José Garza won reelection as Travis County district attorney in 2024 by a wide margin. Voters picked him over Democrat Jeremy Sylestine in the primary, then over Republican Daniel Betts in November. A lawsuit meant to kick him out of office was thrown out. He is still under fire.

Republicans have been after Garza (a member of the Democratic Socialists of America) for years. Sylestine raised more money than Garza before the primary and still lost. Elon Musk told Tesla workers to vote for someone who would “actually prosecute crimes.” After the election, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows started using Garza’s cases as examples of a DA who lets serious offenders off too easy. They have pointed to murder charges that were dropped, violent cases that got reduced, and people with long records who were back out and charged again. Abbott also sent a state task force to Austin to go after repeat offenders.

Austin police have been fighting him too. In his first term, Garza’s office asked grand juries to charge officers in 136 use-of-force cases and got 33 indictments. Twenty-one of those came from the 2020 protests. Most of the protest cases were later dropped. The police union says Garza goes after cops and does not go after criminals hard enough.

Garza says crime in Austin went up during the pandemic and has been coming down since. That is only somewhat true. Murders hit about 90 in 2021 and fell to the mid-50s by 2025. Serious assaults are down from their peak. But murders are still higher than they were in 2019, before COVID. Rape reports went up again in 2024 and 2025. A lot of the violence is on the east side of Austin, in places like the MLK area, Rundberg, and East Riverside, where more Black and Hispanic residents live. That leaves Garza open to criticism from the left: why must "black and brown communities" bear the brunt of his crime problem?

The worst documented problem in Garza’s office is missed deadlines. If someone is sitting in jail, Texas law says prosecutors have 90 days to charge them. If they miss that, the person can get out on a cheap bond. KVUE found Garza’s office missed that deadline 263 times in 2024. At least five of those people were then picked up by ICE. Two were accused of sex crimes against children. Some were deported before they ever went to trial in Austin.

In June 2026, House Republicans asked Garza for five years of records on how his office handles immigrants and works with ICE. They say he promised, when he ran, to consider immigration consequences before charging people. Travis County hired a Washington law firm for up to $60,000 to help him respond. Around the same time, Garza joined a group of district attorneys who promise to prosecute ICE agents for alleged lawbreaking.

Despite his vulnerabilities, the left is not yet running an outright campaign to get rid of the DSA-affiliated DA. But many of them are still unhappy. When Garza first ran, he said too many people were stuck in the Travis County Jail even though they had not been found guilty yet. He hasn't fixed that. About 7 in 10 people in that jail have not been convicted. His office did convict more people for sexual assault than the last DA. Some victims still say the plea deals are too light. Melinda Hipolito was shot, and so were her two daughters. The shooter got 12 years and can seek parole after six. She has said Garza failed her family. Activists who wanted cops charged also watched most of those protest cases fall apart.

At the end of the day, Garza won't just have to answer to the right. He also must satisfy the Left, a voting bloc which is notorious for never being satisfied and always demanding more. Republicans and police want more people charged and held. Progressives wanted fewer people in jail, more police prosecutions, and no help for ICE. Just because Garza survived 2024, that doesn't mean 2028 will be easy.