Travis County District Attorney José Garza, frequent target of GOP ire, wins re-election

Travis County District Attorney José Garza was re-elected in a landslide Tuesday, securing nearly 70% of the vote in his race against Republican Daniel Betts.

A bastion of the "progressive prosecutor" movement, Garza was first elected in 2020 on promises he would rely less on incarceration to punish and rehabilitate accused criminals — and prosecute Austin police officers for on-duty misconduct. After a resounding primary victory in March, he was all but certain to secure a second, four-year term.

Garza thanked county residents for their "vote of confidence" in an interview with the American-Statesman Tuesday evening.

"It means that our work continues," he said. That work will include expanding the county's sexual assault response team, as well as continuing to grow a unit that investigates wrongful convictions, he said.

When Garza took office, the unit only had one staff member but Garza said he's worked to build a team over the past four years. "We're just getting our sea legs," he said.

Betts conceded shortly before midnight in a post on X.

"Well, it was a hard fought race," he wrote, "and I hope that we have brought more visibility to the decisions made in the District Attorney's office and how they affect our lives."

During the campaign, Betts accused Garza of playing politics at the expense of public safety. A stable of state Republican officials, along with a secretive political action committee funded largely by Elon Musk, have lodged similar complaints.

The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the Musk-funded PAC, called "Saving Austin," had paid for TV ads and mailers that accused Garza of "filling Austin's streets with pedophiles and killers."

Garza has pursued a variety of reforms during his first term, including the creation of a diversion program to keep young people out of jail. But he is perhaps best known for following through on his promise to prosecute cops.

Over the past four years, he has brought an unprecedented number of indictments against police officers . Some of those cases have ended in acquittals but early last month Garza's office secured what is believed to be the first-ever conviction of a police officer in Travis County for use of deadly force while on-duty.

Emiliano Gomez contributed to this report.