The Soros Playbook: Inside the Billionaire’s Plan to Rewire Texas Law Enforcement
Texas has always been a state where the battles for power are fought on the most local, gritty, and personal of levels. It’s a place where gun rights and property rights are sacrosanct, and where government intervention is seen with the same suspicion as an outsider at a Friday night football game. Yet in recent years, a new player has entered this political stage — one who couldn’t be more removed from Texas’s boots-on-the-ground, spit-on-the-sidewalk culture. His name? George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire philanthropist whose influence now stretches deep into Texas’s judicial system.
Yes, you read that right. George Soros — the bogeyman of every far-right conspiracy theory, the villain in every “deep state” fever dream — is heavily bankrolling the campaigns of district attorneys (DAs) across Texas. And it’s setting off a political firefight that makes your average Lone Star political squabble look like a Sunday barbecue. What we’re talking about here isn’t just a clash of ideologies; it’s an all-out war over the future of law and order in Texas, where district attorneys funded by Soros are pushing criminal justice reforms that their critics say are turning the state’s cities into anarchic hellscapes.
Let’s dive into the world of Soros-backed DAs in Texas — their rise to power, the policies they’re pushing, and the backlash they’re facing in a state that likes its law enforcement tough and its jail cells full.
The Soros Strategy: District Attorneys as Gatekeepers
For Soros, it’s not about winning flashy gubernatorial or senatorial races. No, Soros is smarter than that. He knows that the real gatekeepers of criminal justice aren’t the politicians you see on TV; they’re the district attorneys — the local prosecutors who decide who gets charged with a crime and who walks free. These are the people who can decriminalize entire categories of offenses with the stroke of a pen or redirect prosecutorial resources toward holding police accountable. In other words, DAs are the perfect vehicle for Soros’s larger project of overhauling the American justice system.
So, starting around 2016, Soros began to funnel millions of dollars into district attorney races across the country, focusing particularly on urban areas where he could elect progressive candidates with a mandate to “reform” the criminal justice system. Texas, home to some of the largest urban centers in the country, quickly became a focal point of this strategy. Soros used his Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC to fund the campaigns of DA candidates in Harris County (Houston), Travis County (Austin), Bexar County (San Antonio), and Dallas County. These candidates, often underfunded in traditional races, suddenly found themselves flush with cash and the ability to launch expensive media campaigns. And it worked. The Soros-backed DAs swept into office, promising to bring a new era of criminal justice reform.
The Rise of Reform DAs: Justice or Chaos?
Once in office, the Soros-backed DAs wasted no time in implementing reforms that they claimed would address the “mass incarceration crisis” and reduce systemic inequities. On paper, it all sounds great — who wouldn’t want a justice system that’s more just? But in practice, the results have been far more divisive.
Take John Creuzot in Dallas County, for example. After being elected with nearly $1 million in Soros funding, Creuzot immediately set about reforming the county’s approach to low-level crimes. He decriminalized thefts under $750, as long as they were considered “crimes of necessity.” In other words, if someone steals from a store because they say they need to feed their family, it’s not a crime. Critics, of course, immediately seized on this as an open invitation for shoplifting sprees — and crime data in the months after Creuzot’s policy shift seemed to back them up. Theft rates in Dallas County spiked, and local businesses were left to deal with the consequences.
Meanwhile, in Harris County, Kim Ogg initially came into office with Soros backing in 2016, although she later fell out of favor with the billionaire’s political apparatus. Under her tenure, Houston’s crime rates fluctuated, with a noticeable rise in violent crime during the pandemic. Ogg faced backlash for appearing soft on crime, particularly from conservative groups and police unions. But by the time she was ousted in 2024 by another Soros-backed DA, Sean Teare, the reformist agenda was back in full force.
Teare, who took over with a hefty $1.5 million war chest from the Soros PAC, has vowed to continue pushing policies that many in law enforcement argue are contributing to Houston’s crime problem. Like other Soros-backed DAs, Teare is focused on reducing incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders and prioritizing police accountability cases — a stance that has put him at odds with local law enforcement.
Crime Rates and the Backlash: A Convenient Scapegoat?
The argument over the impact of these Soros-backed DAs on crime rates is where things get really contentious. On the one hand, proponents argue that crime rates have fluctuated nationwide due to a wide array of factors — the pandemic, economic instability, rising mental health crises — none of which can be pinned directly on prosecutorial policy. On the other hand, critics argue that the rise in crime in cities like Dallas, Austin, and Houston is no coincidence. They point to a string of high-profile violent crimes, committed by individuals who were released or never charged under the more lenient policies of these Soros-backed DAs.
