Salazar seeks to reshape DA’s office with reform-focused campaign
Alfonso Salazar offers a balanced and nuanced vision for justice and transparency in the Hays County District Attorney's Office.
Alfonso Salazar is running for the Democratic nomination for District Attorney in Hays County and has been endorsed by several organizations, including Vote Vets, the Texas Progressive Caucus, and Texas Young Democrats among many others. Salazar is a veteran, former member of law enforcement, and attorney who believes he can best serve the Hays County community as District Attorney.
I sat down with Salazar to learn more about his background and vision for the future of Hays County’s DA’s office.
The following interview has been edited for brevity.
Salinas: Thanks Alfonso for joining me, I appreciate you taking the time to answer a few questions. I think it’d be great to learn a little bit more about your background and kind of what’s led to this part of your journey.
Salazar: Yeah, so about myself. I’m originally from San Antonio. I was raised by a single mom and my entire life, it seems like, has been pushing me to this election. When I turned 14 years old, my older sister was murdered in a gun violence incident; a guy opened a shotgun up into a crowd and my sister pushed her best friend out of the way and ended up taking a shotgun shell to the back. Um, so that changed my life. It changed my mom’s life. My sister was her best friend, so that left me kind of alone. She was already working 2 or 3 jobs and then having to try and mourn my older sister. It left me angry, alone, lost.
Salinas: Wow — yeah, that can really change somebody, for sure.
Salazar: Yeah, and so for a little bit there, I didn’t know what I was going to do. And it really does take a village of people to raise a kid. So, five women in my area that were friends of my buddy’s parents dragged me along. They took me everywhere that they took their own sons and told me that I would never be a stereotype because I would end up in jail or dead. And there was enough of that.
Salinas: Mhmm, yeah, absolutely.
Salazar: So they got me all the way through high school. But being from a working class family, poor, there was no options for college. I got my first job at 14 years old and I’ve been working ever since. And I didn’t know what I was gonna do. Well, 2 of those buddies of mine had joined the military and they came back and asked me, “well, are you going to try to do something? You should join the military. whether you want to or not.” So I did, and I became a military police officer for the Air Force. And the reason that’s important is because, I’m a little brown boy, I look the way I look, I dress the way I dress, I talk the way I talk. So from 14 until I left for the military, I was always harassed by law enforcement. I was detained for no reason, I saw what bad cops look like and the responsibility of the job.
Salinas: Yeah, having that both-sides perspective can really help in a position like this.
Salazar: Right, and so then I was a military police officer for 12 years to the Air Force. And during that process, I went to UT and got my undergrad degree in government and European studies with a minor in history. After that, I was in the Texas National Air National Guard, I went to Baylor Law School. And since I was a military police officer for so long at that point, I got the opportunity to go to the Williamson County felony division and work on felony cases, I had my 3 year bar card, so they allowed me to practice law even before I graduated. And I sat 2nd chair on a murder trial. And so that was my 1st experience as a lawyer was dealing with that. So, I went from putting people in prison because they gave me no choice to McClennan County where I set up or helped set up their first DWI and drug court. And this afforded us the opportunity to give people a second chance instead of ruining their lives.
Salinas: Right — yeah, restorative.
Salazar: Yeah, I went full circle, right? I had no choice in Williamson County, but to put these people away because the crimes were so bad. So, I eventually deployed again, and then finally, I separated from the Air Force in 2020. After that, I opened my own practice and I was focusing on criminal defense and civil rights. Civil rights cases extend out of my criminal cases for the majority of the time. It’s just officers that are doing their job incorrectly, violently or not following the law.
Salinas: Sorry to interject, but, you know, a lot of what I’ve noticed is there’s a fine line that a lot of defense attorneys draw between the civil rights aspect and the criminal aspect, but it’s interesting that you care about both.
