize hospital and healthcare mergers, including by “blocking deals that prioritize profits over patients,” and to increase the office’s interventions in utility rate cases.
• Federal and multistate litigation. She has committed to “not hesitate to take the Trump administration to court” when it oversteps its authority.

AG-elect Ahern served nine years as a special assistant AG under three attorneys general, including in the Special Victims Unit, where her campaign says she prosecuted more than 1,000 cases. She then served as deputy counsel to Governor Gina Raimondo and deputy chief of staff to Governor Dan McKee. In 2023, she became chair of the new Cannabis Control Commission, and she resigned in October 2025 to run for AG. 

South Carolina

Republican David Stumbo was elected as South Carolina AG. Stumbo replaces Alan Wilson, who had held the office since January 2011 and was elected governor. South Carolina departed from the straight-ticket voting seen elsewhere this cycle: Republicans won all six statewide office races, yet voters also elected Democrat Annie Andrews to the US Senate with roughly 50.7% of the vote.

• AI, technology, and privacy. Stumbo’s focus on internet crimes against children could also mean continued scrutiny of technology platforms on child safety.
• Public safety. Stumbo’s stated top priority is leading the state’s criminal justice system, which he describes as the AG’s primary job under the state constitution. He has called for stronger bond laws to keep potentially dangerous defendants in custody and has pointed to gang legislation in North Carolina and Georgia as models for South Carolina.
• Federal and multistate litigation. His agenda suggests the office will largely continue Wilson’s approach, including participation in Republican-led multistate efforts and challenges to federal action.

Stumbo has worked as a prosecutor for more than two decades and currently serves as Solicitor for the state’s Eighth Judicial Circuit (comprising several upstate counties) and previously served as an assistant AG. Before he was elected solicitor, he worked in private practice.

Alaska’s next AG will be appointed by the Governor, subject to legislative confirmation, and Maine’s next AG will be selected by the state legislature. 

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As described above, the new group of AGs that will take office in January comes with clear mandates and ambitious enforcement agendas. Some flipped seats, and others succeed AGs from their own party. Across both groups, the incoming AGs are signaling sustained or expanded scrutiny of pricing, competition, data privacy, AI, and children’s online safety. They are also signaling that multistate litigation will remain a central tool, whether used against the federal government or alongside it. The flips in Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas will also shift the balance among multistate coalitions. Companies may face new or growing Democratic-led investigations in states that were recently aligned with Republican-led efforts.

New AGs often move quickly to set the tone for their tenure. They may reorganize enforcement divisions, create new units, issue rules or guidance, and pursue high-profile matters that show they are delivering on campaign promises. Companies should use this transition period to assess the new state AG landscape and:

• assess their potential exposure in states with new AGs;
• review pending investigations, civil investigative demands (CIDs), and settlement negotiations to which new leadership may take a different approach; and
• prepare for engagement with incoming AGs and their senior staff.

WilmerHale’s bipartisan State Attorneys General Practice draws on attorneys who have served at the most senior levels of state AG offices and federal administrations of both major parties. Since 2015, the team has led or participated in hundreds of state AG matters across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories. We regularly represent companies in single-state and multistate AG investigations, litigation, and policy engagement. 

We will continue to monitor the transition as the new AGs take office. For questions about what these changes may mean for your business, please contact Paul Connell or Swain Wood, co-chairs of our State Attorneys General Practice.