Montoya defeats Trejo for Democratic district attorney nomination (2024)

James Montoya, who lost the Democratic primary contest for district attorney in 2020, will be the party’s nominee this year after defeating retired District Judge Alma Trejo in Tuesday’s runoff.

Montoya will take on Republican District Attorney Bill Hicks in the November general election. Montoya won 52% of the votes, according to unofficial final totals.

Hicks, who was appointed as DA in late 2022 by Gov. Greg Abbott following the resignation of Yvonne Rosales, didn’t face any Republican opponents in the primary. Rosales defeated Montoya in the 2020 Democratic runoff and didn’t have a Republican opponent that year.

Montoya, 33, an El Paso County public defender, promoted his wide-ranging experience – including time spent as a prosecutor in El Paso and on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma – and said he could recruit numerous lawyers to boost staffing in the DAs office.

Trejo, 59, served as judge for El Paso County Criminal Court No. 1 from 2002 until she resigned last fall to run for DA. She campaigned on her experience as both a prosecutor and a judge, and said she has the administrative know-how to run the DA’s office with 175 employees.

Rosales, who was elected as the DA in 2020, resigned two years into her term before a trial to remove her from office was to be held. She was criticized for getting thousands of criminal cases dismissed without a trial or hearing, for dismantling the domestic violence unit and mishandling various criminal cases.

On the campaign trail in recent months, all three Democratic district attorney candidates — including Nancy Casas, who finished third in the primary and endorsed Montoya in the runoff — said the DA’s office is understaffed and morale among lawyers is low.

Rosales fired dozens of lawyers and other employees when she took office in January 2021. Chronic staffing shortages after the mass terminations – and disruptions caused by the pandemic – plagued the office throughout Rosales’ tenure, leading several judges to criticize the office for being unprepared to try cases.

Hicks has blamed the ongoing staffing shortage on Rosales, who he said fired nearly half the attorneys in the DA’s office when she took office. Hicks told El Paso Matters earlier this month that 71 lawyers are on his office’s payroll. A fully staffed DA’s office would have 93 attorneys, he said.

The next DA’s biggest task will be concluding the state’s case against Patrick Crusius, the suspect in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart. Hicks is pursuing the death penalty on state capital murder charges, but it’s unlikely the trial will be set before the November election.

Crusius pleaded guilty last year to federal hate crimes and weapons charges after the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to seek the death penalty for those charges. He was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison. The only question now is whether he spends his life in prison, or the state executes him.

Since entering the race in October, Trejo reported raising nearly $66,000 in campaign donations as of May 19.

On Tuesday, Trejo said she had to outspend Montoya after entering the race last October, months after her opponent.

“I had four months to get my name out there,” Trejo said.

After this race, she said she plans to become a visiting judge or “serve our community in some other way,” she said.

“I’m still not ready to retire. So I’m anxiously awaiting to see what my next adventure is,” Trejo said.

Montoya’s campaign raised just over $114,000 as of May 19. He took out $75,000 in loans and spent nearly $194,000 on the race, including $94,000 of his own money either with credit cards or his personal funds.

“Countywide races are very expensive,” he said. “Those flyers tend to be pretty expensive. And our other biggest expense … where it made a difference is canvassers. Having people going door to door talking to voters.”

The District Attorney’s Office, which covers El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties, has 175 employees and an operating budget of $21.7 million. The DA serves a four-year term and is paid $198,000, calculated under state statute. Votes cast in Hudspeth and Culberson counties made up a tiny fraction of the total number of votes.