Six set on replacing Sharen Wilson in Tarrant County district attorney race
Tarrant County voters will select a new criminal district attorney this year after Sharen Wilson announced she would not seek reelection after leading the office since 2015.
The three Republicans and three Democrats are in the race. Three are former judges, two are attorneys and one is a state representative.
The district attorney oversees the prosecution of criminal cases and a staff of more than 300 employees. The office serves 41 municipalities and 76 law enforcement agencies, which file more than 45,000 cases each year.
Early voting for the March 1 election starts Monday and runs through the Feb. 25.
Republicans
State Rep. Matt Krause first decided to run for attorney general, but changed his plans after Wilson’s announcement.
The reason: Wilson recommended him for the position, he said.
As chairman of the General Investigating committee, Krause requested information on nearly 850 books in October from the Texas Education Agency and school districts across the state. The books covered topics on race, LGBTQ rights, abortion and the Black Lives Matter movement. He told the Star-Telegram in November that he felt the DA’s office had authority to investigate “inappropriate” materials for children in schools if the need arose.
Krause touts a “conservative record” on his website. He is a member of the House Criminal Justice Reform Caucus and the Texas Freedom Caucus. He is a vice president for Vista Bank and received his law degree from Liberty University.
His priorities, if elected, are law enforcement support, election integrity and continuing work the Wilson has done on both child and elder abuse, according to his Star-Telegram candidate questionnaire.
Mollee Westfall was an assistant district attorney for more than 10 years before becoming a judge of the 371st Criminal District Court in 2007. She stepped down to run for the district attorney’s race.
During her time in as a judge, Westfall created a bond supervision program for high-risk victims of domestic violence, according to her campaign website. She said she lowered the backlog of cases in her court to the lowest in the county. It had the second largest backlog when she took over, she said.
Westfall’s priorities include staff retention, reducing violent crime and focusing on crimes with vulnerable victims like children and trafficking survivors, according to her candidate questionnaire.
She received her law degree from Texas Tech.
Phil Sorrells stepped down from his position as judge of Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 10, a position he held for 25 years. He had also served as an assistant district attorney.
His platform includes law enforcement support, going after crimes committed by illegal immigrants and ending low-cash bail, according to his candidate questionnaire. He says he will “aggressively” prosecute criminal conduct by undocumented immigrants and “will make every effort to detain them until they are deported.”
He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas Tech.
Democrats
Tiffany Burks, former deputy chief of the district attorney’s felony division, joined the office in 1999. Some of Burks’ issues include rebuilding the community’s trust with the justice system, creating more diversion programs and addressing the bail system, according to her questionnaire.
She received her law degree from Texas Southern.
Democrats see a familiar face with candidate Albert Roberts, who ran for the same position in 2018.
Roberts, originally from Fort Worth, worked in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office from 2010 to 2016, when he joined Tarrant’s District Attorney’s Office. He left after nearly two years to start his own private practice, according to his campaign website.
Roberts said in his questionnaire he wanted to end mass incarceration, stop prosecuting low-level, nonviolent offenses and create a Conviction Integrity Unit if elected. Like Burks, he’s also a proponent of diversion programs.
He received his law degree from Texas Southern.
Candidate Larry Meyers was on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 1992 to 2016. He wasn’t immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.