Salazar: So I tell everybody, my clients, people that I’m suing, anybody. Two things can be accurate and two things can be true at the same time, right? Is my guy guilty or my gal guilty of breaking the law? Maybe. Did that officer violate a bunch of rights that are constitutionally protected and they hurt my person in the process? Sure, they both need to be held accountable.
Salinas: Mhmm, yeah, that makes sense.
Salazar: So from 2020 to about 2022, I shared an office with the current elected DA. And he came into my office one day and he’s like, hey, you know about politics and stuff, run my campaign. I’m going to be the DA. And I laughed and I was like, “no, you’re not, you’re not gonna do this.” And he’s like, “no, I’m serious.” And so I told him, “come back in 2 months when you file your treasury paperwork and then I’ll be ready.” And he did—he came back and told me he was running and filed the paperwork. And so we came up with a vision for the county, we put on a hell of a campaign, and we won by a landslide. Now, he’s stepping down now because of medical issues, but more importantly, he fell short.
Salinas: Oh really, in what ways?
Salazar: We created a vision for the county that we both wanted and he wasn’t able to deliver. And so I feel like the best person for the job would be me. I helped create that vision. I can finish it.
Salinas: That’s very interesting, it helps to know how your past has brought you to this present moment. Now, I wanted to ask you specifically, what does success in Hays County look like for you if you win this nomination and go on to win the general election?
Salazar: So the first thing I want to do as the DA is fix our intake division, right? What that means is, there’s a three step process. Police officers or law enforcement do their job, make an arrest, see a crime, stop a crime. Then what they do is they put a packet of information together and deliver that to the DA’s intake office. That intake office that decides what crime was broken or what crime happened, what should be charged if it should be charged. That office is wasted all across the United States and specifically here in Hays. We find that the intake division only utilizes what’s called a probable cause affidavit. Basically, it’s the story that police officers have written up. Well, when you file cases based on that, sometimes you don’t have all of the information.
Salinas: Right.
Salazar: So then when the videos and the rest of the reports show up, That report doesn’t reflect what happened and now you have a case that’s been filed, it shouldn’t have been. I wanna end that. I want to make sure that we’re filing cases that should be filed. And that we can prove up. The other thing is, I want to fix the gaps between regular everyday citizens and law enforcement. It’s not fair at all, but what happens in the United States. What happens in Texas, and what happens in all the other departments in Hayes County, affect every law enforcement officer here. What we need in our county is somebody who can stand in the dead center alone on an island. And say, these officers are doing a great job over here, highlight the ones that are doing their job, highlight the ones that are making our community safer. But then when one of them does step out of line, point that out. And say, no, this one is this is the problem. You are doing your job in one of a couple of fashions. One, it’s not illegal. But your demeanor or your actions are eroding the trust of our community. Two. It’s not illegal, but you should definitely not do your job like that. It breaks protocol or or, um, The training you received. Or lastly, it is illegal and we need to handle you because you’re one, you’re making a community unsafe.
Salinas: Yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense actually.
Salazar: And what we need to do is be proactive in the steps. Because we have individuals here that suffer from being unhoused. Suffer from poverty, suffer from mental health issues, suffer from drug and alcohol addictions, utilizing those things of self medication, jail is not gonna stop those people from committing crimes in the future. Addressing the root of whatever’s happening there is how you stop recidivism rates. And so we can get those people help right up front. We can lower the amount of crime in the county, and we can also just, for pragmatic approaches for people like hardcore Republicans or people that don’t care about second chances, we can save money and we can prevent crime.
Salinas: Yeah, I think that that nuance is so important. Now, I did want to ask a couple of questions about, criminal justice related issues, but kind of like a lightning round, if you will. I mean, feel free to expand on an answer if you really feel like you need it. But yeah, so first, what is your stance on marijuana reform?
