GOP sweeps Texas Supreme Court, despite efforts of abortion rights PAC
Three Republican justices on the Texas Supreme Court won their reelection races Tuesday by the largest margins in recent memory, overcoming attacks from Democratic opponents for their rulings on two major abortion cases.
GOP victories are the norm for the state's highest civil court. A Democrat hasn't been elected to the nine-member bench in nearly 28 years. But Justices Jane Bland, Jimmy Blacklock and John Devine each defeated their Democratic opponents by at least 15 percentage points. That's a significantly wider margin of victory than any of them claimed in 2018 and 2020. In prior contests, the three justices have had beat their Democratic opponents by no more than 10 percentage points.
The justices serve staggered, six-year terms.
Texas Supreme Court races typically get very little attention. But that changed this year after the court's decision in the case of Kate Cox , a Dallas mother of two who became the first woman in the U.S. in more than 50 years to ask for a court-approved abortion. In the opinion, the court found that Cox, who was carrying a baby with a fatal diagnosis of Trisomy 18, had not proved that she qualified for an exception to the ban.
The decision made national news and sparked criticism from Democrats and OB-GYNs across the country. Hoping to capitalize on outrage over the ruling, a pro-abortion rights political action committee was created with the goal of unseating the justices.
The Find Out PAC also criticized the court's decision in Zurawski v. Texas , a lawsuit brought by two OB-GYNs and 20 women who alleged the state's abortion ban impeded emergency maternal care. In a unanimous decision, the Texas Supreme Court found the women did not have standing to sue.
The Zurawski was opinion was written by Bland, one of the court's three female justices.
Blacklock, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2018, won 58% of the vote against Judge DaSean Jones of the 180th Criminal District Court in Houston. In a statement, Blacklock told the American-Statesman that the results send a "clear message."
"Texans want judges who will follow the text of the Constitution, not judges who will rewrite the law to serve a political agenda," Blacklock said in an email statement Thursday. "I am grateful for every vote I received. My job now is to apply the law fairly and equally for all Texans, no matter who they are or who they voted for."
Devine and Bland did not respond to the Statesman's requests for comment.
Former U.S. Air Force undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones, who founded the Find Out PAC, wrote in a social media post Wednesday that she was proud of the group's efforts.
"Progressives have never fought for these seats in any concerted way, so we knew this would be a challenge," Jones, who also is a former Democratic nominee for Congress, wrote on X. "We also knew we had to do something in the face of these heartbreaking stories of needless suffering under these extreme abortion bans."
Jones added that the PAC will continue its work in future cycles, saying, "Reshaping the Texas Supreme Court is a marathon, not a sprint."
Just under 11 million Texans voted in each state Supreme Court race, 1.3 million fewer than voted in the presidential race. In that contest, Republican former President Donald Trump clinched 56% of the vote against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bland, whom Abbott appointed in 2019, defeated her Democratic opponent Bonnie Lee Goldstein with 56% of the vote to Goldstein's 40%, with libertarian candidate David Roberson getting 3%. Goldstein is a justice on the state's 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas.
Devine, elected in 2012, won with 57% against Houston State District Judge Christine Weems' 42% to secure a third term. The incumbent, who very nearly lost his seat in a primary challenge, received 100,000 fewer votes than Blacklock.
Weems was the only candidate whose fundraising approached that of her opponent's. She reported more than twice as many contributions as Devine received between July and September of this year ($113,000 to Devine's $52,250), according to numbers from the Texas Ethics Commission, and also received numerous donations after the Cox decision. In contrast, GOP incumbents Bland and Blacklock each outraised their challengers by $500,000 or more this cycle.
"Last night was disappointing but unfortunately, not surprising," Weems wrote in a post Wednesday on X . "Texas was not ready to change a 30-year trend. But I am very proud of the race I ran and honestly, I could not have been more overwhelmed by all of the support I have had over the course of the last 18 months."
Jones and Goldstein did not respond to the Statesman's requests for comment.
