When a presidential candidate wins 242 of 254 Texas counties, the message is clear, isn’t it? That said, we’ll skip a review of federal election results and focus on the state-level races of most impact to prosecutors here.

Prosecutor election results

There were nine contested prosecutor races in Texas this general election cycle. Here are the results, listed alphabetically by county:

Bell CA: Incumbent Jim Nichols (R) defeated Michelle Cummings (D).

34^th DA (El Paso/Culberson/Hudspeth): James Montoya (D) defeated incumbent Bill Hicks (R).

Grayson CDA: John Kermit Hill (R) defeated Brandy Douglas (D).

Harris CA: Incumbent Christian Menefee (D) narrowly defeated Jacqueline Smith (R).

Harris DA: Sean Teare (D) narrowly defeated Dan Simons (R).

105^th DA (Nueces): Incumbent Jimmy Granberry (R) defeated Terry Shamsie (D).

143^rd DA (Reeves/Ward/Loving): Sarah Stogner (R) defeated incumbent Randy Reynolds (D).

53^rd DA (Travis): Incumbent Jose Garza (D) defeated Daniel Betts (R).

Williamson CA: Incumbent Dee Hobbs (R) defeated Amy Lyn Lefkowitz (D).

All told, we count 59 (!!) newly elected prosecutors taking office in January, including three prosecutors who got appointed earlier this year to fill an unexpired term. If any of those newly-elected officials are in your county or are your neighbor, please let them know about our Elected Prosecutor Conference in The Woodlands. The conference includes a Newly Elected Prosecutor Boot Camp that starts on December 3, 2024. (All details are at the link provided.)

Statewide and other results

The political wildfire that swept through the Texas GOP primaries in March burned right on through the general election ballot this week as well. Let’s look at some highlights.

Judicial races

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Republican. Sweep.

Not only did GOP candidates easily win all six statewide races for the CCA and SCOTX, but Republican candidates won 25 of the 26 contested appellate court races throughout the state (although some of those were close and may be subject to a recount). Those appellate court candidates no doubt benefitted from a substantial infusion of conservative-sourced campaign funding that highlighted public safety and other law-and-order issues, even though those courts handle both criminal and civil issues and have little say in pretrial release or other hot button issues hammered home by those PACs.

Interestingly, Harris County courthouse races were also a mixed bag as Republican candidates retook some of the ground lost to the blue wave of previous election cycles in that county. This is relevant to future legislative discussions because of the outsized impact Harris County criminal justice policies can have on the rest of the state, including pretrial release practices.

Legislative races

The math here changed less than the vibes, but the vibe change could be significant.

In the Senate, Rs captured the lone competitive Senate seat and will have a 20-11 majority. But most of the attention is directed across the rotunda, where Republicans will control 87 of the 150 seats in the Texas House next session. That’s not much of a change in the overall math, but the many new faces could represent a significant change in who House Rs are going to support in their upcoming speaker race between current Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and challenger David Cook (R-Mansfield). Speaker Phelan has promised he has the necessary number of votes to maintain his leadership position, but he has yet to release the names of his supporters (which will likely include a large number of Democrats). Meanwhile, Rep. Cook still has at least 47 House Rs supporting his bid for the gavel after losing one supporter yesterday. This new class of 26 Republicans will be the largest Republican freshman class since 2013, and Governor Abbott claims he now has enough votes to pass a school voucher bill after helping defeat anti-voucher House members. How those new members will vote on the thousands of other bills presented to them next session remains to be seen.

National vibes

While elections in other states do not directly impact Texas prosecutors, it’s interesting to note how the Texas story fits into larger national narratives about crime and public safety.

For instance, California’s Prop 36 surfed the MAGA wave to victory. That ballot initiative increases penalties for drug and property crimes in that state, which had been lowered in 2014, and voters passed it overwhelmingly despite opposition from that state’s governor and other high-ranking politicians. In addition, two of the state’s most high-profile progressive prosecutors were relieved of their duties: Los Angeles DA George Gascon lost to a former federal prosecutor and Alameda County (Oakland) DA Pamela Price was recalled (along with Oakland’s mayor). Meanwhile, in Florida, two self-proclaimed reform prosecutors who had been suspended and later ousted by that state’s governor had mixed results in trying to reclaim their former jobs.

