Jim Mattox - Failed Comeback Attempts, 1994 and 1998

Failed Comeback Attempts, 1994 and 1998

In 1994, Mattox ran for the U.S. Senate, but he eventually lost the Democratic nomination to Richard W. Fisher, who had been a Ross Perot operative in the 1992 presidential election. Fisher was also the son-in-law of former Third District Republican Congressman James M. Collins of Dallas. Collins lost the 1982 senatorial general election to Lloyd Bentsen. Fisher was then defeated in the November 1994 general election by the freshman Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

In 1998, Mattox tried to return to the attorney general's position, but lost the general election to Republican John Cornyn, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court. Cornyn polled 2,002,794 votes (54.25 percent) to Mattox's 1,631,045 ballots (44.18 percent). (A third candidate received 1.56 percent.) Cornyn had defeated two other candidates for the Republican nomination as attorney general, outgoing Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Williamson and Mattox's old rival, Tom Pauken. Cornyn became the first Republican ever elected as attorney general of Texas. Four years later, Cornyn vacated that office to become one of Texas's two U.S. senators.