ELECTIONS
Kirsta Leeburg Melton, a Texas prosecutor with 25 years of felony experience, announces her bid to become the Hays County District Attorney in 2026.
Melton is the founder and CEO of Institute to Combat Trafficking, a Dripping Springs non-profit organization dedicated to seeking justice for victims of human trafficking and holding traffickers accountable. From 2015-2019, she served as the chief of the Human Trafficking Section of the Office of the Texas Attorney General, and from 20002014, prosecuted traffickers, abusers, rapists and perpetrators of family violence from assault to capital murder in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Melton is responsible for several of the state’s first life sentences for trafficking and served as the lead prosecutor for the State of Texas in the takedown of Backpage. com.
“I’m running for Hays County District Attorney, because justice matters,” she said. “In the past two decades, many people have given up on the justice system as they watch guilty people go free and others incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. District attorneys are the people who decide which charges should be filed when a crime has been committed and against whom. I have the experience to identify the cases that should be pursued and those that need to be dismissed. Ethical prosecution means evaluating the facts of each case in the context of the law and determining what is just in that specific case. It then means implementing with skill, determination and the relentless pursuit of that justice. I’m asking you to join me in making justice a hallmark of Hays County, Texas.”
In addition to her extensive courtroom experience, Melton has trained more than 30,000 people on human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault and legal procedure and has been featured in multiple training films utilized nationwide. Over the past decade, she played a critical role in the restructuring of Texas trafficking law and procedure, testified repeatedly before the Texas legislature and chaired both the Texas Statewide Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force and Coordinating Council. Melton is regularly called on to consult with law enforcement, prosecutors, academics, non-profits, legislators and the media on human trafficking and other criminal justice matters. She teaches a course on human trafficking for undergraduates at Texas State University and the University of Texas, has mentored dozens of young prosecutors over the years and had the privilege of building and leading multiple teams committed to seeking justice in Texas. She is the author and editor of “ Human Trafficking Investigation: A Practitioner’s Guide to Making the Case,” published by CRC Press in September 2024, and is an acknowledged leader in her field.
Melton graduated from Cornell University in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in American government and received her J.D. and masters of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. She’s married with two grown children, both of whom graduated from Dripping Springs High School before going on to earn their college degrees. She and her husband reside in Dripping Springs.