New TDCAA employees

If all of this change and uncertainty is confusing, imagine how it must feel for the guy we just hired to ride herd on this circus when it comes to town in January!

Hector Valle will be TDCAA’s new Director of Governmental Relations when he steps into the role being vacated by Shannon Edmonds, who is taking over as Executive Director in the new year after Rob Kepple retires. Hector worked as both a state and federal prosecutor in Dallas for more than a decade before moving to Austin to oversee the government relations and communications efforts of the General Land Office for eight years, followed by a stint as a partner in a strategic consulting firm. Hector is already on board getting up to speed in preparation for the next regular session in January, so be sure to look for him at next month’s Elected Prosecutor Conference and introduce yourself!

In addition, TDCAA has hired Kristin Burns, a seasoned prosecutor most recently with the Brazos County DA’s Office, to serve as TDCAA’s first Domestic Violence Resource Prosecutor. Kristin will develop training and support resources for family violence prosecutions in a manner similar to our Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor program run by Clay Abbott.

Welcome, Kristin and Hector!

Quotes of the Election

“Texans sent a clear message: they want safer streets, a secure border, a strong economy, and the economy to choose the best school for their children.”

           —Gov. Greg Abbott (R), touting Republican gains during this election cycle.

“It’s a math question. Democrats try to make it a complex algebra problem, but it’s simple addition. There are still far more Republicans that vote in Texas than there are Democrats.”

           —Matthew Langston, Republican political consultant, on the reason for yesterday’s election results.

“We will see no moderation from Republicans. They have got a mandate to do more or less as they wish.”

           —Brandon Rottinghaus, U of H political scientist, in that same article.

“With the national environment the way it currently is, there is nothing we could have done to keep our seats this cycle.”

           —Justice Meagan Hassan, a Democrat on Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals, in a message to supporters on Facebook.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ken Paxton running for U.S. senator against John Cornyn. I like John. He’s a nice man. I’m just saying Ken Paxton would be a really strong candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

           —Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), at a campaign event earlier this week.

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As a courtesy to those who may not have access to local election results throughout the state, we are sending out this special update focusing on prosecutor elections. We’ll also throw in our two cents on the broader election results as well.

Texas prosecutor races

Here are the results for the seven contested criminal district attorney seats decided yesterday:

Bexar County: Incumbent Joe Gonzales (D) defeated Marc LaHood (R).
Dallas County: Incumbent John Creuzot (D) defeated former CDA Faith Johnson (R).
Galveston County: Incumbent Jack Roady (R) defeated Rachel Dragony (R).
Hays County: Kelly Higgins (D) defeated David Puryear (R) and will replace Wes Mau (R), who is retiring.
Hidalgo County: Toribio “Terry” Palacios (D) defeated Juan Tijerina (R) and will replace Ricardo Rodriguez, Jr. (D), who is retiring.
McLennan County: Josh Tetens (R) defeated Aubrey Robertson (D) and will replace Barry Johnson (R), who Tetens defeated in the primary.
Tarrant County: Phil Sorrells (R) defeated Tiffany Burks (D) and will replace Sharen Wilson (R), who is retiring.

For a full list of the candidates in those races, as well as the other uncontested prosecutor seats on the ballot this fall, please click HERE. All newly-elected prosecutors will be invited to our Elected Prosecutor Conference, which is being held November 30–December 2, 2022, at the Horseshoe Bay Resort west of Austin, so be sure to come meet and congratulate them in person! For more details on that course, click here.

Statewide officeholder recap

There were no surprises at the statewide level. All Republican candidates handily defeated their Democratic challengers, and on the state’s two high courts, Republican incumbents held serve across the board. It’s now been 28 years since a Democrat last won a statewide election in Texas (1994), continuing the country’s longest streak of statewide political futility.

Legislative recap

There was little overall change to the partisan make-up of the Texas Legislature. Chalk that up as a victory for the incumbents who spent the last session consolidating each party’s strongholds and ensuring that the overwhelming majority of statehouse seats were non-competitive.

