For generations, Harris County, Texas, was the nation’s execution capital. Throughout the 19th century, the county executed its own prisoners, hanging them from oak trees before finally constructing a gallows at the jailhouse. The state took over the job of executions nearly a century ago, but Harris County, which includes Houston, has remained its most demanding client. Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, 116 Harris County prisoners have been put to death. That’s more than twice the number recorded by any other county in Texas. Harris County alone has put more prisoners to death than any state (aside from Texas) that allows capital punishment.

That’s starting to change. The option to give defendants life sentences without parole has diminished support for the death penalty among juries and the public, even in Texas. There hasn’t been a new death sentence in Harris County for the past 18 months. And there may not be another one anytime soon.

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All of this represents a seismic shift away from the usual campaign message of prosecutors, which has been to brag about nothing so much as the number of rapists and murderers they’ve put away. In more and more places, talking tough is no longer the default mode. Ogg and her cohort argue that cracking down on crime means reducing the overall crime rate, rather than throwing individual offenders into prison for long periods of time. “It’s a departure from what for many years everyone thought was the inevitable playbook in these elections,” says David Sklansky, a Stanford law professor. “It’s possible to win an election as DA, running against an incumbent, and not just arguing that you’re going to be tougher but reform-oriented.”