Luz Elena Chapa served on the 4th Court of Appeals before losing her reelection race in 2024. Since then she’s worked as a visiting judge in Bexar County. The El Paso native received her law degree from St. Mary’s University, and her legal practice concentrated on product liability litigation.
Hear from the candidate
1. Please tell voters about yourself.
My name is Luz Elena Chapa. I am 52 years old, and a mother of three children ages 21, 18, and 11. I’m a St. Mary’s University dual-alum, and a lifelong Democrat who was born to a Mexican immigrant mother and raised on the U.S. Mexican border.
I first moved to San Antonio in 1993, practiced outside of San Antonio for a few years, and returned to San Antonio 21 years ago. I’m a 25-year lawyer, a former elected appellate judge of 12 years, a visiting judge of one year, and a civil litigator of 12 before my judicial service.
2. Tell us about how long you’ve been practicing law, areas of expertise and prosecutorial experience, if any.
I have been a licensed attorney for 25 years. I practiced as a civil litigator for 12 years,
then served 12 years as a Justice on the Fourth Court of Appeals and 1 year as a
visiting judge. I ruled on thousands of cases, authoring nearly 1400 opinions. Nearly
600 of those were in criminal cases and only one of those was overturned by a higher
court.
3. This office has been under stress in many ways, in terms of understaffing, case backlog and crimes committed by repeat offenders. Talk about your plans to make change in the first 100 days.
We can’t just keep doing more of the same and calling it change. We need fresh
perspective and fresh leadership. That can only come from outside and I am the only
candidate who isn’t or hasn’t been part and parcel of the current problems. My plan is
straightforward:
- Fully fund and staff the office.
- Repair the broken relationship with law enforcement.
- Prioritize putting bad guys in jail and advocate for victims.
- Immediately tackle the backlog of unprosecuted family violence cases.
- I will leverage my relationships with county officials, lean into my experience, and work
- hard every single day to get the job done starting on day one.
4. Talk about your philosophical approach to balancing the public’s desire to see all types of crimes prosecuted with the rehabilitative justice policies that provide a path forward for some offenders?
The job of the District Attorney is to prosecute crimes and put criminals in jail — the
people of Bexar County made that crystal clear in 2023, voting nearly 3 to 1 against
Proposition A.
I believe there are cases where alternative prosecutions and outcomes are the right thing to do, but those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and not applied indiscriminately. As DA, I will be judicious and careful with my prosecutorial discretion, always coming down on the side of public safety.
5. In a crowded field of candidates, what differentiates you from the others running?
I spent 12 years as an appellate justice grading the papers of the others running. My
experience is broad and deep. I’m a proven leader and an actual Democrat. And while all of us pledge to fix problems and address challenges in the DA’s office, I am the only
candidate who isn’t or hasn’t been part and parcel of those problems, so I am the one
who can be most trusted to deliver on that pledge.
Read more
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