Two former prosecutors are running to lead the Harris County District Attorney’s office both say it is in need of improvement.

Where they diverge is how to fix it, each arguing their opponent will create distrust in the criminal justice system if elected. 

Harris County is guaranteed to have a new district attorney for the first time since 2016, after Sean Teare defeated incumbent Kim Ogg in the March Democratic primary election. 

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Your voice, your vote

A Houston Landing guide to this November’s local elections, and why they matter.

by Houston Landing staff

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Teare, a former supervisor of the vehicular crimes division, is a self-described progressive prosecutor who left the office last year to run against Ogg.

“I’ve worn the hat,” the 45-year-old Teare said. “I’ve worn every hat for more than just a cup of coffee, so to speak. If you don’t understand the inner workings of the office, you can’t go about fixing them, especially in the time frame that it has to happen.”

Teare faces Republican Dan Simons, an attorney with a unique life story that brought him from poverty and homelessness to owning his own law firm. 

Simons, a 46-year-old former assistant district attorney and chief prosecutor in a misdemeanor court, said Teare would inject politics into the office because of his support from Harris County Democrats who previously clashed with Ogg. 

“I prefer to run against Teare. Kim would have galvanized her party,” Simons said. “She would have been a lot more difficult, and I think with how far my opponent had to go to remove her, really exposed who he really is, and Harris County doesn’t need that.”

A countywide race in blue Harris County may feel like a safe bet for Democrats, but their success is a recent trend that bucked decades of Republican victories. Ogg is the only Democrat to serve as Harris County district attorney since Carol Vance left office in 1979.

Teare defeated Ogg by running to her left with the backing of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and other liberal local officials who say Ogg politicized the office by charging three of Hidalgo’s former staffers with crimes related to the selection of a vendor for a controversial vaccination outreach contract.

Public fears over crime linger despite a decrease from recent highs during the pandemic, and Teare will not enjoy the advantages of incumbency in November. 

Competitive race 

The divisive Democratic primary in March indicates the district attorney’s race is likely to be the most competitive local election on the Nov. 5 ballot, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. 

“It’s a winning message for Democratic primary voters in Harris County,” Jones said. “What’s not clear is if it’s a winning message for November voters in the county. The gap isn’t insurmountable for the right Republican with the right campaign.”

Teare said he doesn’t see his political ideology as a burden. He plans to campaign on a message that being a progressive prosecutor means being smart on crime, not soft, he said. 

“If you have an opportunity to have a real discussion about it… you can explain to the populace what that means,” Teare said. “It’s not, open the jails and let rapists, robbers and murderers out. It’s about not creating the next generation of those.”

A Houston native, Teare received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Houston in 2004 and 2007, respectively. 

Teare is married to Lauren Teare, and the couple have four children together. 

He began working in the district attorney’s office as an intern in 2005, becoming an assistant district attorney after receiving his law degree. He left in 2010, and spent six years in private practice before rejoining the district attorney’s office at Ogg’s request in 2017. 

Teare was named head of the office’s Vehicular Crimes Division and a member of Ogg’s leadership team. 

He has echoed local Democrats’ claims that Ogg has weaponized the district attorney’s office against her political enemies, calling it “the ultimate violation of the public trust.” 

Teare said his experience in and out of the district attorney’s office will allow him to better manage the office, reducing its staffing problems and clear the case backlog in Harris County. 

Personal story

Simons said he spent years mulling a run for district attorney beginning in 2020. After Mary Nan Huffman announced a run for the post that year, Simons said he decided against jumping into the race but purchased and held on to the “dan4da.com” URL that he uses for his campaign website today.  

The move by local Democrats to back Teare in the March primary solidified Simons’ decision to run for the seat in 2024, he said. 

Simons said he largely is supportive of Ogg’s decision to turn over the case involving Hidalgo’s staffers to Attorney General Ken Paxton. He blamed local Democrats for politicizing the case and said Ogg was primaried for “doing her job.” 

Simons’ campaign centers around his unique personal story that saw him rise out of poverty to eventually become an attorney. 

“You can trust law enforcement because you can trust me,” Simons said. “I can relate to everybody in Harris County. I don’t come from privilege … I come from a different walk of life.”