Texas Senate

The upper chamber will continue to be led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) after his comfortable victory last night, and he will preside over a body with five new members:

• Senate District 10 (SD-10): Former State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford), replacing Beverly Powell (D-Fort Worth)
• SD-12: Former State Rep. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound), replacing State Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound)
• SD-24: Former State Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton), replacing State Sen. Dawn Buckingham (R-Lakeway)
• SD-27: Morgan LaMantia (D-Brownsville), replacing State Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville) (*results pending, may be subject to a recount)
• SD-31: Kevin Sparks (R-Midland), replacing State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo)

Republicans picked up one net seat through redistricting and now have a 19–12 advantage over their Democratic colleagues. That healthy margin will allow the GOP senators to continue to pass their preferred legislation under the “three-fifths rule” they use to determine what legislation can be brought to the floor.

Texas House

In the lower chamber, there will be 19 new Republican members and eight new Democratic members, but—like everything having to do with the House—the details are much messier due to redistricted seats, early resignations, special elections for open seats, and the like. Therefore, we won’t list all the newbies here. The upshot of all this confusion is that Republicans picked up one net seat after flipping three formerly “blue” districts but losing two formerly “red” districts. That gives the Republicans an 86–64 majority, which is a substantial advantage. However, the lack of significant partisan change from two years ago bodes well for the chances that Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) will keep his comfy center chair on the House dais thanks to the bipartisan support he enjoyed last session. That said, there could still be substantial changes in which House members sit on (and chair) various House committees, but we won’t know those details for at least another two months.

One final observation: In both chambers, Republicans were unable to achieve the super-majority necessary to unilaterally pass joint resolutions amending the state constitution (which requires approval from two-thirds of each chamber before being put to voters on a November ballot). This will be relevant to upcoming policy debates surrounding prosecutors’ authority and discretion because it could limit the legislature’s options for changing the constitutional provisions that establish (and protect) that authority absent bi-partisan support for a change.

Bill filing

Now that the election dust is settling, returning legislators can start pre-filing bills for next session as of this Monday, November 14, 2022. If history is a good guide, there should be 300–500 bills filed between Monday and the Thanksgiving holiday. As always, we will review and track relevant bills for you, some of which you will be able to view using the Bill Track links on our Legislative webpage starting next week. But don’t get worried if it takes several days for us to review and upload relevant bills; nothing can happen to any of those bills for at least the next two months, so there’s no rush. Remember, the session is a marathon, not a sprint—until the last three weeks, that is, when the session becomes a sprinting marathon and we all go crazy. But hey, all in good time, right?

Notice of TDCAA’s Annual Business Meeting

TDCAA will conduct its 2022 Annual Business Meeting on November 30, 2022, at 5 p.m. at the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Marble Falls in conjunction with our Elected Prosecutor Conference. The agenda includes the election of officers and directors for 2023 and the consideration of awarding a life membership. For more details, see the official online notice.

“What Every Prosecutor Should Know About Mental Illness”

Part One of TDCAA’s Mental Health Video Series is now available through TDCAA’s online training platform. This 3.5-hour course is designed to provide prosecutors and other criminal justice practitioners with an understanding of how mental illness can impact a criminal case, as well as some of the essential tools available to prosecutors handling cases where a defendant’s mental health is an issue. It is available free of charge here. Thanks to the Court of Criminal Appeals for funding this special training!

Quotes of Election Week

“The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”
            —Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-McKinney), in his victory speech last night.

“There are two trends worth observing. First, we’ve seen what you might call a nationalization of local prosecutor elections. People are paying attention to races that don’t directly involve them. Those offices have become more visible, more salient, more open for political point-scoring. The second trend, in response, is state officials pushing back against them in really open ways.”
            —Carissa Byrne Hessick, law professor at UNC, in a Slate article discussing the increased prominence of prosecution as a new front in the on-going battle over local control between GOP-controlled statehouses and Democratic-controlled cities.

