Gov. Greg Abbott announces the creation of a statewide prosecutor at the Austin Police Association on Thursday, May 14, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday unveiled a legislative priority that takes aim at Travis County District Attorney José Garza and other progressive prosecutors by creating a statewide prosecutorial office with authority to intervene in local cases.
Under Abbott’s plan, the statewide prosecutor would monitor cases to ensure that they are handled properly within a yet-to-be-determined timeline — and would have the authority to take over cases when local prosecutors fall short. Abbott said the office also would be available to help local district and county attorneys prosecute local cases.
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“We want to ensure that justice is done for all the victims who have been victimized,” Abbott said in an interview with the American-Statesman. “The state will have a prosecutor to take those cases when the local district attorney doesn’t have the resources or doesn’t have the will to take those cases.”
The effort represents Abbott’s latest focus on Garza, a progressive prosecutor who took office in 2021. Conservatives have routinely portrayed Garza as soft on crime, though in his second term he also has faced increased bipartisan criticism over day-to-day case management in his office.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza speaks during a press conference
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
In an interview later Thursday, Garza accused Abbott of a “political stunt” and said his office has worked on programs to improve community safety.
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Abbott’s proposal “ignores the gap between politics and the realities that prosecutors all across the state face,” Garza said.
Abbott said he was partly moved to create the position after ongoing Statesman reporting last year showed Garza’s felony prosecutors routinely failed to indict cases within 90 days, an issue that resulted in the release of potentially violent defendants and others remaining in jail longer than legally allowed. Garza’s office has since addressed the deficiencies.
“The failure to indict people who had been arrested, including murderers, and the failure to indict them on time was a catalyst, the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he told the Statesman. “We have to have a state prosecutor who will backstop that kind of failure, that kind of neglect by a district attorney.”
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Garza on Thursday acknowledged “oversights” by his office that contributed to the missed deadlines but said “there are a number of changes that we made internally.”
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Abbott hinted in a social media post last year that he might seek to create the office, but in an interview with the Statesman and a subsequent news conference Thursday, he rolled out a formal plan.
Abbott said many details of the proposed agency’s operations would be developed by the Legislature. He also said he wants authority to appoint the statewide prosecutor, subject to confirmation by the Texas Senate.
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Abbott’s proposal is part of a larger package of legislative priorities aimed at prosecutors and criminal justice. Abbott on Thursday also called for a new law that would add prosecutors to the list of impeachable elected officials under the Texas Constitution. Currently, only judges and lawmakers are subject to impeachment.
Additionally, Abbott is asking lawmakers to pass a measure that would deny bail to undocumented immigrants charged with felonies.
Legal experts have raised early questions about whether Abbott’s plan for a statewide prosecutor could violate the state Constitution, but Abbott told the Statesman that the state has the authority to expand prosecutorial powers, including establishing the regions of the state’s jurisdiction. He said lawmakers could draw the statewide prosecutor’s jurisdiction to include all of Texas.
“There is really no doubt at all about the constitutionality,” he said.
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Gov. Greg Abbott talks with Kristina Byington and Johnny McLandreth, whose cousin Anita Byington was murdered in 1991, after announcing the creation of a statewide prosecutor at the Austin Police Association in Austin on Thursday, May 14, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Republican attention on Garza, particularly by Abbott, has at times emboldened Garza politically. He won re-election in November 2024 in a landslide.
A year earlier, the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature passed a bill allowing for the removal of prosecutors who adopt policies declining to prosecute certain categories of crimes. Garza has since fended off two such lawsuits.
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Friction between Abbott and Garza escalated in 2024 when Abbott pardoned a former Army sergeant convicted of murder after fatally shooting a protester who was carrying an assault rifle during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The former solider said he acted in self-defense. Abbott said the prosecution was unjustified.
Abbott also has taken to social media to criticize prosecutorial decisions by Garza’s office, including decisions to dismiss cases or allow defendants to enter plea deals.