Hays County Criminal District Attorney

Alfonso Salazar

Democrat

He lost a loved one to gun violence, and says that loss is why he sees every criminal case as a person, not a number. He's lived the system from both ends — first as a military police officer making arrests, then as a defense attorney standing next to the accused. Now he wants the job in the middle: the District Attorney who decides whether an arrest becomes a charge, what the charge is, and who gets a second chance.

Kirsta Melton

Independent

Twenty-five years as a felony prosecutor — family violence, sexual assault, capital murder in the Bexar County DA's office, then four years as deputy chief of the Texas Attorney General's human-trafficking section. She says the Hays County DA's office needs someone who has actually tried the hardest cases, and that it should answer to the public, not a party.