Palacios beats Lopez-Singleterry in Democratic DA’s race

EDINBURG — Terry Palacios cruised to a comfortable lead over Nereida Lopez-Singleterry in the race for the Democratic nomination for Hidalgo County district attorney Tuesday night.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m., Hidalgo County elections officials posted the tallies for votes cast during the two-week early voting period, as well as those cast via mail. Those results showed Palacios ahead by 2,339 votes.

By the end of the night, Palacios’ nearly 7% early vote lead over Lopez-Singleterry had remained largely unchanged.

Once Election Day totals rolled in, it was clear Palacios had won the Democratic nomination.

“It feels good. It feels good,” Palacios said when reached for comment on the early voting results.

“I think the voters have decided and, you know, it’s not my family, it’s the voters and a whole bunch of them in Hidalgo County,” he said.

Palacios had won 20,854 votes to Lopez-Singleterry’s 18,525, with 93% of precincts reporting as of press time — a lead of nearly 6 percentage points, county records show.

All election results remain unofficial until canvassed by the Hidalgo County Commissioners’ Court.

Lopez-Singleterry declined to speak on the phone, but did offer a statement via email.

“We may not be claiming victory tonight, but we have shown how many of our friends, family, and neighbors are tired of the compadre system of Justice that has prevailed in this county for so many years,” Lopez-Singleterry said.

Lopez-Singleterry said she wished Palacios luck in the upcoming general election.

The victor in Tuesday’s Democratic primary will go on to face Republican challenger Juan Tijerina in November.

Tijerina, who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination, nonetheless collected 8,342 votes in early voting, county records show.

Palacios said he plans to transform the Hidalgo County DA’s office should he emerge victorious in November.

He wants to specialize the office’s major crimes unit, creating a stable of prosecutors who each focus on 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.

“I think when we specialize in those types of crimes, we’ll be more efficient, more effective,” he said.

He also wants to expedite the process for defendants who are accused of nonviolent offenses through the use of the so-called “rocket docket.”

“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.

The longtime Edinburg municipal judge also has plans to increase community engagement between the DA’s office and the populace at large by creating more comprehensive services for survivors of violent crimes, as well as investing in a social infrastructure system that would intervene with disadvantaged youth before they enter 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.

Palacios’ vision calls for a “family crisis center” that would allow survivors of violent crimes, such as sexual assault, to be able to find all the services they need under one roof, from a SANE nurse exam, to crisis counseling.

The center could also be a place to treat young people with substance abuse or mental health issues, in order to “treat them and evaluate them and help them out before they become criminals,” Palacios said.

But Palacios was less certain about a new mandate issued by Gov. Greg Abbott — and supported by an opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton — to criminalize transgender affirming treatments for young people.

In a Feb. 22 letter addressed to the Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS), the governor referenced Paxton’s opinion stating that gender-affirming treatments on young people constitutes “child abuse.”

In line with that opinion, Abbott called for DFPS to investigate “any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”

The letter further demanded that all so-called “mandated reporters,” which includes teachers and healthcare providers, must report families who provide such gender-affirming treatments for their children.

“The Texas Dept. of Family & Protective Services will enforce this ruling and … refer for prosecution any such abuse,” Abbott tweeted later that same day.

But while Palacios said he does not tend to agree with the governor, he also said he was unaware of the new mandate.

“I haven’t heard that very much. I can’t comment too much about it, but, I will definitely look into it,” Palacios said.

“The little bit you told me, I don’t agree with it, but we’ll look at everything,” he said, before adding that if state law changes he will be required to comply.

13TH COURT OF APPEALS

Meanwhile, in the Republican Primary for Place 3 on the 13th Court of Appeals, former state legislator Aaron Peña had a healthy lead over his opponent, Weslaco attorney Ysmael Fonseca.

Early voting tallies listed on the state Secretary of State’s elections website showed Peña with a 3,657 vote lead over Fonseca with 26% of polling locations reporting.

It feels amazing,” Peña said when reached by phone.

“I’ve spent months and months and months driving the 20-county district. I put 50,000 miles on my car and I met thousands of people and it’s nice to finally put a ribbon in it,” he said.

A message seeking comment from Fonseca went unreturned Tuesday night.

The winner of Tuesday’s primary will go on to face Democratic candidate Leticia Hinojosa in November.

When asked what prompted him to run for the GOP nomination, Peña said it was a combination of factors.

Being closer to his elderly parents after a career spent in the Texas House of Representatives and serving in various state agencies was one factor in his decision.

But putting his various professional experiences to use, while offering voters a chance to diversify the appellate court was another, said the attorney who in 2010 switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

“This court is not reflective of the South Texas population,” Peña said.

However, rather than the Rio Grande Valley becoming more conservative over the years, Peña said the electorate here has remained much the same. Instead, it’s the political parties that have shifted away from the voters, he said.

“They found that the AOC version of the party is not the version that they remember under JFK or Bill Clinton,” Peña said, speaking of New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, one of the country’s leading progressives.

“The values of this community haven’t changed, the parties have changed,” he said.