In Corpus Christi, Texas, Mark Gonzalez unseated a fellow Democrat, then beat out a Republican to win the Nueces County district attorney seat in November 2016. A tattooed, self-described “Mexican biker lawyer,” Gonzalez started out as a public defender before deciding to run for DA—against the odds—to try to balance the inequities he witnessed on a regular basis. Gonzalez’s office has created a “cite and release” program for low-level offenses and has become more transparent about sharing evidence with defense attorneys. Origin story: Gonzalez was inspired to be a lawyer after he received a DWI conviction in 1999, at age 18. At the time, Gonzalez saw another man with an attorney and the same charge have his case dismissed, and that’s when he decided to be a lawyer.

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