Patrick Von Dohlen, 56, is a financial advisor and conservative activist who runs the San Antonio Family Association PAC. He previously ran for San Antonio’ District 9 council seat in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Hear from the candidate
1. Please tell voters about yourself.
Howdy Bexar County Residents! I’ve faithfully served my clients for over twenty-seven years as a financial advisor understanding that how our firm handles someone’s money reflects how we see them as a person. Every client who trusted me with their family’s savings deserved and received my commitment to their goals (that require money and planning to achieve), best effort and prudent advice. Bexar County taxpayers deserve the same.
My wife, Happy, and I during our twenty-six years of marriage have raised our nine children here rooted in our community. I’m 56 years old, a Parishioner at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church since 1997, a 5th generation Texan, an Aggie ‘92 with a degree in Agricultural Economics, a business owner, and I’ve spent my career helping people make sound decisions to achieve their financial goals based on what’s most important to them.
I’m running, not for a job, but because this county’s $2.8 billion budget should be honored as a sacred trust from taxpayers, and for years, that trust hasn’t been honored.
2. Briefly describe your top policy priorities, or the top issues motivating you to run for office.
Property taxes have grown eight times (8x) faster than family incomes. That’s unsustainable and it’s a burden that falls hardest on seniors who are on fixed incomes and working families who can least afford it. My priorities are:
First, fiscal discipline that treats every tax dollar as an individual’s or family’s sacrifice.
Second, addressing the jail crisis—not just the $15 million in overtime costs, but the fact that 85 people have died in our custody. Those individuals aren’t just statistics, they’re human beings.
Third, transparency where the people funding this government deserve to know what their money accomplishes. That’s basic stewardship.
3. Bexar County is currently committed to helping three major downtown redevelopment projects: The Spurs Sports and Entertainment District at Hemisfair, the Missions’ Minor League Baseball stadium district in Northwest downtown, and the expanded rodeo grounds on the East Side. What would success look like in those projects? And what outcomes are critical to avoid? How do you think the county is doing in terms of balancing investments in the urban core with the needs of the county’s more rural residents?
Success means these projects genuinely serve the whole community—measurable job creation, economic returns that exceed public investment, and agreements that don’t stick taxpayers with the bill when things go wrong.
We must avoid arrangements where the risk is public but the profit is private. Taxpayers deserve a positive public-private partnership where the community never subsidizes wealth that never reaches residents or achieves essential needs.
There has to be a balance. The county serves all 2 million plus residents. The families in Castle Hills, Converse, Fair Oaks Ranch, Somerset, Von Ormy, and the families in downtown San Antonio all pay taxes and all deserve infrastructure that works. I’ve heard from residents in growing areas who feel forgotten as they drive on pot-hole ridden roads while downtown SA projects dominate headlines and public dollars.
A County Judge serves everyone in the county. That means candid prioritization based on where the need is greatest, not which projects generate the best press coverage and make some politician look good.
4. County leaders have struggled for several years now to come together on their shared spending priorities, including removing projects that are unlikely to be completed from the county’s capital plan. With federal pandemic funding that’s buoyed past budgets drying up, how do you think the five-member court should prepare for the fiscal cliff Bexar County is expected to hit in 2028?
Bexar County has spent one-time federal money on ongoing obligations. That’s not just a budgeting mistake, it’s breaking the taxpayers trust who will have to cover the gap.
Responsible stewardship needs to start now. Every program must justify its continuation based on whether it actually serves people and is essential not simply because it existed in last year’s budget.
We need honest and transparent accounting that exposes and removes capital projects that will never happen, align recurring costs with recurring revenue, and build reserves for the transition from federal funds and for emergencies just like the importance of people having savings for unexpected expenses.
I think the current leaders care but compassion isn’t the same as acting and implementing prudently based on essential needs. Residents who will face higher taxes or reduced services in 2027 deserve a County Judge willing to make hard yet good decisions now rather kick the problem into the future so they can look great but that will ultimately lead to government failures that hurt our community and taxpayers.
5. Bexar County is the only local taxing entity with a road and flood control line item on its portion of the tax bill. After one of the most deadly flood years in almost three decades, what do you think the county should be doing to address flood safety?
Thirteen (13) people have been confirmed dead from floods this past year. Families are still grieving. When residents pay a dedicated tax for flood control, they’re trusting Bexar County to protect them and that trust means we must respond now and plan ahead going forward.
Above the budget and certainly above politics, this is about people especially the most vulnerable to flooding, often in lower-income areas, are actually being protected.
An audit is needed to determine where current funds are going and whether they’re reaching the areas with greatest need. I’d accelerate delayed essential projects and dramatically improve warning systems.
Dedicated tax revenue creates an ethical and even moral obligation to deliver dedicated results. The families who’ve lost everything to flooding, some of them twice, deserve accountability, not excuses or false compassion where the infrastructure needed is never accomplished.
Read more
Former mayor beats out incumbent in Democrats’ Bexar County judge primary
Meet the candidates running for office in Bexar County in 2026
In tough recruitment year, GOP turns to Von Dohlen for Bexar County Judge race