“These local DAs … nullify laws passed by elected representatives of our state and of our country. That’s unconstitutional. That’s wrong. They have an obligation to enforce the laws that are in play. And they’ll say, ‘This is prosecutorial discretion’ …. When you nullify a whole broad swath of laws, which they are doing—from shoplifting to abortion to drugs—they’re making up their own laws. They’re almost like little individual dictators or ruling governments that operate outside the law. That’s a breakdown of the rule of law.”
            —Attorney General Paxton, in an interview on Fox News last month in which he criticized prosecutors around the country who have categorically refused to enforce anti-abortion laws in various states.

“We wanted to use workers, wages, and weed to engage new voters.”
            —Mike Siegal, political director for Ground Game Texas, a progressive political action committee that successfully passed city ordinance ballot measures to decriminalize low-level marijuana possession in Denton, Elgin, Harker Heights, Killeen, and San Marcos.

“We’d be pissing off half the country no matter what.”
            —An anonymous congressional staffer, as noted in a Washington Post article exploring the political and policy reasons for congressional inaction on changing the current system of standard and daylight savings times.

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As a courtesy to those who may not have access to local election results throughout the state, we are sending out this special update focusing on local prosecutor elections. (We’ll also throw in our two cents on the broader elections as well—you know we can’t resist!)

Texas prosecutor races

Here are the results for felony prosecutor general election races:

53^rd DA (Travis County): Jose Garza (D) defeated Martin Harry (R) and will take over for Margaret Moore in January.
105^th DA (Nueces County): Mark Gonzalez (D-incumbent) defeated 79^th ADA Jon West (R) to win a second term, despite the county as a whole voting Republican almost across the board.
Harris County DA: Kim Ogg (D-incumbent) defeated Mary Nan Huffman (R) to earn a second term.

And here are the results for misdemeanor and/or civil prosecutor general election races:

Brazos County: Earl Gray (R) defeated Freddie Medina (D) and will take over for the retiring Rod Anderson (R) in January.
Fort Bend County: DFPS attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson (D) defeated Steve Rogers (R) to replace retiring Roy Cordes (R) in November.
Harris County: Christian Menefee (D) defeated John Nation (R) and will replace Vince Ryan (D) next year.
Kent County: Katie Lackey (R) defeated Bill Ballard (D-incumbent) and will take over in January.
Nueces County: Asst. DA Jenny Dorsey (R) defeated former Asst. CA Rene Flores and will over for the retiring Laura Jimenez (D) in November.
Potter County: Scott Brumley (R-incumbent) defeated Ryan Brown to retain his office for another term.
Williamson County: Dee Hobbs (R-incumbent) defeated Stan Springerley to earn another term.

This is information that we have obtained from a variety of sources, but we can’t guarantee its accuracy due to the secondhand nature of the information we have received, so if you have any corrections or additions to share, please email them to [email protected] and we will amend the list online.

Prosecutor race analysis

Pending corrections to our data from the primary and general elections, we did some number-crunching and have come up with the following observations:

• Of the roughly 285 local prosecutor offices on the ballot this cycle, only 34 incumbent prosecutors (12%) faced challengers while another 31 open seats (11%) were on the ballot due to retirement, early resignation, or death. That’s a total possible change of 65 offices (23%).
• Of the 34 incumbent prosecutors who were challenged, 30 (88%) were in primaries; only five (15%) faced challengers in the general election.
• Of the 30 prosecutors challenged in a primary, 13 (43%) were defeated.
• Of the five prosecutors challenged in the general election, one (20%) was defeated (in tiny Kent County, population 808 [c. 2010]).
• Of the 31 open seats, 18 (58%) were filled by an uncontested candidate.
• As of now, we know of 49 new county attorneys or district attorneys who will take office in January, for a turnover rate of 17 percent. That marks the lowest turnover rate in the past six election cycles.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this data is that final point. As you will read below, “low turnover” was a general trend this election cycle all across the state, so we will leave it up to others to ponder the significance of the lack of “action” in most Texas prosecutor races in 2020.

National recap

Everyone at the national level is still focused on The Big Race, but with that still undecided, a look down the ballot shows … a nothingburger, mostly. The U.S. Senate will remain red while the House of Representatives will remain blue (although the majority margins for both might be narrower after all the ballots are counted). In other words: Lather, rinse, repeat in Congress.