The second youngest of six children, Simons grew up frequently homeless, living in tents, campers and motels at various times, he said. Simons and his siblings entered foster care after Child Protective Services took them away from their mother. 

When Simons was 12, he moved in with friends he had met through the Salvation Army. He said that decision brought him stability as he entered high school in Colmesneil, a small town about 100 miles northeast of downtown Houston. Simons played quarterback for the school’s football team and became the first person in his family to graduate high school in 1996. 

He enlisted in the Air Force and served as a military police officer until the spring of 1999, according to his resume.

“I wanted to be a cop because I wanted to protect victims,” Simons said. “Between the ages of eight and 15, I was a child victim. There was nobody there to protect me. Predators prey on the weak and vulnerable, and I was not an exception.”

After working for several years, Simons said he wanted to pursue a law degree, so he enrolled at Sam Houston State University, graduating in 2008 with a Bachelors of Arts in business administration. He received his law degree from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 2011. He also obtained a masters degree in tax law from the University of Houston in 2013. 

While in law school, Simons briefly interned for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office. 

In 2013, he joined the Harris County District Attorney’s Office as an assistant prosecutor, where he worked as a misdemeanor chief in one of Harris County’s criminal courts until leaving the office in 2017 to enter private criminal practice before starting his law firm. He refers to himself as  “The Texas Viper” on the firm’s website.

In 2018, Simons defeated Judge Jay Karahan in the Republican primary for Harris County Criminal Court at Law 8, but lost to Democrat Franklin Bynum that November. Simons also lost a 2022 run for County Criminal Court at Law 11 against Democratic Judge Sedrick T. Walker II.

Simons is married and has one daughter from a prior relationship.

Policy differences

Both candidates agree there is a crisis of staffing and low morale in the district attorney’s office. And both said they would work closely with Harris County Commissioners Court for funding to hire more staff and boost salaries for existing employees. Each said addressing the office’s understaffing and morale will be a top priority. 

The two disagree on the cause of the office’s troubles. 

Teare blames Ogg’s leadership.

Simons blames the infighting between Ogg and Hidalgo, who have clashed publicly over the district attorney’s budget several times since Hidalgo took office in 2019. 

“It’s hard to get good people to come there, and it’s a tough work environment with a skeleton crew there,” Simons said. “You have to mend the bridges, and I believe common sense should prevail. This is not a position to use as a political platform. It’s about public safety.”

Another top priority for Teare is the office’s intake division, which reviews evidence and facts to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. The intake division, Teare argues, failed under Ogg to properly review evidence and cases before assigning them to prosecutors, leading in part to a backlog of cases in the district attorney’s office.

A Houston Chronicle investigation found the office’s intake was understaffed and inexperienced, leading to a growing number of defendants being charged without sufficient probable cause, further weighing down the office with unnecessary cases.

Teare said he plans to staff the intake office with more experienced prosecutors to review cases as a part of their normal duties. 

He said he also would create a review board of the office’s senior leadership to examine all new cases within 48 hours to ensure the charges are appropriate.

Teare also said he would stop requesting cash bail for those accused of misdemeanor crimes, advocate against laws criminalizing abortion and prioritize the prosecution of those accused of violent crime. 

Simons offered fewer specific proposals, but said he would remove all “blanket policies” for how the office prosecutes certain types of cases, such as pre-trial interventions for minor drug crimes.

“It’s important we treat every case individually and independently because there’s facts surrounding it on both sides,” he said.

To do that, Simons said he wants to empower the offices’ prosecutors to review cases and seek justice in the best way possible.

(Following publication of this article, Simons clarified that he does support the office’s current policy of offering pre-trial interventions to those charged with simple marijuana possession.)

While Simons may have an opportunity to make the race close, the largest hurdle he has to overcome will be fundraising, Jones said. 

“The real challenge Simons has is raising enough money so that voters both learn about him and learn about him in a positive way via his life story,” Jones said. “Then, he needs to use that money to convince those same voters that Teare is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You need money to do all of that.”

Teare has far outraised Simons, starting in the summer of 2023, when he launched his campaign with two separate donations totaling more than $740,000. Teare raised more than $420,000 in the last filing period that ran from the end of February through June. He ended the reporting period with $154,000 cash on hand. 

Simons reported raising a little more than $136,000 during the same period. He held just under $100,000 in cash at the end of June, according to his finance report. 

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