Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar has no shortage of critics as he seeks a third four-year term, yet his reelection race this year has been oddly quiet.

The rare progressive Democratic to hold such an office, Salazar has spent the past two years investigating a Republican presidential hopeful for his role in a migrant trafficking stunt, campaigning for his party’s presidential and U.S. Senate candidates and leveraging his unique position for a place in the national party’s spotlight.

While some back home view those moves are a major distraction from fighting crime, his Republican challenger, Nathan Buchanan, has hardly generated enough enthusiasm to put Salazar on his heels.

Instead, the incumbent picked up valuable support from the Deputy Sheriff’s Union, who he helped score raises this year, and has spent little time or money focused on his own reelection race.

Among the three Republicans who signed up to run against Salazar this year, two of them had a combined 60-plus years of law enforcement experience.

But primary voters overwhelmingly chose Buchanan, who previously ran for Bexar County judge in 2022 and constable in 2016 and 2020, and has signed a pledge to support Texas “reasserting its status as an independent nation.”

He owns a cleaning company and previously worked for several law enforcement agencies for less than four years, most of which was over a decade ago.

While he picked up an endorsement from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Buchanan says both Republicans and Democrats have said they support him, the official local Republican party has largely stayed quiet about the race. Some have conceded he doesn’t have the law enforcement experience to be a viable candidate for sheriff.

Between February and June, Buchanan spent about $2,300 and had $3,000 on hand, according to July campaign finance reports. Meanwhile, Salazar spent $32,000 and had about $6,000 on hand.

Salazar’s critics

Beyond Buchanan, it’s clear Salazar has detractors.

A yard sign on the far North Side of San Antonio reads: “Illegal Aliens for Sheriff Javier Salazar” implying that he supports illegal immigration. It also said the sign was “Paid for by San Antonians who have had enough,” but there is no record of a political action committee by that name in local and state databases.

“Those aren’t mine,” Buchanan said, and he does not know where they came from. But he does criticize Salazar for being too focused on media exposure and national politics.

Salazar made national headlines in August while speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He criticized presidential candidate Donald Trump‘s interference with a bipartisan border and immigration bill.

“I’m not sure what’s behind it,” Salazar said of the yard sign’s message. “But I think it’s very telling that whomever did that, didn’t openly do it and didn’t sign their name to it. … Take the shots all you want, right? That’s how I know I struck a nerve.”

Salazar has been actively campaigning with other state Democrats and calling on voters to support Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. On Thursday, he spoke at a rally in San Antonio for U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

If Harris loses, Salazar doesn’t want to think: “‘Wow, I could have done more had I just had the courage to stand up.’ Well, I do have the courage to stand up,” he told the San Antonio Report before the event.

Doing the work back home

The Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County (DSABC) has again endorsed Salazar, suggesting his political work hasn’t kept him from being an attentive leader.

In 2023, the county approved salary increases and a policy to incentivize sheriff’s deputies to stick around. More than a year later, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is down to zero vacant positions in its law enforcement division and has made significant progress toward reducing vacancies in the jail.

In a statement, the union called Salazar “a key ally in our negotiations for higher salaries for deputies working security and traffic at the Frost Bank Center.”

As the intermediary between the deputies and a commissioner court full of Democrats, the union said, Salazar’s “collaborative approach” with various stakeholders has “strengthened the recruitment and retention of qualified candidates.”

“Sheriff Salazar’s dedication to our community and to the deputies who protect it makes him the ideal choice for another term as Bexar County Sheriff,” the union said.

Salazar, then a 23-year veteran of SAPD, was first elected as sheriff in 2016, eking out a slim victory over incumbent Republican Sheriff Susan Pamerleau and winning reelection in 2020 by a large margin. Some of his top priorities have been reducing mandatory overtime at the jail, domestic and family violence, organized crime as well as gang violence, he said.

“Attacking violent crime is something that we’re looking to continue to prioritize,” Salazar said. “We’ve already surpassed all of last year’s murder numbers for all of 2023, and half of the ones we have this year are family violence related.”

Buchanan said Salazar has been “soft on crime” and spends too much time in the media spotlight instead of walking the streets and monitoring jail operations. While employed by the department, he said he felt that leadership was siloed from rank-and-file deputies.

“I want to have an open door policy,” Buchanan said. “I plan on being in the jail, walking the walk in the halls and seeing what’s going on.”

While he has signed the Texas First pledge, Buchanan said he is not a secessionist.

“I didn’t sign it because I’m saying I’m a Texas nationalist,” he said. “One of the main [parts] was: You put Texas first. And I’m all for that, because this is our home … no matter who the president is.”

Salazar said he doesn’t “waste a whole lot of time trying to think through what Nathan Buchanan is thinking.”

He cites Buchanan’s lack of meaningful experience in law enforcement.

“I just don’t think he knows what he’s talking about,” Salazar said. “My 32 years of serving this community, I think speaks for itself.”