As for the Texas congressional races, barring the discovery of another infamous “Box 13” in some out-of-the-way place, every Texas congressional seat remained in the hands of the party that held it as of this time yesterday, even if a few of the names have changed. Interestingly, in five congressional rematches from 2018’s “Blue Wave” election, Republican incumbents or successors generally did better this time around. (People claim to hate Congress, but they sure seem to stick by their local team, don’t they?) Just remember, in some places the maintenance of the status quo might be chalked up to the way certain districts were drawn, which is something we’re going to get to live through again in this upcoming session. Now you know why redistricting is such a blood sport!

Statewide judicial recap

In the high court races across Texas, the Republicans held serve across the board. Court of Criminal Appeals judges Newell, Richardson, and Yeary can all renew their Austin apartment leases for the foreseeable future. (And congratulations to Supreme Court Justice Jane Bland for being the state’s highest vote-getter this cycle among all candidates on any ballot!)

At the appellate court level, several chief justice seats changed hands—and in a few instances, parties—as the Blue Wave of 2018 continued to flow through the judicial branch, albeit at a much slower pace than two years ago.

Legislative recap

Unlike with the judiciary, this election cycle saw very little overall change in the state legislature, whether it be counted by party split or new faces. The State Senate will welcome two new Democrats and the State House will welcome 15 new members—10 Republicans and five Democrats. That’s a turnover rate of six and 10 percent, respectively, which is very, very low.

The biggest surprise of the night might have been the lack of surprises in the House. As of right now, the two parties swapped a pair of seats in Harris County, and there is still one R seat in Dallas County and one D seat in Harris County that are each close enough to perhaps go to recounts. Regardless of those late outcomes, though, it’s clear that Democrats’ high-profile efforts to flip the Texas House were for naught. The partisan split in that chamber is still 83 R­–67 D after the election. Thus, the main difference for next session will be who sits on the House dais and steers the ship.

On that front, State Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) announced at lunchtime today that he has the support of a super-majority of House Republican members plus support from several House Democrats, which combine to put him comfortably over the 76-vote threshold necessary to be the next Speaker of the House. A list of his supporters can be found using a link in this article if you want to see where your local legislators stand, keeping in mind that several legislators not on that list—including State Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin), another declared candidate for speaker—are still working on alternatives. Nothing is official until the House members actually get sworn in and vote for their own leadership on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, so keep popping your popcorn and watching the news as it develops!

Across the rotunda, State Senate elections went according to predictions, with the Democrats regaining control of one traditionally blue seat (Senate District 19) that stretches from San Antonio to the Big Bend after former State Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) defeated State Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton). The only other new face in the Senate will be former State. Rep. Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso), who takes over the Senate seat most recently held by the retiring Jose Rodriguez (D), a former El Paso County Attorney. As a result of the SD-19 change, the partisan split in the Senate will now be 18 R–13 D, which could be a small but momentous change because it puts the Senate Republicans one vote shy of the 60 percent needed to bring legislation to the floor under current Senate rules. Of course, for a long time that was known as the “Two-Thirds Rule” until it was changed to a “Three-Fifths Rule” by the Republicans a few sessions ago to accommodate the new math they faced. Who knows, maybe we’ll be calling it “The Seven-Twelfths Rule” in a few months.

As for what all this portends for legislation next session … we have no idea! It’s still too early to tell. Tune in again on Friday when we will have another update and start turning our focus to the political and policy implications of all these events. Right now, we’re going to go take a nap.

Quotes of Election Week

“Texas is not blue, but after this latest election, its Democrats are.”
            —Texas Tribune executive editor Ross Ramsey, in his analysis of yesterday’s election results.

“Is Texas on the route to becoming blue, or is Texas on the road to becoming a perennial battleground? That’s a question I don’t know the answer to. But I do feel confident saying we are moving in the purple direction, and we may just stay stuck at purple.”
            —Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, associate dean at the UT LBJ School of Public Affairs, commenting upon the outlook for future state and national elections in Texas.

