Former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Luz Elena Chapa narrowly defeated longtime prosecutor Jane Davis on Tuesday night in the Democratic runoff for Bexar County district attorney. She is now positioned to lead one of Texas’ largest criminal justice offices as a political outsider.
With all vote centers reporting late Tuesday night, Chapa defeated Davis 50.84% to 49.16%, a margin of only 934 votes, in the race to replace outgoing District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who opted not to seek reelection after two terms.
“I’m very proud to be the choice for Bexar County Democrats again,” Chapa said in a statement to the San Antonio Report. “It was a close race, but every vote has been counted and we have won. I look forward to carrying the Democratic Party banner in November and being Bexar County’s next District Attorney.”
She will now face Republican Ashley Foster in November, though in heavily Democratic Bexar County, Chapa will enter the general election as the clear favorite.
Under Texas law, candidates may request a recount if the margin falls within certain thresholds and the requesting campaign agrees to cover associated costs. Late Tuesday night as the final votes came in, Davis political consultant Laura Barberena said they likely would not request a recount but the campaign had not yet definitively decided.
Tuesday’s result marks a major shift for a district attorney’s office that, under Gonzales, became one of Texas’ most closely watched experiments in progressive prosecution.
But unlike Gonzales’ 2018 campaign, which was fueled by national justice reform groups and centered heavily on bail reform and decarceration policies, Chapa built her campaign around change, management reform and restoring confidence inside an office she repeatedly described as dysfunctional.
Chapa, 52, faced months of criticism from opponents who argued she lacked the background necessary to oversee one of the state’s busiest district attorney’s offices.
“I’ve never maintained that I was a former prosecutor,” Chapa told the San Antonio Report earlier this month. “I’ve owned the fact that I’ve been an outsider.”
Rather than run from that criticism, Chapa turned it into the center of her campaign, arguing the office needed an outside perspective after years of low morale, staffing shortages, case backlogs and strained relationships with victims and law enforcement.
“Based on how broken the DA’s office is, it’s going to take an outsider to fix all of the problems, because I can see things through a different lens,” Chapa said during an interview earlier this month.
Chapa said she spent weeks before entering the race meeting with current and former prosecutors, judges, nonprofit leaders, victims and people touched by the criminal justice system before deciding the office needed outside leadership.
Her win also shows Democratic voters were willing to look beyond the prosecutorial experience issue that dominated much of the runoff and accept Chapa’s argument that leadership and management were the more urgent needs.
Chapa first emerged as the frontrunner in the eight-candidate March primary, finishing first with 24% of the vote and later securing the endorsement of the San Antonio Police Officers Association.
Her campaign also drew support from prominent Democratic figures, nonprofit leaders and members of San Antonio’s business community, helping her significantly outraise Davis during the runoff period.
Though Chapa distanced herself from some Gonzales-era policies during the race, she also campaigned on compassion, mental health awareness and addressing the root causes of crime.
She often pointed to her family’s personal struggles with mental illness and domestic instability as shaping her views on the justice system.
“People in this county are not doing well economically, and that leads to frustration, leads to potential addiction, leads to domestic abuse, leads to mental health deterioration,” Chapa said earlier this month. “And all of those are core issues that are not being addressed fully.”
Chapa has argued that restorative justice remains necessary in Bexar County, particularly for people cycling through the system because of poverty, addiction or mental illness, but said policies must be shaped by local needs rather than national reform agendas.
“We need to make sure that we have a strong pulse on our community’s needs,” Chapa said. “Certain policies that work in Travis County do not work in Bexar County. Some policies that work in San Francisco will not work in San Antonio.”
At the same time, Chapa has repeatedly pledged to take a tougher approach to violent crime and repeat offenders.
“When I do become DA, I am going to be all about the rule of law,” Chapa said. “I’m absolutely going to be tough on crime because that’s what our community needs.”
Davis, meanwhile, argued that the office needed experience and continuity rather than outside leadership.
The longtime chief of the juvenile division in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office had the backing of Gonzales and four eliminated Democratic candidates, consolidating much of the institutional prosecutorial support behind her campaign.
Davis spent decades inside the office, working under seven district attorneys across Republican and Democratic administrations and overseeing divisions ranging from felony prosecutions to juvenile cases.
Though she supported some reforms implemented under Gonzales — including cite-and-release policies intended to reduce jail overcrowding — Davis argued the office needed stronger management, additional training and clearer expectations for prosecutors.
But Democratic voters were willing to accept an outsider’s learning curve in exchange for the broader change Chapa promised.Her victory also signals the changing political environment surrounding Democratic prosecutors in Texas.
Eight years ago, progressive political organizations spent heavily helping elect Gonzales as part of a nationwide movement backing reform-minded district attorneys.
Since then, Republican state leaders have increasingly targeted Democratic prosecutors over bail reform, diversion programs and nontraditional prosecution policies, while some of the groups that once invested heavily in local DA races have largely disappeared from the political landscape.
The next district attorney will inherit an office facing staffing shortages, case backlogs and growing scrutiny from Republican state leaders over criminal justice policy.
