GOP Clawing Back Dem Judicial Seats with Big Money and Big Red Wave

A massive investment by a conservative PAC appears to have paid off in key down-ballot judicial races, most critically in the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, according to early vote tallies. 

The Judicial Fairness PAC pumped millions of dollars into courthouse races across the state in this election cycle, with Elon Musk helping finance the effort alongside other major GOP donors. (On September 27, the richest man in the world donated $2 million to the PAC. It’s one of Musk’s highest-profile forays into Texas politics since his support for the failed ouster of Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza earlier this year.)

The PAC received more than $18 million in donations this election cycle, with big contributions from real estate developers, billionaire investors, and energy companies. 

The Judicial Fairness PAC endorsed and ran media blitzes for Republican candidates in more than half of the open seats on Texas’ intermediate courts of appeals, focusing on races in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Corpus Christi. 

All of the GOP appellate judge candidates had strong leads Tuesday night over their Democrat opponents—including many incumbents—except for races in San Antonio, which were nearly neck-and-neck. Republican candidates had the strongest showing in the Corpus Christi races, holding between 20 and 30 percentage point leads as of Tuesday night. 

Early vote counts show Republicans may be on the verge of winning back a number of close district judicial races in Houston, part of what appears to be a major backslide for Dems up and down the ballot in the blue stronghold. Those same state district courts, which were swept by Democrats in 2018. Those judges were up for re-election this year. 

The Judicial Fairness PAC spent about $8 million helping the Stop Houston Murders PAC, a group headlined by family members of crime victims aiming to oust those Democrats from the judicial benches in Harris County. This was only part of a massive campaign in Harris County featuring local icons like Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, encouraging people to vote for Republican judges all the way down the ballot.

Texas has 14 intermediate appeals courts with elected judges—plus a newly created appeals court filled with governor appointees that hears cases from the state’s business courts and civil litigation against the state government. The judges elected to these standard appeals courts hear cases from lower criminal and civil courts, except in cases with capital convictions, which are automatically sent to the Court of Criminal Appeals—the state’s highest criminal appellate court—for review. 

The Judicial Fairness PAC targeted the First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, which share jurisdiction over 10 counties in and around Houston area; the Fourth Court of Appeals, which hears cases in 32 counties in South Texas and the Hill Country, including Bexar County; the Fifth Court of Appeals, covering six counties in North Texas, including Dallas; and the Thirteenth Court of Appeals, a panel that considers appeals out of 20 counties in the Corpus Christi area. 

Democrats took control of most of these major appellate courts during the 2018 blue wave. Now, amid a disastrous performance for Democrats across the state, Republicans are clawing back some of that power. 

Four incumbent Democratic judges were likely to lose their seats on the Dallas-based court, along with a total of seven on the Houston-based appellate courts. 

The Houston Chronicle threw support behind nine out of the 10 Democrats running for intermediate appeals courts in the region, but largely out of deference to the incumbents. Democrats swept the 2018 races for open seats

The appellate races were closest in San Antonio, where Republicans have been blocked out of all judicial seats in recent cycles, with GOP candidates leading their Democratic opponents by less than one percentage point as of late Tuesday evening. 

All four Democratic incumbents in Dallas—Ken Molberg, Robbie Partida-Kipness, Erin Nowell, and Amanda Reichek—look likely to lose seats to their Republican opponents as they trail by between three and five percentage points.

This ran counter to the Dallas Morning News endorsements, which backed only two Republicans for the appellate benches: Republican former Dallas County Commissioner J.J. Koch and Gino Rossini, running for Place 11. 
The Thirteenth Court of Appeals often hears cases revolving around environmental challenges to the natural gas industry in the area. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is based in Cameron County, which is within the appeals court’s jurisdiction. Only one incumbent was up for reelection, Democrat Nora Longoria, who lost her seat to Republican Jenny Cron.