Voters are choosing between Jane Davis and Luz Elena Chapa on Tuesday, with the winner going on to face Republican Ashley Foster in November.
SAN ANTONIO — In addition to important statewide races, Bexar County voters on Tuesday will decide the Democratic nominee for district attorney–the county’s chief prosecutor that oversees about 50,000 criminal cases a year.
Luz Elena Chapa won 23.8% of the vote in the March primary and Jane Davis finished second with 18.2%. Voters have a much clearer option in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff after a packed field of eight candidates was whittled down to two.
But both candidates bring vastly different perspectives to their respective bids to succeed Joe Gonzales, who will retire later this year after serving as Bexar County DA since 2019. The winner will go on to face Ashely Foster in November; Foster, an experience assistant DA herself, ran unopposed in the March Republican Primary.
Chapa has never tried a criminal case but most recently served as a Fourth Court of Appeals judge for over a decade, a role that saw her issuing opinions on hundreds of criminal cases. Before that, she practiced civil litigation and also represented families going through major injuries.
“A lot of those cases are very complex,” she said. “You really have to focus in on details, you have to focus on evidence, building strong cases to set your best foot forward.”
When she was first took up the gavel in 2012, Chapa says, she was the youngest appellate judge in the Texas.
Davis has been a prosecutor for four decades, having worked in nearly ever section of the DA’s office. She has also served as an assistant district attorney for seven different DAs. She touted her experience trying over 400 jury trials and her vast know-how of the district attorney’s office’s inner machinery; currently, Davis leads the Juvenile Section.
“I know what every section can do and how to do it,” she said. “We need a strong DA who can come in on day one and know what to do, and not have to be coming in at an internship position.”
Track live results after polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday night here.