Jose Garza won his primary runoff against incumbent Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore. Garza earned 81,584 votes for 68.3%. Moore finished with 37,874 votes for 31.7% after all precincts reported.
Before the run-off Garza’s campaign sent out the mailers to Austin residents to remind constituents of his stances on various items. One of the items listed under mass incarceration was his drug stances.
Initially, this would look like a step backward from what Austin just put forward with lab testing and not going after cases that are less than a given amount by city ordinance. Even APD Chief Manley reversed course this month. Austin police will no longer cite or arrest people for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
Turns out that is not the case with Garza and cannabis.
Jose Garza wrote an op-ed piece for Medium where he outlined that his position is to stop prosecuting those marijuana cases altogether. In the article Garza outlines that he thinks Moore was making a stance that Travis county did not deserve. And how with how she should have figured out a while back how her stance was affecting the community she serves.
“We should also recognize that there are a variety of collateral consequences to a conviction. People often have difficulty finding a job or housing, lose custody of their children, and they lose the opportunity to attend college or secure financial aid,” Garza states
He continues on, stating that the money used for these senseless cases could be used to catch the more serious offenders, would make our community safer long term, and causes instability from fallout in the community.
Democrat Jose Garza will be running against Republican Martin Harry in the November 3rd election. Be sure to register to vote. Information can be found on the site menu.