By Shannon Edmonds
TDCAA Executive Director in Austin
The spring of every even-numbered year brings us the same three things: college basketball madness, crazy weather, and primary elections. And it’s a fair question to ask which of those three is the most dramatic.
While most of the election attention in March is reserved for statewide and congressional races, there were 55 local prosecutor offices on primary ballots around the state in 2026. County attorney and district attorney offices are usually up for grabs in presidential election years, but a smaller number of criminal district attorney offices (plus a few other exceptions) are decided during the mid-term elections. (And if you weren’t aware of those cycles, have no fear—part of the reason TDCAA exists is to keep track of all this prosecutorial miscellany for you!)
While 55 prosecutor races will appear on ballots around the state this year, most (37) are uncontested. Of the remaining 18, 15 involved contested primary races. Those results included four incumbents winning a new term, three incumbents being defeated, one incumbent put to a run-off, and a second run-off for an open seat. But after the run-off dust settles at the end of May, things get much quieter in our world, politically speaking. Come November, only six prosecutor races between candidates of both parties will still be on the ballot. There are many possible explanations for the lack of broad competition for such important roles in our justice system, but Occam’s razor leads me to this one: Most Texans are happy with their local prosecutor, despite what you might read on social media. And for that, we should all be grateful.
For those who want more specifics on prosecutor-specific primary results, look for that breakdown on our Legislative webpage: www .tdcaa.com/legislative/2026-primary-election-results.
Rising Stars
In our last issue, I promised you more information about a new set of awards coming in 2026. TDCAA’s Board of Directors wants to recognize young prosecutors who are doing remarkable things across Texas, but the Board needs your help to identify and recognize them as the future of prosecution in our great state. Here’s what that will look like in practice.
In late March, regional directors will begin to solicit nominations from the elected prosecutors in each of the eight TDCAA regions. (See the regional map, right, and the list of regional directors on the masthead [in the purple box] on the opposite page.) Those regional directors will then review the nominations they have received and forward suitable candi- dates to our association’s Nominations Committee, which will send one nominee from each region to the Board for final approval as that region’s Rising Star prosecutor. Those winners will be notified and recognized as such in this journal and at our Annual Conference in September.
To learn more about these new Rising Star Awards, the qualifications to be nominated, and where to send those nominations, visit www .tdcaa.com/rising-star-awards or search for “rising star” on our website.
Membership has its privileges
Unlike the State Bar of Texas, TDCAA is a voluntary professional membership organization. As such, we get bombarded with solicitations from vendors promising to help us “grow our membership” and increase the pool of people we serve. That got me wondering: How much room for “growth” do we really have in that respect?
With that in mind, we ran some numbers on our membership as of December 31, 2025, starting with elected prosecutors (not counting those offices that were vacant as of that date). That research showed that 308 of 326 elected prosecutors (94 percent) were dues-paying members of TDCAA. That can be further broken down as:
• 81 of 82 district attorneys (99 percent) were members
• 49 of 50 criminal district attorneys (98 percent) were members
• 32 of 33 county attorneys with felony responsibility (97 percent) were members
• 131 of 146 county attorneys (90 percent) were members
In other words, 98 percent of elected felony prosecutors in Texas are dues-paying members of TDCAA, and 90 percent of elected county attorneys—many of whom also have private practices on the side—are also paid members of our association. Many membership organizations can only dream of participation rates that high! As with the election summary above, I believe that shows a high degree of satisfaction within our association. Of course, that doesn’t mean things can’t be improved; we are constantly searching for ways to better serve our members. But what it does mean is that we have a great base on which to make those improvements.
And what about the good people who work for those elected prosecutors? In future issues of this journal, I’ll explore the membership rates for assistant prosecutors, investigators, victim assistance coordinators, and key personnel, and what conclusions we can draw from that data. Stay tuned!
A look ahead
Keep checking this space in future issues of The Texas Prosecutor journal for upcoming news about other association awards, an impending revision to our association’s bylaws, more membership updates, and other planned improvements to our association. Meanwhile, this issue of the journal is once again chock full of great material, including articles on a domestic violence task force in Kleberg County, handling children in CPS’s permanent managing conservatorship, and the many roles of an investigator in a prosecutor’s office. I hope you enjoy them! And as always, if you ever have any questions about TDCAA or what we do, please don’t hesitate to reach out for answers. We are here to serve you.