Marian Brown heads to a runoff election against her former boss, Lupe Valdez, after no candidate won a clear majority in Tuesday's primary election for Dallas County sheriff.
No Republican ran in the primary election, making the November general election largely a formality for whoever wins the May runoff election.
Valdez's campaign manager, Mike Hendrix, said Wednesday morning that Valdez was excited to move into a runoff against Brown.
“Our strategy was always to make it into a runoff so we can go head to head and start talking about the sheriff’s record,” Hendrix said. “Suicide rates are up, murders in the jail are up, deaths in the jail are up, morale is very low.”
Brown has not responded to KERA News' request for comment.
After all votes were counted, Brown earned more than 48,000 votes, about 42%. Valdez pulled in almost 44,000 votes for 38%.
Candidate Roy Williams Jr. locked in 11% of all votes.
Sam Mohamad and Rodney Thomas took the rest.
Running the jail in the state’s second biggest county demands a bold leader.
Lew Sterrett Justice Center is fully run and funded by Dallas County employees and elected officials, unlike larger Harris County and many others around the state.
The sheriff is also responsible for policing unincorporated areas throughout Dallas County and works with county commissioners to budget needs and improvements.
Each of the top candidates broke barriers when they were first elected.
Brown is the county’s first African American sheriff and among the nation’s five African American female sheriffs.
Valdez is the first woman and Hispanic elected sheriff in Dallas County, and the country’s first openly gay Hispanic sheriff.
The jail recently passed its annual Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspection for the first time in years. The pandemic complicated recent inspections, Brown said.
“Our concern during that time was to keep people safe,” Brown said. “So if we didn't write down something, we forgot to lock something in, we forgot to do something else that we were supposed to do -- we were keeping people safe. And we are proud of the fact that not only were we keeping people safe, but the two years that we were failing inspection, we were absolutely leading in the State of Texas.”
The jail often holds more than 6,200 inmates and provides medical and mental health care from the Parkland Health system, as well as rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
Maintaining that care and improving those programs and adjudication are top priorities for Brown. She says keeping good staff and recruiting more is also at the top of her list.
Brown and Valdez sparred over staff morale and leadership styles during the primary race, criticizing the other's approach while largely ignoring the other three candidates.
Valdez, who now works for DeSoto police, said people kept asking her to run again for sheriff because Brown doesn’t respond to employees.
“And you cannot fix things that take five or six or seven groups to come together if you don't respond to them,” Valdez said. “You need to be able to reach out and bring them in.”
Brown said she and her staff do pay attention to department needs.
Lupe Valdez was Dallas County sheriff from 2005 to 2017.
“I refute that,” Brown said. “Because we're not in places where she knows where we are does not mean that we're being unresponsive. And because I go to events and maybe she doesn't know about them, or maybe they're not the events that she would have me to go to. We have different preferences, different lifestyles.”
Brown worked in former Sheriff Valdez’s inner circle for three years, yet Valdez still calls her the wrong name, she said.
“And so if I'm third in command and that's how much you care, or not, about me, then how can you claim to care so much more about all of those other people who are so much further down in rank that you don't work with on a day to day basis?” Brown said.
Brown said she’s proud the department has done more in the community, like resuming participation in National Night Out events.
Valdez has raised the most campaign funds among the candidates, according to Dallas County campaign finance reports.
According to the latest campaign finance reports, the former sheriff raised more than $127,000, while Sheriff Brown and Mohamad each raised about $60,000.
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