Toribio “Terry” Palacios easily beat his Republican challenger Tuesday night to become Hidalgo County’s next district attorney.
With nearly 90% of the vote on Tuesday night, Palacios beat Juan Tijerina, a defense attorney, by nearly 30,000 votes.
Palacios received 61.3% of the vote with 70,864 people casting ballots in his favor, while Tijerina received 38.7% with 44,730 votes.
Palacios was confident when reached for comment Tuesday.
“I feel really good. I feel really good about the numbers,” he said. “They all came out, and I’m very happy about getting those numbers.”
He also thanked everyone who voted for him and said that he will prove to those who didn’t support him that he is going to do a great job.
“I’m here for the community, and I don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican or Independent,” Palacios said. “I’m going to treat you with dignity and respect. That’s what I’m going to do.”
He also said that county races in Hidalgo County, which lean Democrat, are typically decided during the March primary.
“We don’t have two races in one year. It happened this year because of the Republican Party,” Palacios said. “But I thank them for coming out, again. A lot of people thought I already had won and didn’t think that they had to come out again. I appreciate them coming out again and supporting.”
The newly elected district attorney was Edinburg’s longtime municipal judge and a defense attorney.
He will replace his nephew, Ricardo Rodriguez Jr., who chose not to seek reelection.
Following his victory in the March primary, Palacios promised to transform the Hidalgo County DA’s Office.
He previously told The Monitor that he wants to specialize the office’s major crimes unit, creating a stable of prosecutors who specialize in a narrow scope of crimes.
“We’ve got crimes against children as a specialty, as a special type of prosecutor that just prosecutes crimes against children. We need to go ahead and get a group of prosecutors that do major crimes, homicides, armed robberies. We need to do one for public corruption. We need one for white collar crimes,” Palacios said in March.
Palacios’ wife, Hope, is currently the chief of the special crimes division that prosecutes crimes against children.
He also said he wants to use a “rocket docket” to expedite the process for people accused of nonviolent offenses.
“If a person is in jail and is sitting in there on a nonviolent offense, I think we need to rush that. … They used to have that in Cameron County, and we rush the indictment, make sure it’s right, and get them into court a lot earlier to lessen the burden on taxpayers,” he said after his primary victory.
The idea is particularly pertinent given the overcrowding of the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center that has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars over the last two decades.
Palacios also previously told the newspaper that he wants to increase community engagement by providing comprehensive services for survivors of violent crimes, while also investing in the social infrastructure to intervene with youth before they end up in the criminal justice system.
“I think if we get them early, before they break the law, I think that will lessen our inmate population. I mean, I think it’s going to take a little investment, but we invest in businesses all the time for cities. We could invest in our youth,” Palacios said.
The new District Attorney said his vision calls for a “family crisis center” where, for instance, a victim of sexual assault can find all the services they need under one roof.
During a forum hosted by the nonprofit Futuro RGV earlier this year, Palacios also said the center could be used to treat young people with substance abuse or mental health issues.
Staff writer Francisco Jimenez contributed to this report.
