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

Texas had by far the most judicial candidates of all the states. The list of 1,113 general election candidates was pared down from 1,747* candidates in the primary. The elections were partisan and 42 percent of the candidates in the general election faced competition.

All of the winning candidates for the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals were Republican, and all of the incumbents who ran were successful. In general, Republicans dominated the judicial races across the state.

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

*Note: Texas election coverage does 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.
• Each race for these courts was won by a Republican. All nine justices on the supreme court belong to this party. The court of criminal appeals has eight Republicans and one Democrat. However, the lone Democrat is Judge Lawrence Meyers, who has historically run as a Republican but decided to run 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 apparent 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 collectively had only about $77,790. For more details, see Texas Supreme Court elections, 2014 - Contributions. Republicans also outspent opponents in the court of criminal appeals races, though not nearly the same amount of money was involved. See: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals elections, 2014 - Contributions.

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 narrowly retained her seat with 50.3% of the vote. Her challenger, Doug Norman received 49.7%.

Trial courts

• Below are some of the close district court races (winners 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 percent of incumbent judges were defeated by challengers.

Analysis

Number of candidates by contest type: Texas 2014 general election

The following graph depicts the percentage of unopposed candidates versus opposed candidates in the general election. <pPie title="2014 Texas opposed vs. unopposed candidates" labels colors=B45F06,134F5C> Unopposed,650 Opposed,467 </pPie>

Partisan victories: Texas 2014 general election

<pPie labels colors=00ccff,ff3300,cccccc> Democrat,213 Republican,592 Other/Unknown,303 </pPie>

See also

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

External links

• Texas Secretary of State, "Elections"