“There have been some hassles. One guy came in and licked a voting machine. We asked him to leave. He got to cast his ballot.”
            —Richard Martin, a poll worker in Travis County (where else? Ha ha).

“You try to get into office, you make promises, and then four years later you have to explain why you haven’t fully achieved those and why they’re still a good thing to try. That’s just a more complicated message. … You never come into the prosecutor’s job and propose profound change and say four years later, ‘Well, I delivered.’ Criminal justice just doesn’t turn on a dime.”
            —Ronald Wright, a law professor at Wake Forest University, on the dynamics of some local prosecutor races around the country.

“No one has a bead on who the likely front-runner [to be House Speaker] is at this point, so don’t bother asking us; however, that could change by this time next week. Stay tuned!”
            —Us, in this space, five days ago. (Told ya!)

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We interrupt our regular schedule of updates from Austin to fill you in on yesterday’s election results, with a focus on prosecutor and legislative elections. (We’re not going to bother with the big statewide or national races, you can get those results from your local fish wrap or the Texas Tribune.) If you have any additions or corrections to our list, please send those updates to Shannon.

Prosecutor elections

We only know of four contested general election races involving prosecutors; here are the results (listed alphabetically by county):

Bexar County CDA: Defense attorney Joe Gonzales (D) defeated defense attorney Tylden Shaeffer (R) in the race to replace Nico LaHood (D), who lost to Gonzales in the primary.

Dallas CDA: Defense attorney and former district judge John Creuzot (D) defeated incumbent (and former district judge) Faith Johnson (R), who had been appointed by Governor Abbott.

Fort Bend DA: Defense attorney Brian Middleton (D) defeated former judge Cliff Vacek (R) and will replace the retiring John Healey (R).

Tarrant County CDA: Incumbent Sharen Wilson (R) defeated defense attorney John Roberts (D).

These changes above bring the total number of newly-elected prosecutors for 2018 to 15 (not counting three additional appointees). For a look at how that compares with historical turnover rates, see this tweet from earlier today.

Statewide judicial races

Stop us if you heard this one before: The GOP’s slate of statewide judicial candidates won in a clean sweep (albeit with margins not quite so large as in past elections, the average spread being approximately six points). This means the state’s two courts of last resort will remain uniformly red. However, Democrats picked up numerous seats across the board at the intermediate court level and actually flipped control of the courts in Austin, Dallas, and Houston (x2).

State legislative races

After seven House and Senate incumbents were defeated in their primaries, the stage was set for even more turnover this week. Exceeding most observers’ expectations, Democrats picked up 12 seats in the Texas House and two seats in the Texas Senate (although Republicans had earlier poached an historically Democratic seat by winning the special election to replace Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio), who will soon be headed to federal prison). In races of note, Sens. Don Huffines (R-Dallas) and Konni Burton (R-Colleyville)—both frequent supporters of the Right on Crime movement—lost in districts that were carried by Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election, while former prosecutor and district judge Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) narrowly prevailed in the other Republican-held senate seat that favored Clinton two years ago. In the state house, there was too much action for us to cover in depth, but flipped seats in the Dallas, Houston, and Austin metro areas could now have a big impact on the speaker’s race. You can forget the rumors from last week about a potential consensus pick, all bets are now off—let the wagering begin anew!

Both House and Senate remain firmly in Republican control, but in the House, Republicans’ 95-55 margin was reduced to 83-67 (the smallest split since 2009), while their Senate margin changed from 20-11 last session to 19-12 for next session, which is the minimum necessary to ensure continued one-party control of the flow of legislation under that chamber’s three-fifths rule. All told, there will be 26 new House members (17 percent turnover) and five new Senators (16 percent turnover), not including one pending Democratic vacancy in Harris County that will be filled by special election at some point during the session.

