Texas judicial elections summary, 2014

Texas judicial elections, 2014
Overview
Total candidates:	1806
Primary candidates:	1747
General election candidates:	1113
Incumbency
Incumbents:	651
Incumbent success rate:	90%
Competition - general election
Percent of candidates in contested races:	42%
Percent uncontested:	58%
Partisan victories
Republican	593
Democratic	213
Notes: -Texas election coverage does not include local races for the justice or municipal courts.

2015 → ← 2013
Judicial Elections
Judicial elections, 2014
Judicial election dates
Candidates by state
Supreme court elections

In 2014, Texas had more judicial candidates than any other state. The field narrowed from 1,747* primary candidates to 1,113 on the general election ballot. These partisan races saw competition in 42% of the general election contests.

All winning candidates for the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals were Republicans, and every incumbent who sought re-election earned another term.

For general election results, see: Texas judicial elections, 2014.
For primary election results, see: Texas judicial primary elections, 2014.

*Note: Texas election coverage did not include local races for the justice or municipal courts.

Interesting races

Top courts

• Texas had elections for its two top courts, the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. For both courts, all incumbents who ran for re-election were successful.
• Every race for these courts was won by a Republican. At the time of the election, all nine justices on the supreme court were Republicans, while the court of criminal appeals included eight Republicans and one Democrat—Judge Lawrence Meyers, who traditionally ran as a Republican but ran as a Democrat for the state supreme court in 2014.
• None of the races were very close. In all of the races where a Republican ran against a Democrat, the Republican candidate received around 60% of the vote. There were three races without a Democratic candidate. Republicans defeated independent candidates in each of these races with over 75% of the vote.
• Despite the lack of competition, a lot of money was raised by the candidates in these races. Prior to the election Chief Justice Hecht had raised more money for his campaign than any other judicial candidate in the nation, reporting approximately $1,390,223. The Republican incumbents for the Supreme Court reported a combined total of over $3 million in campaign contributions, while their opponents had collectively raised about $77,790. For more details, click here. Republicans also outspent opponents in the court of criminal appeals races, though not nearly the same amount of money was involved.

Courts of Appeals

• Judge Jim Sharp, of the 1st District Court of Appeals, a Democrat, was defeated by Republican challenger Russell Lloyd.
• Four incumbent judges were re-elected to the courts of appeals, and there was one open seat where no incumbent ran. Jeff L. Rose (R) topped Diane Henson (D) for that spot on the 3rd District Court of Appeals.
• A close race for the 13th District Court of Appeals: Democratic Judge Dori Garza was re-elected to her seat with 50.3% of the vote. Her challenger, Doug Norman received 49.7%.

Trial courts

• The following were some closely contested races (winners shown in bold):

• 148th District Court: Judge Guy Williams (51.8%), Augustin "Augie" Rivera Jr. (48.2%)
• 172nd District Court: Judge Donald Floyd (51.6%), Rick Williams (48.4%)
• 186th District Court: Jefferson Moore (50.4%), Mary T. Green (49.6%)
• 289th District Court: Daphne Previti Austin (51%), Judge Carmen Kelsey (49%)

• Approximately ten% of incumbent judges were defeated by challengers.

See also

• Texas judicial elections, 2014
• Texas elections
• Portal:Judicial elections
• Judicial selection in Texas
• Texas

External links

• Texas Secretary of State, "Elections"