HOUSTON — Harris County voters overwhelmingly voted for Sean Teare in the Democratic Primary for Harris County district attorney.
Teare sat down with KHOU 11 News a day after his huge primary win over District Attorney Kim Ogg.
"A 50 point win is a mandate," said Teare.
Teare now has his eyes set on November.
"The vision [for Harris County] is to hold violent criminals accountable and to do it competently and well," said Teare. "But also not create the next generation of violent criminals."
The Democratic primary race divided Harris County democratic voters. Teare said Ogg nor her campaign have called to formally concede.
"It's time to as a party come together and move forward," said Teare. "She [Ogg] is not in the future of the DA's office."
If elected in the fall, Teare tells KHOU 11 News he'll immediately recuse the office from the criminal case against Judge Lina HIdalgo's former staffers to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest.
"We're going to send those cases to one of our contiguous counties and let an unbiased third party look at them," said Teare.
His focus on day one is fixing a dysfunctional justice system. Teare said there's a lot to fix.
"I think the number one priority is to fix the way we accept charges, to change the intake division," said Teare.
That goes hand in hand with fixing problems at the Harris County Jail.
"It's an incredible issue," said Teare. "We're killing people at an unprecedented rate at the jail. That's because we're accepting wrong charges. We're not getting them to court in a timely manner. All those things can be fixed."
Most importantly Teare said he'll spend the next eight months of the campaign working to convince those who voted for Ogg to give him a chance. That includes some crime victim's families who argue he's soft on crime.
"I've sat across the table from hundreds, if not thousands of victims and their families in my career," said Teare. "I understand what it is to be a victim and to lose a loved one at the hands of someone else. It is one of my utmost priorities of my tenure in that office to advocate for them and get them the justice they deserve."
Teare will be running against Republican nominee Dan Simons in November. KHOU 11 News will be speaking to Simons next week. He sent us this statement.
"First, I’d like to thank all the voters who turned out to vote in this year’s primary election. It is an absolute honor and privilege for me to be the Harris County D.A. GOP nominee in the general election in November. Secondly, I’d like to congratulate the Democrat nominee, Sean Teare for winning his primary. Last but not least, I’d like to thank outgoing D.A. Kim Ogg for her service in the last 8 years. I am looking forward to the opportunity to earn everyone’s vote and restoring public safety to Harris County."