The three sitting members of the Texas Supreme Court facing re-election in 2010 all won handily. With 99.98% of precincts reporting:
Place 3
Debra Lehrmann (R)-I | 2,902,897 | 59.88% |
Jim Sharp (D) | 1,805,723 | 37.25% |
William Bryan Strange, III (L) | 138,567 | 2.85% |
Place 5
Paul Green (R)-I | 2,898,421 | 60.02% |
Bill Moody (D) | 1,785,890 | 36.98% |
Tom Oxford (L) | 143,999 | 2.98% |
Place 9
Eva Guzman (R)-I | 2,917,555 | 60.31% |
Blake Bailey (D) | 1,722,237 | 35.60% |
Jack Armstrong (L) | 197,566 | 4.08% |
These outcomes fairly closely track the performance of other statewide Republican candidates in contested races, in which Republican incumbents received around 60% of the vote. (( The exception was Governor Perry, of course, who obtained roughly 55% of the vote in a significantly more contested race. ))
Other Appellate Elections
The two most interesting contests of the night were in the Thirteenth Court and the Third Court. (In each of the other contested races for the court of appeals, the Republican incumbent won with at least 56% of the vote.)
Thirteenth Court: Perkes defeats Yañez
The only incumbent to lose was Linda Yañez of the Thirteenth Court of Appeals (in Corpus Christi/Edinburg), who had first been appointed to the Court in 1993. She lost to Greg Perkes, an appellate lawyer from Corpus Christi.
The Yañez/Perkes race was the closest appellate contest of the night. With 100% of the precincts reporting:
Greg Perkes (R) | 136,342 | 50.81% |
Yañez (D)-I | 131,965 | 49.18% |
Third Court: Goodwin wins the open seat
The race for the open seat on the Third Court received a great deal of attention locally in Austin. In part, that was because Democratic nominee Kurt Kuhn had drawn a wide range of Republican supporters, including several former Justices of the Texas Supreme Court.
But in the voting booth, the night’s pattern of a Republican sweep continued. With 100% of precincts reporting:
Melissa Goodwin (R) | 313,652 | 57.13% |
Kurt Kuhn (D) | 235,355 | 42.86% |