TYLER, Texas — Austin Reeve Jackson will replace current 114th District Court Judge Christi Kennedy this November.
During early voting of the primary election, voting results showed Jackson at 44.7% votes and his opponent Jarad Kent had 40.16% of votes. The third contestant, Mitch Adams, received 15% of votes.
Jackson is a board member for Historic Tyler and the Hispanic Business Alliance. He is the founder of the Jackson Law Firm and practiced both criminal and civil law for more than a decade. CBS19 spoke with Jackson on what he plans to do in this new position.
Tyler's population is growing mostly in our Hispanic demographic. How will you ensure fairness and proper justice for our black and brown neighbors?
"I'm fortunate to have already been working in and for that community for many years," he said. "I'm also fluent in Spanish. I look forward to bringing that to the court and making it easy for citizens whose first language may not be English to communicate with an elected official in the courtroom. But I think one of the first things we need to look at is the quality of access for all citizens regardless of their race, and make sure that our courthouse doors are open to anybody who feels like they have a grievance needs to be settled, whether it's a criminal case, a civil case, that they can come into the door of the courtroom and know that they will be treated just as fair as anybody else, regardless of the color of their skin, how much money they have in their pocket, or what their political connections might be."
According to data from the Smith County Jail, the county's jail population is increasing as well. Last year, it passed 900 inmates. The year before that, there were 774 inmates. The max for inmates is 1,149. How do you plan to address jail funding and bond revenue?
"There are multiple different programs that counties across the state have adopted to decrease their jail population health cases more efficiently, and get inmates off of the county tax dollar," he said. "And, you know, I don't know yet which one is going to work here in Summit County, or it's going to be a combination of several, but I think we have to try some new things. Or as they say, we're going to keep doing the same thing getting the same result."
What is the first thing you are going to do now that you have this position?
"The first thing I want to do is go home and spend some time with my family my two little girls. I feel like I've seen them and months been out campaigning and so it'd be nice just to have some some quiet time alone with with my kids."