Republican Phil Sorrells, a former judge, will be the next Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney.
Sorrells defeated Democrat Tiffany Burks, a long-time prosecutor in the county DA's office, for the top spot.
Sorrells listed himself as a conservative Republican on his bio and said he resigned from his criminal court bench of 25 years to run for district attorney. Prior to being a judge, Sorrells worked as an assistant district attorney and a felony prosecutor.
Burks, a Democrat from Oak Cliff, has spent 24 years as a prosecuting attorney and served as an assistant district attorney in Fort Bend County until she moved home to North Texas and began working with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office in 1999.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Current Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson, who is the first woman to hold the office and who was elected in 2015, announced last November that she would not be seeking another term.
During her time as district attorney, Wilson oversaw the enhancement of public safety through the creation of specialized teams such as Elder Financial Fraud and Intimate Partner Violence and worked to develop comprehensive discovery compliance protocols for law enforcement agencies and crime labs, the first such policies in Texas. She also founded Tarrant County's first Conviction Integrity Unit to guarantee fair prosecution, one of only 17 in the nation at the time of its founding.
DECISION 2022
Sign up for our Breaking Newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
