Riding support from law enforcement and a nationwide backlash against incumbents, Abel Reyna unseated John Segrest, McLennan County’s longest-tenured district attorney.

The race was not as tight as many expected, with Reyna, the 38-year-old Republican challenger, getting 62 percent of the vote to beat the 60-year-old Democrat, 33,621 to 20,874.

Reyna jumped out of the gate with a big lead — 17,133 to 11,995 — when the 29,128 early votes were tabulated. He said he expected to win, but not by such a margin.

“I attribute this all to everybody who helped on the campaign and to all the people who were out there,” said Reyna. “I think people were tired of business as usual.”

Abel Reyna gets a big hug from Halston Olinger as the early voting results were announced Tuesday night.
Rod Aydelotte / Tribune-Herald

Segrest thanked his wife, Dawn, his supporters and his staff for “20 challenging years,” and said Reyna “deserves our help, our support and our prayers.”

“Twenty-one years ago, Dawn and I heard the call to public service,” Segrest said, reading from a prepared statement. “We didn’t know what the election of 1990 would bring. But we took a deep breath and jumped in with both feet, not looking back and trusting that the Lord would help us along the way.

“I have been greatly blessed to have been given this honor to serve and to work with some very remarkable, talented and dedicated friends. Over the years, we have shared many victories and some defeats, great joys and numbing heartbreaks. I can’t say we have enjoyed every minute of it. We haven’t. But all in all, we have met the challenges and performed our duty with skill and honor and integrity. I am proud of all we have accomplished.”

Segrest, who was seeking his sixth four-year term, ran on his 20-year record in office, his experience and the stability of his staff, who have more than 200 years worth of prosecution experience among the 23 assistant prosecutors.

Reyna, a criminal defense attorney whose father, Felipe Reyna, is a former McLennan County district attorney, gained the endorsements of the Waco Police Association, the Sheriff’s Law Enforcement Association of McLennan County and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas.

“I am the choice of law enforcement,” Reyna repeated during the hotly contested campaign. “Law enforcement is voting for me. I think people should listen to the men and women who are out there on the street making the arrests. They have said that I am the person for the job.”

While Segrest touted his experience and the fact that he is the longest-serving DA in county history, he also was conscious of a national trend against the status quo and incumbents.

The race took on a personal tone late last month when Reyna’s father, a justice on the 10th Court of Appeals, wrote a message to Segrest on Segrest’s Facebook page in which he said he wanted to clarify some information about his son’s professional record.

McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest had served in that position for 20 years.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

The personal message also contained profanity and what some considered a veiled threat against one of Segrest’s assistants, Edward Vallejo, and his wife, Carla.

After the message became public, Segrest, a former assistant under Felipe Reyna, called on his old boss to recuse himself from any matters involving Segrest’s office that come before the intermediate appellate court until the elder Reyna, who was defeated in March, leaves office Jan. 1.

Segrest also said he would file an ethics complaint against Felipe Reyna with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Judges are not permitted to publicly endorse political candidates, even their own family members.

Felipe Reyna disagrees, saying a case involving former Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, who supported Harriet Miers when she was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, supersedes judicial ethical canons.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

757-5737

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