Christina Sanchez, a 14-year veteran of the El Paso County Attorney’s Office, easily defeated attorney Sergio Saldivar on Tuesday to win election as El Paso’s next county attorney.
Sanchez won with 69% of the vote. The winner of the Democratic primary will take office in January because Republicans did not field a candidate and no independents have announced for the office.
She will be only the third person to serve as county attorney since 1993, following José Rodríguez and current County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal.
She attributed her sweeping victory to campaigning aggressively after Saldivar entered the race shortly before the filing deadline in December, backed by retiring Sheriff Richard Wiles.
“My main goal was to go and to knock on as many doors as I could, canvass as many parts of the county that I could,” Sanchez said.
She said she will spend the coming months working with Bernal and others to prepare to take leadership of the County Attorney’s Office when she is sworn in on Jan. 1, 2025.
“My other main goal is to ensure that I connect with all of our stakeholders, law enforcement stakeholders, our community members, neighborhood coalitions, to go out there to introduce myself and to listen to them and to have the opportunity again to speak about what our office does,” she said.
Sanchez, 45, campaigned on her experience at the County Attorney’s Office. She was supported by Bernal, who didn’t seek reelection after 15 years in office.
Saldivar, 56, who was supported by outgoing Sheriff Richard Wiles, said during the campaign that the County Attorney’s Office should be more visible and take on more functions, such as prosecuting juveniles.
During research into the candidates, El Paso Matters discovered that Saldivar agreed to a protective order in 2019 that prohibited from contacting a woman who accused him of stalking and abuse. One of the primary functions of the County Attorney’s Office, which represented the woman who lived with Saldivar, is to seek protective orders for people who say they’ve been victims of family violence.
Saldivar denied he abused or stalked the woman, and was not charged with any criminal offense. He said during the campaign that the County Attorney’s Office should do more to explore the “motives” of people seeking protective orders.
Sanchez reported raising about $85,000 during the campaign. Her largest donations were $5,000 each from her husband, Omar Villa, an attorney who works at University Medical Center, and developer Thomas Bohannon.
Saldivar raised just over $13,000 and loaned his campaign $20,000. His largest single donor was Creslan Williams, an adjunct criminal justice instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso, who gave $2,100. Several bail bond companies and people who worked for those companies gave Saldivar donations of $500 or $1,000.