In Austin, José Garza — perhaps the most aggressively progressive of the Soros-backed DAs — has been criticized for creating a revolving door of justice. Garza’s office has repeatedly declined to prosecute cases involving low-level drug offenses and certain nonviolent property crimes. This has led to growing complaints from both law enforcement and community members who feel that Austin is becoming lawless. Garza has also taken heat for his focus on prosecuting police officers, which he argues is necessary to build public trust but which has alienated him from local law enforcement.
Then there’s Joe Gonzalez in Bexar County, where San Antonio has seen similar crime spikes under his tenure. Like his peers, Gonzalez has moved to decriminalize nonviolent offenses and has dramatically cut back on pre-trial detention, arguing that the cash bail system disproportionately punishes poor and minority defendants. But critics, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, argue that the policies of DAs like Gonzalez are emboldening criminals. Abbott himself has vowed to take action against what he calls “rogue prosecutors,” and Texas lawmakers are already exploring ways to rein in the power of district attorneys who refuse to enforce certain laws.
Law Enforcement at War: Police vs. Prosecutors
One of the most striking features of the Soros-backed DA experiment is the way it has pitted local prosecutors against the very law enforcement agencies they’re supposed to work with. Police unions across Texas have come out swinging against these new DAs, accusing them of undermining public safety and making it harder for officers to do their jobs.
In Harris County, the relationship between the district attorney’s office and local police has deteriorated to the point where it’s openly hostile. Police officers complain that they arrest individuals for crimes, only to have the DA’s office refuse to prosecute or offer plea deals that amount to slaps on the wrist. The tension boiled over in 2023 when Sean Teare publicly criticized Houston’s police department for a series of officer-involved shootings, leading to a fiery response from the Houston Police Officers’ Union, which accused Teare of “politicizing” criminal justice.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, John Creuzot has faced similar pushback from law enforcement, particularly over his refusal to prosecute certain drug cases and property crimes. The Dallas Police Association has repeatedly clashed with Creuzot, arguing that his policies are making it impossible to maintain public safety. And yet, despite the tensions, these DAs remain committed to their reformist agendas, arguing that the old system of over-policing and mass incarceration was a failed experiment.
Big Money, Big Influence: The Ethics of Outsized Donations
For all the debate about criminal justice reform, there’s an even bigger elephant in the room — money. Soros’s influence in Texas’s DA races has led to growing concerns about the ethics of outsized campaign donations and whether one man’s millions should have this much sway over local politics.
Texas, of course, has long been a political Wild West when it comes to campaign finance. Thanks to Citizens United, there are essentially no limits on how much wealthy donors can spend to influence elections through PACs and Super PACs. And Soros has taken full advantage of this, spending millions to elect DAs who align with his vision of justice reform. Critics argue that this outsized influence is distorting the democratic process, particularly in local races where candidates typically don’t have access to the kind of funding that national candidates enjoy.
In some cases, Soros-funded PACs have been responsible for 80–90% of a candidate’s total campaign war chest. This has led to accusations that these DAs are beholden not to their constituents, but to their out-of-state benefactor. And it’s not just conservatives raising these concerns. Some local community leaders have questioned whether Soros’s influence is actually undermining trust in the justice system, particularly when the policies enacted by these DAs lead to rising crime and public outcry.
The Fight for the Future: Is Texas Ready for More Soros?
As Texas gears up for another round of local elections, the battle over the role of Soros-backed DAs is only heating up. The state’s political landscape is deeply polarized, and criminal justice reform has become a flashpoint in the broader culture war playing out across the country. On one side, you have the progressive DAs, armed with Soros’s millions and determined to implement reforms that they argue will create a fairer, more just system. On the other side, you have a growing coalition of law enforcement officials, conservative politicians, and concerned citizens who view these reforms as a dangerous experiment that’s making Texas less safe.
What’s clear is that the debate over Soros-backed DAs isn’t going away anytime soon. As crime rates fluctuate and political tensions rise, the future of criminal justice in Texas hangs in the balance. For now, the question is whether the reforms being pushed by these DAs will prove to be the change the system needs — or whether they’ll ultimately lead to a backlash that sweeps them out of office.
One thing’s for sure: the battle for the soul of Texas’s justice system is far from over. And in a state where everything’s bigger, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
You can view our sources and citations in our research document here.
