It’s been two years since the Uvalde massacre. Will the town take a stand on Super Tuesday?

“I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I have nothing to hide,” Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said in May 2022, days after the mass elementary shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Sheriff Nolasco had his say in the matter, and now, voters will now get theirs as the sheriff runs for re-election. The primary is 5 March — marking the first time he will face voters after the massacre.

Mr Nolasco, who is running as a Republican, has refused to step down from his post — or withdraw his candidacy — despite facing a barrage of complaints over law enforcement’s bungled response to the mass shooting and calls to halt his re-election bid.

Sheriff Nolasco, along with other senior law enforcement officers, was criticised by name throughout a critical incident report by the Justice Department. The report reviewed the botched police response, finding “cascading failures” of leadership, communication and urgency.

Some others in top roles on that fateful day are no longer in their posts; the school police chief has since been fired and the acting city police chief has retired. But Mr Nolasco has remained defiant, running for a second term.

This race is likely to be tight. Mr Nolasco won by just 60 votes in 2020, according to the Uvalde Leader-News. Avoiding the topic of Uvalde, which made national headlines and continues to plague his community, seems nearly impossible.

The Justice Department report detailed a minute-by-minute timeline of the shooting, starting with the shooting on Diaz Street, where the gunman shot his grandmother.

The sheriff testified to a Texas House Committee that while he was on his way to respond to the school shooting, he learned of the Diaz Street incident, and diverted his attention there.

Uvalde