José Garza (Travis County, Texas)

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José Garza

Democratic Party

Travis County District Attorney

Tenure

2021 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

4

Predecessor

Margaret Moore

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Contact

Campaign website

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José Garza (Democratic Party) is the Travis County District Attorney in Texas. Garza assumed office on January 1, 2021. Garza's current term ends on December 31, 2028.

Garza (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for Travis County District Attorney in Texas. Garza won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Elections

2024

See also: Municipal elections in Travis County, Texas (2024)

General election

General election for Travis County District Attorney

Incumbent José Garza defeated Daniel Betts in the general election for Travis County District Attorney on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		José Garza (D)	67.6	355,513
		Daniel Betts (R)	32.4	170,554

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source	Total votes: 526,067
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Travis County District Attorney

Incumbent José Garza defeated Jeremy Sylestine in the Democratic primary for Travis County District Attorney on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		José Garza	66.8	64,929
		Jeremy Sylestine	33.2	32,226

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 97,155
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Travis County District Attorney

Daniel Betts advanced from the Republican primary for Travis County District Attorney on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Daniel Betts	100.0	30,283

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,283
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Garza in this election.

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Travis County, Texas (2020)

General election

General election for Travis County District Attorney

José Garza defeated Martin Harry in the general election for Travis County District Attorney on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		José Garza (D)	69.8	396,970
		Martin Harry (R)	30.2	171,469

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 568,439
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Travis County District Attorney

José Garza defeated incumbent Margaret Moore in the Democratic primary runoff for Travis County District Attorney on July 14, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		José Garza	68.1	83,248
		Margaret Moore	31.9	38,982

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 122,230 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Travis County District Attorney

José Garza and incumbent Margaret Moore advanced to a runoff. They defeated Erin Martinson in the Democratic primary for Travis County District Attorney on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		José Garza	44.3	81,152
✔		Margaret Moore	41.1	75,353
		Erin Martinson	14.7	26,870

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 183,375
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Travis County District Attorney

Martin Harry advanced from the Republican primary for Travis County District Attorney on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Martin Harry	100.0	35,316

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 35,316
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

José Garza did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

José Garza did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Garza's campaign website stated the following:

