Harris County Democrats Tired Of Kim Ogg

Houston and Harris County Democrats have had enough of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. DA Ogg is a Democrat. She seems more at ease with Republicans than with Democrats.

The Houston Democracy Project will begin focus on county elections after we get past municipal elections. But DA Ogg's bad conduct is a direct matter of democracy because she is working with Republicans and other retrograde elements to go after political opponents and promote efforts intended to diminish confidence in elections.        

Below is the entire well-detailed press release as sent out by Indivisible Houston President Daniel Cohen: 

(Houston, TX) -  Today, a large group of elected Democratic Precinct Chairs formally submitted a resolution to party officials calling on the Harris County Democratic Party to admonish District Attorney Kim Ogg. The 60 signatories of the resolution include three senate district chairs and comprise a diverse array of races, ethnicities, ideologies, religions, and age groups. They also represent virtually every geographic area of Harris County. 

The resolution, which may be viewed here along with the names of all signing members, cites a long list of actions taken by Ogg over the past several years that run counter to the interests, values, and agenda of the Democratic Party and the people of Harris County. The resolution also cites a bombshell Houston Chronicle investigation which exposed a campaign driven by Ogg to abuse the power of her office to target, intimidate, and prosecute her political opponents. 

Specifically, the resolution cites the following reasons for seeking admonishment:

• Ogg has joined Republican officials in repeatedly making demonstrably false claims that Harris County Democrats on Commissioners Court are “defunding law enforcement.”

 

• Ogg continues to oppose steps taken by Democrats to reform our broken criminal justice system by opposing efforts to fix the cash-bail system, intimidating public servants working to enact community and gun violence prevention programs, lobbying for Republican legislation that fuels mass incarceration and disproportionately impacts black and brown communities, and directly attacking elected Democratic judges who have advocated for and upheld fairness in their courts and our criminal justice system.  

 

• In November of 2022, at the behest of State and local republican Officials, Ogg initiated a partisan criminal investigation against local election workers - an investigation premised on debunked conspiracy theories, lies, and unproven innuendo.  Ogg also pursued a criminal investigation against Hervis Rogers for voting in the March 2020 primary. Rogers is a 64-year old black man who was already arrested and prosecuted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a politically motivated investigation designed to add credence to “the big lie.”

 

• In August of 2023, Ogg broke a major campaign promise to support decriminalizing low-level drug offenses, which disproportionately impact people of color, by reversing her own policy. 

 

• In June 2022, in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Ogg noted that she would prosecute Gov. Greg Abbott’s abortion ban, the most extreme in the nation, “on a case by case basis.”

“Kim Ogg has emerged as one of the greatest obstacles to successful democratic governance in Harris County,” said Rebecca Shukla, Chair of Precinct 183.  “She has proven over and over again that she would rather stand with Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton, than with Democrats from her own party who are working to enact the will of our voters. We’re proud to be a big tent party with people who should a wide-array of ideas and ideologies, but Ogg’s words and actions cross a line. She’s burning our big tent down by advancing Republican policies that undermine confidence in our elections, and abusing her power as District Attorney to intimidate anyone who stands in her way.”

“This resolution says out loud what a majority of Democrats in Harris County have become increasingly alarmed about for the past several years,” said Cameron Campbell, Chair of Precinct 991.  “Not only has Kim Ogg broken her campaign promises, she’s actively enabled the worst instincts of the most extreme Republican operatives who are intent on targeting and dismantling our party. Her divisive bullying and appalling abuse endangers our community and undermines our civil rights. ” 

Precinct chairs co-sponsoring the resolution are seeking a floor vote on the proposal at the Harris County Democratic Party’s upcoming County Executive Committee meeting which will take place on November 14th. The resolution is not sponsored or advanced by any candidate involved in the race for District Attorney.