As Democrats dominated countywide races by wide margins Tuesday night, all four remaining Republican-held state District Court judgeships in Bexar County were swept out.
Though Gov. Greg Abbott was reelected by at least 10 percentage points Tuesday night, his Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, took 57% of the vote in Bexar County, helping propel down-ballot races into the Democratic column.
That clean sweep of state District Court seats continued a partisan shift that began in 2018, when O’Rourke on the ballot against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
O’Rourke carried Bexar County that year as well, and nine incumbent Republican judges lost their seats. None of the remaining Republican-held judicial offices faced Democrats on the ballot in 2018.
This year, the only remaining Republican civil court judge, Cathleen Stryker in the 224th District Court, lost to Democrat Marisa Flores, an attorney at Begum Peláez-Prada. Stryker had held the seat since 2010.
In the 227th Criminal District Court, Democrat Christine Del Prado, who worked for the Bexar County District Attorney’s office before starting her own practice, ousted incumbent Republican Kevin M. O’Connell, who was seeking a third term.
Republican Judge Jefferson Moore in Bexar County’s 186th Criminal District Court incumbent did not seek reelection this year. Democrat Kristina Escalona, who is currently a prosecutor in the Bexar County district attorney’s office, beat Republican and former District Court Judge Daphne Previti Austin in the race to replace him.
In the 437th Criminal District Court, incumbent Republican Melisa Skinner was defeated by Democrat Joel Perez, who has worked as a defense attorney and a prosecutor for the Bexar County DA. Skinner had been a district judge before, and was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott last year to replace Republican Lori Valenzuela when the latter was appointed to the 4th Court of Appeals.
Races for the seven-member 4th Court of Appeals, which encompasses 32 South Texas and Hill Country counties, were much closer than the judicial races in Bexar County.
As of Wednesday morning Valenzuela, the only Republican on the court, was leading Democrat Beckie Palomo in the race to keep her seat by just over 1 percentage points, based on unofficial results with all counties and precincts reporting. Democrat Irene Alarcon Rios, who occupies Place 6 on the court, also was narrowly ahead of Republican challenge Todd McCray in her bid for a second term.
At a get-out-the-vote rally in South San Antonio Saturday morning, Democratic Congressional candidate Greg Casar told volunteers that judicial races are a reminder of the impact a statewide candidate can have, even if they’re unsuccessful in their own race.
“There are so many people who are elected officials, and who ran for office, because they were inspired by Beto,” said Casar, a labor organizer who won his own race easily Tuesday. O’Rourke attended the morning’s rally to knock on doors in a competitive state House district.
“[Many Democratic candidates] didn’t have the resources to run a full-out campaign … but the work that Beto’s campaign and all of us did, turning out voters, put so many people into becoming judges … and got so many people to be elected as state representatives,” Casar said.
Former 225th Civil Court Judge Peter Sakai won the race to replace retiring Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff Tuesday night. Sakai resigned from the bench more than a year ago, but Abbott did not appoint a replacement.
Democrat Christine Hortick, a family court lawyer who served as president of the Bexar County Children’s Court Attorneys Association, will replace Sakai in the 225th. She defeated Republican Renée Yanta, a former District Court judge who also has lots of experience in family law.
To complete the Democratic wipeout of Bexar County courts, the lone Republican incumbent at the County Courts at Law, Judge Tommy Stolhandske, lost his bid for a third term to Erica Peña, a former assistant district attorney.
