Sharen Wilson announces she will not seek re-election as Tarrant County district attorney

Sharen Wilson, Tarrant County’s district attorney, announced Nov. 9 that she will not seek re-election in 2022.

Wilson previously had announced in June that she would seek another term, but her message in an email release Nov. 9 said that, after she had reflected on the matter with her family, she was looking forward to her next chapter and time spent with her grandchildren.

“When I first ran for the position, I pledged to serve you by being transparent, accessible and ethical while following and upholding the letter of the law. I committed to modernizing the office by reorganizing its resources and creating new specialized units to meet the changes in our society,” Wilson said. “Today, I feel confident that our mission has been achieved.

Wilson was elected in 2014 and took office in January 2015. She is the first woman to hold the office of district attorney in Tarrant County.

The announcement also comes one week after a bond proposition that would have funded the construction of a new building for the criminal district attorney’s office was presented to Tarrant County voters and did not pass.

The email release cited several of the accomplishments of the district attorney’s office so far during her seven years at the helm, including coming in under budget each year; founding a conviction integrity unit; and other advances in areas related to sex crimes, human trafficking and domestic violence, among others.

“My No. 1 goal when I was sworn in as your district attorney in 2015 was to seek justice for all, for every person in our community regardless of their place in life, where they lived or their background,” Wilson said. “Justice does not and should never depend on where a victim was born, what they look like or what they believe.”