Happy #TexasIndependenceDay!
Happy #AshWednesday!
Happy #NoMoreCampaignAdsForAFewWeeksDay!
Prosecutor election results
Here are the results of contested primary races for the DA and CDA seats up this cycle (with winners or candidates otherwise still in play listed in bold). Those headed to a primary run-off will have to wait until May 24 to learn their fate.
BEXAR: Incumbent Joe Gonzales (D) will face criminal defense attorney Marc LaHood (R) in November after LaHood defeated former prosecutor Meredith Chacon (R) in the GOP primary. (LaHood is the brother of former Bexar CDA Nico LaHood, whom Gonzales defeated in 2018.)
DALLAS: Incumbent John Creuzot (D) fended off another primary challenge from former district court judge Elizabeth Frizell (D). He will face former district court judge and former CDA Faith Johnson (R) in another rematch in November.
HIDALGO: Edinburg Municipal Court Judge Terry Palacios (D)—who is the uncle of retiring CDA Ricardo Rodriguez—defeated San Juan Municipal Court Judge Nereida Lopez-Singleterry (D) and will face former prosecutor Juan Tijerina (R) in November.
KAUFMAN: Incumbent Erleigh Wiley (R) beat Rob Farquharson and has no general election opponent.
MADISON: Incumbent Brian Risinger (R) was defeated by Grimes County First Asst. DA Courtney Cain Smith (R), who has no general election opponent. (More details on that race are available HERE.)
MCLENNAN: Incumbent Barry Johnson (R) was defeated by criminal defense lawyer Josh Tetens (R), who will face criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Aubrey Robertson (D) in November.
PANOLA: Incumbent DA Danny Buck Davidson (R) fell 54 votes short of an outright win (if our math is correct) and will face criminal defense attorney Tim Cariker (R) in a run-off after both outpolled CPS regional attorney Patrice Savage (R); there is no general election opponent.
POLK: Livingston Municipal Court Judge Shelly Bush Sitton (R) won the seat outright over Asst. CDA Tommy Coleman (R) and criminal defense attorney Julie Mayes Hamrick (R); there is no general election opponent. (FYI, retiring CDA Lee Hon (R) failed in his bid to unseat the incumbent judge of the 258th Judicial District Court.)
TARRANT: County court judge Phil Sorrells (R) will face State Rep. Matt Krause (R) in a run-off after both out-polled district court judge Mollee Westfall (R). The winner of that contest will then square off against former prosecutor Tiffany Burks (D), who defeated Albert John Roberts (D) and former CCA Judge Larry Meyers (D) without needing a run-off.
WOOD: Incumbent Angela Albers (R) defeated former CDA Jim Wheeler (R) and faces no opposition in the general election.
Statewide & Lege results (and impact)
You can get most election results you care about from your state or local news source of choice, so we’ll just note some results of general interest here.
HIGH COURTS
CCA: Place 5 Incumbent Judge Scott Walker (R) survived a challenge from former Harris County appellate prosecutor Clint Morgan (R) and will face municipal court judge Dana Huffman (D) in November. Walker’s victory might have put paid to the supposed GOP grassroots outrage over the Stephens opinion limiting the AG’s authority in election fraud cases, as he was the lone CCA judge with a primary opponent in the wake of that ruling.
SCOTX: Newly-appointed Place 9 incumbent Evan Young (R) bested Fifth Court of Appeals Justice David Schenck (R) and will face Harris County district court judge Julia Maldonado (D) in November.
STATEWIDE RACES
Most incumbents or favorites won outright. Exceptions to that general rule included:
- AG (R): Ken Paxton (incumbent) vs. Land Commissioner George P. Bush
- AG (D): Rochelle Garza vs. Joe Jaworski
- Lite Guv (D): Mike Collier vs. State Rep. Michelle Beckley
#TXLEGE
Status quo ruled the day. (After all, what’s the point of drawing your own districts if you aren’t going to win them?) No state Senate incumbents lost and only one incumbent state House member was defeated, but that comes with an asterisk because State Rep. Art Fierro (D-El Paso) lost to fellow State Rep. Claudia Ordaz Perez (D-El Paso) only after the two were paired together in redistricting. That said, four sitting Republican state Reps are in run-offs: Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth), Kyle Kacal (R-Bryan), Glenn Rogers (R-Graford), and Phil Stephenson (R-Wharton). We also know of at least two new state senators: Oilman and current State Rep. Mayes Middleton (R-Wallisville) will replace the retiring Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) in Senate District 11, and oilman Kevin Sparks (R-Midland) will replace the retiring Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) in Senate District 31. Those two changes will not only exponentially increase the percentage of state senators who derive part of their living from the oil business, but they are also expected to move the political tenor of the upper chamber even further to the right. That makes Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R-Houston) one of the big winners of this week’s primaries, as is House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) after he saw almost all of his supporters in the lower chamber keep their seats despite efforts by far-right advocates who spent several million dollars unsuccessfully primarying many of his supporters.
Your “tl;dr” take-away? There will be plenty of fresh faces next session due to retirements and resignations to run for higher offices, but the redistricting process has removed most parts of the state from competitive general elections races. As a result, next session’s 88th Legislature should be as red or redder than the current make-up.
One other item of note: In Harris County—which has become Ground Zero in the bail reform debate in Texas—several incumbent Democratic judges at the district court and county court levels appear to have been defeated or put to a run-off in their races to keep their benches. Details are still sketchy, though, because the county was experiencing trouble with its new voting machines.
Quote of the Day
“Folks elect people up and down the ballot. They elect them at the national level, at the state level, at the local level. And I often remind the people at the state that they were not geniuses when they voted for them and idiots when they voted for us.”
—Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who is retiring at the end of this year, as quoted in a KERA News article about the increased attention the pandemic placed upon some local officials tasked with addressing it.
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