Salazar: Look, I tell everybody this, because this is get this is what gets asked at the door all the time when I’m knocking, right? But the government was never meant to be your mommy or your daddy, right? We’re not your parents, but we are is a buffer zone between your rights and my rights, so if you’re at home smoking marijuana or doing something that’s not bothering anybody else, the police shouldn’t even know about it. I shouldn’t even know about it. It’s the problems we get when people are driving high causing accidents. Well, now you have made that my problem. I didn’t go looking for it. You brought it to me. And the one thing that I tell everybody is, do not sell drugs in my county. From where I grew up. I understand what comes with that. It turns into this thing where now you are endangering everyday citizens that didn’t want anything to do with your drug use. That’s where I draw the line in this thing. Will you start making my county more and more unsafe? Now we have problems. If you are a responsible adult, you are doing what you need to be doing and you’re enjoying your things safely wherever you are doing those things. I’m not gonna come looking for you if that makes sense.
Salinas: Yeah, and I think that’s a pretty fair and balanced take. Now, I’m curious, what is your stance on the death penalty?
Salazar: So I am completely conflicted on that question because I have to look at it from every different vantage point, right? What is it doing for us making anything safer here? Is that just a vengeance ploy? Is it less cruel and unusual, right? Let’s say we go to an extreme situation, and we have an individual that’s killed, rapes, done whatever to our Hayes county citizens, and then they’re put into prison, and then they’re assaulting the other prisoners, and the guards, and everyone else in there, and they won’t even just stop the violence while they’re in custody. The next step is, then you lock them in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and they get to come out by themselves for an hour a day, max, and the isolation is insane, and so like, what am I doing to this person now is that the punishment, and that’s the cruelty? So that’s just one of like a personal conscious thought. The other one is, do I trust the system that much to take somebody’s life? I tell my clients all the time, I have had nuns go into court and been found guilty when they were innocent, and I have had full on criminals going to court and been found innocent when they were 100% guilty. Do I wanna put my beliefs in the system that we currently have that it’s willing to allow me to take somebody’s life? I don’t know, and I think I would have to cross that bridge when I reach the case like I said, they’re all unique. I’m leaning towards note, though. I don’t think I would be able to do that in a fashion that I’m confident that it was the right choice and that it made anything better.
Salinas: Yeah, I appreciate the honesty. Because it is a really important decision.
Salazar: So let me well, let me put it to you this way, right? The person who injured all of those individuals and killed my sister is out living his life. He paroled out of prison, and he’s been out for quite a while. It changes nothing for me. him being out on the street doesn’t make me feel any different, him being in prison, it didn’t make me feel any different, whether they would’ve executed him or not, wouldn’t have made me feel any difference, and it never will undo the thing that you did to me.
Salinas: That’s fair and I appreciate sharing your personal perspective on this issue since you have first-hand experience. Now, I did want to ask about your position on cash bail reform.
Salazar: So, bail in itself has been perverted and used for things that it’s not for, right? There should only be two real reasons that they exists. One, to ensure somebody will come to court, and two, for the safety of the community. One allows people that are innocent, to continue living their lives, or guilty but accused and want to prove up their case, to live their life, right? They still need to earn money like we talked about. Hiring a lawyer is expensive. They need to continue working. They have real life responsibilities. They need to go and pay their bills, take care of their kids, their spouses, significant other, whatever may be, right? The other is, we have those people that fall into the category where they are actual criminals, and I think I should have made this distinction earlier. There are people who get in trouble, and then there are people who are criminals, and doing law enforcement and doing prosecution and doing defense. I have met both of those types of people, right? And what I mean by that is there are people who get in trouble because they didn’t think something through, made a mistake. We don’t ever parcel things out anymore with nuance when we’re talking politics or we’re talking criminal justice.
Salinas: Yeah. I see that.
Salazar: Bonds should be placed just like I said when reviewing cases. So depending on what the allegations are and depending on what the history looks like for this individual, bail and bond will be different.
Salinas: Well Alfonso, thank you so much for your time and allowing me the opportunity to interview you. I really appreciate it and look forward to seeing the results of the primary.
For Hays County voters, early voting will continue until Feb. 27 and Election Day is on March 3.