TX: Sean Teare challenging former boss in Democratic primary for Harris County DA
Sean Teare started his law career at the Harris County District Attorney's Office and returned in 2017, shortly after Kim Ogg was elected. He said he was "fully on board" with Ogg's vision at the time, which included reducing the strain on the local criminal justice system, bringing justice to victims of crimes and making the Houston area a safer place.
Six years later, Teare has cut ties with his former boss and wants to replace her.
Teare, a 43-year-old Houston native and longtime leader of the DA's vehicular crimes division, resigned in February and this week announced he is challenging Ogg in the Democratic primary in 2024. He referred to the DA's office as "broken" and accused Ogg of being more driven by political interests than the pursuit of justice.
There have been instances in which prosecutors were forced to either pursue or drop cases because of the publicity they attracted or because of the people involved, according to Teare, who said he once was told to stop investigating a business that might have contributed to drunken driving because the owner of the business had donated to Ogg's campaign.
"I left because the administration and the leadership at the DA's office under the current administration is failing at the job," Teare said Wednesday ahead of a campaign kickoff event. "The prosecutors that are doing the work day in and day out are completely disenfranchised. Morale is lower than I've ever seen at any DA's office. The promises that we were all led to believe in 2016 were not being followed through."
Teare is the first to emerge as a 2024 primary challenger to Ogg and said he suspects there could be others in the months ahead. Ogg was initially elected in 2016 and won another four years in office in 2020, when she received nearly 54 percent of the vote in a race against Republican Mary Nan Huffman, who subsequently was elected to the Houston City Council.
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2023/05/31/453233/sean-teare-kim-ogg-harris-county-district-attorney-democratic-primary/
