Sally Hernandez enters the race for county sheriff with years of experience working in law enforcement, and she provides a platform fit to serve residents of Travis County. She is running as a Democrat alongside Republican Joe Martinez, Libertarian Eric Guerra and Green Debbie Russell. She gets our vote because of her progressive platform with a strong Travis County-centric focus.

Hernandez advocates for common-sense gun laws and is opposed to Texas’ recent open carry law. This is especially important to students, as campus carry will continue to be a prevalent issue at UT. And she isn’t dismissive of recent trends of racial bias and excessive force used by police, recognizing that trust must be rebuilt between the police force and community. Her plan to do so includes the addition of body cameras to police uniforms, and ending the sheriff’s office’s cooperation with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raids.

While this race includes four candidates from four different parties, it will inevitably end up being a race between the Democrat Sally Hernandez and Republican Joe Martinez. Martinez provides a stark contrast to Hernandez, especially in his stance in favor of cooperation with federal immigration initiatives. He promises to “provide compassionate cooperation” with the initiative, which would allow agents to detain undocumented immigrants without warrants, a practice an Illinois judge ruled unconstitutional. Martinez also holds substantially different ideas on gun control than Hernandez, and promises to “protect your Second Amendment rights,” an argument often used to communicate opposition to common-sense gun laws. Based on his policies, Martinez is unfit for a position that carries as much power as county sheriff. For this reason, we endorse Sally Hernandez.