For years, Liz Murrill has been working in the Attorney General’s office to protect state rights, catch child predators and more. Now she wants to run that office.
“You know, it’s... an exceptionally broad reach through the office and through the statutory obligations that have been added by the legislature,” she told WWL’s Newell Normand this week. “But the office really touches every part of state government and local government through different things that we do.”
Former Attorney General Jeff Landry was recently elected as Louisiana’s governor, and Murrill is in the running to fill his seat in the Nov. 18 election. Murrill, a Republican who served as his Solicitor General, is running against Democrat Lindsey Cheek.
Murrill hopes to build on the work she’s been doing over the past years with the AG’s office.
“I think where we’ve been most active in the last eight years is building the office of the solicitor general so that we can fight federal overreach and protect our sovereign rights as a state,” she explained.
During her time with the office, they have also tackled child predators through the Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
“It’s extremely important work,” Murrill told Normand. “And sadly, we never run out of cases. We – we arrest probably hundreds of people a year just through that unit and we just never run out of cases. It’s very sad.”
Although Murrill hopes to continue with these projects, her biggest hope is that Louisiana residents come out and vote – at all.
“You know, we’ve seen elections at the local level that have been decided by two votes, two votes! You know, that’s crazy, how close that is,” she said. “And, you know, I think that that engagement is what has always really supported our democracy and the republic as a... government, by the people, for the people. It all falls apart if the people aren’t participating in it.”
Listen to Murrill’s full conversation with Normand here.