EDITORIAL: Jane Davis our recommendation in primary runoff for Bexar County district attorney

May 13-Bexar County voters have two dramatically different choices for criminal district attorney in the May 26 Democratic primary runoff, for which early voting starts Monday.

Different but not nearly equivalent.

We recommend Jane Davis as the clearly superior candidate over Luz Elena Chapa after the two women emerged from a field of eight candidates on the March 3 primary ballot.

Unlike Chapa, a former judge who lost her reelection bid for the 4th Court of Appeals in November 2024, Davis has tried criminal cases - more than 400 of them in her roughly four decades of prosecutorial experience.

Chapa has attempted to spin the fact that she has tried zero cases as a prosecutor as a good thing. But it doesn't pass the smell test. It borders on gaslighting when she said at a candidate debate that being a former appellate justice puts her on par with prosecutors in that she's "graded all of their papers."

It's hard to imagine another professional leadership position in which one could claim that someone who has never done a job should be in charge of people responsible for doing that very thing - a hospital chief of surgery who has never operated on a patient, a fire chief who has never extinguished a blaze, a police chief who has never protected and served.

By contrast, Davis has honed her prosecutorial know-how with plenty of doing, having worked in nearly every section of the district attorney's office and currently running its juvenile division.

Here again, Chapa insists that not having worked in the Bexar County District Attorney's Office - she's never worked in any district attorney's office - is something to be desired. The reality is that while being "an outsider" can be a selling point on an emotional level, it's not a qualification.

It's more meaningful that most of the candidates who did not reach the runoff endorsed Davis, including people who work in the district attorney's office, formerly worked in the office and never worked in it. They all wanted the job, but they understand how critical it is the district attorney be able to lead from a base of doing, not merely reviewing.

Chapa says her lack of prosecutorial experience is insignificant because the job of district attorney is about management and administration. But her argument goes against her in that Davis by far is a more experienced and effective leader, with an extensive work history in the district attorney's office.

It would be a stretch to say that Chapa demonstrated effective leadership during her time on the 4th Court of Appeals. Indeed, we've learned that the workplace culture at that court has improved markedly since she was defeated in her reelection bid last year. It's well-chronicled how Chapa insisted on continuing to work from home well after the COVID-19 pandemic had subsided - hardly a work habit that inspires confidence.

Putting Chapa's disqualifications aside, Davis was - and remains - our choice over the six candidates who did not make the runoff ballot.

It's not that Davis has been practicing this profession for so long, but rather how that time has shaped her and prepared her to lead with a no-nonsense approach to prosecution that acknowledges fairness and accountability while pushing aside politics in favor of justice for all.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 11:14 AM.