Scattershot observations in Texas

Here are some random observations that you might find interesting:

• Yesterday saw the highest turnout (52%) for a gubernatorial cycle in Texas since 1970; it was only 34% just four years ago. Whether that blue-tinged turnout is an anomaly or a new trend is unknown.
• Courthouse races were probably pre-determined by straight-ticket voting due to the exceedingly high turnout. Early estimates are that 70–75 percent of ballots cast in the ten largest counties were straight-ticket votes. However, this was the last Texas election with straight-ticket voting; the legislature abolished it last session but postponed implementation until the 2020 elections. (Not early enough to save the author of that legislation, though, who lost his Denton County House race in the blue wave that swept through parts of the Metroplex).
• For the second election in a row, all GOP officeholders on the ballot from the Harris and Dallas County courthouses were defeated. The courthouses in seven of the ten largest counties in the state (Harris, Dallas, Bexar, Travis, El Paso, Hidalgo, and Fort Bend) are now either trending blue or already completely blue—which, by the way, is a big reason why the Republican-controlled legislature is ending straight-ticket voting.
• Some state and local GOP officeholders in traditional party strongholds like Collin, Denton, Tarrant, and Williamson Counties saw their comfortable victory margins shrink or evaporate altogether.
• Dallas County’s 14-member House delegation will now include just two Republicans next session—Angie Chen Button and Morgan Meyer—both of whom barely survived re-election yesterday. Last session, the delegation was evenly split, 7–7.

The “tl;dr” version of all this? Lots of Texans voted in this election, urban areas got bluer, rural areas went or stayed redder, and the suburbs are in flux but trending blue the past two election cycles.

Criminal justice issues elsewhere

For those of you interested in national trends, the following ballot measures were voted upon in these states (click here for a sample list of other states’ ballot issues):

• Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oklahoma approved versions of “Marsy’s Law” to expand victims’ state constitutional rights (similar to what Texas has long had).
• Michigan legalized recreational marijuana use by adults.
• Missouri and Utah approved or expanded medical marijuana.
• North Dakota rejected marijuana legalization.
• Ohio rejected a ballot measure to reduce felony drug penalties to misdemeanors and facilitate the early release of some felons.

Other random election notes

For the political geeks out there, here are some random items we came across this morning that we found interesting:

• In Washington, D.C., this is the first time since the Reagan Era (1981-87) that the Democrats will control the House while the Republicans hold the Senate and White House.
• Conversely, there is only one state with a divided legislature (Minnesota); all other state legislatures are controlled by one party, the highest number since 1914.
• Mitt Romney is first person to be governor of one state (MA) and senator from another (UT) since Sam Houston, who was governor of TN before becoming a senator for TX, did so.

The horses are in the starting gate

Bill filing begins on Monday. Yes, THIS upcoming Monday. The first week of bill filing usually sees 400–500 bills filed, and we will start reviewing and tracking them for you as always. To follow along with what is being filed, be sure to use our bill tracking buttons on the Legislative page of our website and contact Shannon with any questions. But remember—no matter how good or bad a pre-filed bill looks, nothing can happen to it for another 60–90 days, so keep your powder dry!

Quotes from the general election

“It’s not about wins or losses or anything like that, it’s about getting justice for some of these victims.”

Matt Powell, retiring Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney, on his legacy in office. Matt will start serving as the new general counsel for Midland ISD this month.

“He is in a league of his own in the Democrat [sic] Party. If he doesn’t use that to run for president, then I don’t know what he’d do with it.”

Jeff Roe, chief strategist for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Houston), after narrowly defeating Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso)

“We know we have rebuilding to do in our urban areas. Our efforts for 2020 have already begun.” 

James Dickey, Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

“It’s very much like someone calling Apple and asking for support on their iPhone 1.”

Steven Sockwell, vice president of marketing at Hart InterCivic, on why some voters had trouble using the company’s electronic voting machines that are more than a decade old.

“The D sweep is [sic] Harris County is only going to exacerbate the state government’s war on local government. And it is going to be bad for everyone.”

Tweet by Evan Mintz, Houston Chronicle Deputy Editor.

“He was releasing everybody. Apparently, he was saying that’s what the voters wanted.”

Harris County public defender Steven Halpert, after juvenile court judge Glenn Devlin released nearly every juvenile who appeared before him this morning. Devlin lost his re-election campaign yesterday.

“Welcome to the #2020 election cycle.”

Buzzkill tweet this morning by Donald Trump, Jr.