“

Our community is safer when we focus our efforts and resources on solving the serious crimes like murders and sexual assaults that cause real harm and far too often have gone unsolved. Our community is stronger when we keep communities together, instead of setting bail that places a price tag on people’s freedom, a price on freedom, that they cannot afford. And our community stands together when we show that no one is above the law and that everyone can be held accountable, no matter their position and authority. These will be my priorities as your District Attorney: 1. Our criminal justice system weighs most heavily on working-class people and people of color—it doesn’t have to be that way. We will not keep people in jail just because they’re poor. Pretrial Justice Institute found that “81 percent of Texas registered voters believe the wealthy enjoy substantially better outcomes in the criminal justice than poor and working-class people. Majorities also agree that community-based supports are more fair than money bail[.]” Yet right now, 70% of the people that are in our Travis County Jail have not been convicted of any crime—nearly all are there because they can’t afford to pay bail. The social costs of cash bail—the loss of housing, employment, and family—are devastating for people who simply don’t have big enough wallets to buy their way out. The Travis County District Attorney’s office can no longer be morally complicit in this practice. As District Attorney, I will advocate to end cash bail in Travis County. No person should be held in our jail only because they can’t afford to buy their way out. Treat substance abuse as the public health crisis it is. The revolving door of justice for people with substance abuse issues is a waste of time, money, and prosecution resources. The latest medical research on addiction suggests that treating drug use as a public health issue, as opposed to a criminal justice issue, is a more effective approach to reducing harm and promoting public safety. Nevertheless, our jails and prisons are filled with people who have done nothing more than suffer from addiction. As a result, this office will seek to pursue policies that reduce the number of people in jails and prisons for drug-related offenses. We also have a responsibility to prevent deaths—safe injection sites and harm reduction programs are key to keeping our most vulnerable alive. Unless there is evidence that a person poses a danger to the community, I will not prosecute sale or possession of a gram or less of narcotics. For possession or sale of larger amounts of narcotics, my office will consider all appropriate diversion programs so that person may avoid a conviction if they are not a danger to the community. Expand diversion programs. A felony conviction, even without a jail sentence, can be devastating. It can have a life-long impact on employment, housing, immigration, student loans, driver’s licenses . . .the list is endless. These impediments do not make us safer—instead, they create circumstances that only make it more likely a person will re-offend. Existing diversion programs often cost money in order to participate and complete and have onerous requirements that render success nearly impossible. Our office will expand eligibility for diversion programs, and we will take away impediments to participation so more people can be successful in the programs. A person will never be denied access to diversion due to an inability to pay. Treat kids like kids. Young people are developmentally different than adults. But far too often, our criminal justice system wants to treat kids like adults despite substantial evidence proving the treating kids like adult offenders is detrimental to their development and ineffective as a deterrent to crime. The Travis County District Attorney’s office oversees all juvenile cases. At the discretion of the District Attorney, for certain crimes, a child may be charged as an adult. As District Attorney, I will oppose transferring children to the adult system. I will also advocate for home-based alternatives to detention for kids. Protect immigrant communities. The job of the prosecutor is to ensure that justice is delivered equally, regardless of place of birth. We will create a DA’s office that considers the impact of charges and convictions for families and communities, and ensures that the sentence imposed is not unduly harsh for any class of people. In order to regain trust in the criminal legal system, by both victims and the accused, we will create an immigration task force composed of directly impacted people and policy experts to help Travis County move forward in making this a place anyone can call home. By treating all people equally, we will help restore trust in some of our most forgotten communities. 2. We can restore trust in our District Attorney’s office by ensuring that our criminal justice system reflects the values of our community. Treat crime survivors with dignity and respect. For too long, Travis County has ignored the needs of survivors of sexual assault and has not prioritized their needs. As District Attorney, when faced with a person who committed a violent act, our first question will be: how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again? We will prioritize survivors by providing them what they need, both in terms of services and for the criminal case itself, so that they are not re-traumatized by the system. We will pursue restorative justice. Restorative justice recognizes that crimes can cause harm to victims, and our justice system must work to repair that harm. With the cooperation of all parties, transformation and healing can occur. Travis County deserves to have a robust restorative justice program, and we will partner with interested stakeholders to create one here. Implement community task forces. We will engage all members of the community—everyone who cares about our community, anyone directly impacted by the criminal legal system, our entire immigrant community, survivors of crime and their families, civil rights groups, law enforcement, defense attorneys, and prosecutors—to join us in making our vision for Travis County a reality. This new vision of reform cannot succeed without community input, and we will create task forces to not only inform our office on policies, but to hold this office accountable to the community. I will appoint a community task force who will be responsible for reviewing all drug arrests to ensure that my commitment not to prosecute these cases is being upheld, and who will work with public health officials to divert resources from the District Attorney’s Office for treatment. This task force will also consider all budget requests made by my office, and will prioritize budgeting money for treatment outside of the criminal justice system rather than enlarging our office. I will appoint an immigration task force, who will be charged with ensuring that the office policies on immigration are fully implemented, and to keep the office informed of any policy changes with ICE locally that should be addressed by this office. I will appoint a police misconduct task force, who will independently review any police misconduct cases that are not indicted out of the grand jury or where there is an acquittal at trial, to ensure that the office has followed best practices and prosecuted these cases to the full extent of the law. Focus resources on powerful actors who have abused public trust. No one should be above the law, no matter how rich they are or just because of their job title. We will use our resources to investigate and prosecute the powerful actors in Travis County who have harmed the public—landlords who exploit immigrants, police officers accused of misconduct, and corporate heads who take money from the poor will no longer have a free pass in Travis County. We will reverse the current policy of not presenting cases involving law enforcement to a grand jury unless there is approval first by the District Attorney Office. Instead, the Travis County District Attorney Office will actively investigate and prosecute powerful actors who have abused their positions. Police misconduct cases will be independently investigated, and all cases will be presented to the grand jury for review. While the majority of law enforcement officers do their jobs with honor and dignity, for the few who we deem as unreliable witnesses due to previous misconduct, we will commit to not relying on their testimony in court (a “no call” list). 3. Together, we will reimagine justice in Travis County. We will not withhold information from those we prosecute. The accused should know what the evidence is (discovery) before having to make critical decisions, and the law agrees. Unlike the current policy of waiting until certain types of cases have been indicted before disclosing discovery, my office will adopt an open file discovery policy that will apply after arrest allowing people accused of crimes to make fully-informed decisions every step of the way. We will not rely on civil asset forfeiture without a conviction. The state should not be permitted to keep a person’s property if they believe it was used in criminal activity without first proving beyond a reasonable doubt there has been a crime in a court of law. Unless there has been a conviction in a case, my office will return the property. We will fight for change in Texas. Travis County should be a criminal justice reform leader across all of Texas. The legislature is only steps away from the District Attorney’s Office, and we need to have a voice advocating for legislative changes that support our reform agenda. As your District Attorney, I will use the tremendous platform prosecutors possess to advocate for criminal justice reform and work with on-the-ground criminal justice reform advocates to help them advance important legislation like marijuana decriminalization, bail reform, forfeiture reform, fines and fees, and state jail felony reforms. We will never seek the death penalty. The Death Penalty is morally and ethically wrong, does not serve as a deterrent, has proven to be applied arbitrarily at best, and comes at tremendous financial costs. As District Attorney, I will not seek a death sentence. I will also review all post-conviction death penalty cases to ensure that there are no forensic, evidentiary, or legal issues that should cause the conviction to be called into question. We will believe all people have value and can change. Bryan Stevenson has said, “[E]ach of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” I agree. A criminal act should not define a person for the rest of their lives. We will work to ensure that those we lock up are incarcerated for as short as is needed to protect our communities and support those who have reformed themselves in returning home. Excessive sentences with little to no chance of release on the horizon do not actually keep us safe; it just leads to countless people who are no longer a danger to society in our jails and prisons. By the time individuals reach their thirties, their odds of committing future crimes drop dramatically and recent studies have determined that whether a person is over the age of 50 is the “the most important predictor of lower recidivism rates.” Accordingly, asking for any sentence longer than 20 years will be the exception. Also, my office will advocate for the release of all parole eligible people in prison over the age of 50 who no longer pose a danger to the community. Lastly, we will proactively seek out those our office has incarcerated who have been rehabilitated to assist them with returning to the community.

”

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