Monica W. Latin, managing partner at Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal LLP, told Law360 that Tuesday's results are in line with Texas' historic trends.
"Some races are clear, others are still too close to call, but the upshot appears to be that groups of individual judicial races within a particular jurisdiction all continue to have substantially consistent results; as goes the county or state, so goes the bench," she said.
The nine justices on the Lone Star State's high court serve staggered six-year terms.
Place 1
Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht, a Republican, was re-elected to his second term as chief justice, defeating Democratic challenger Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum, receiving 53.23% of the vote to Judge Meachum's 44.35%. Chief Justice Hecht, who was first elected to the high court in 1988, is the longest-serving Texas Supreme Court judge in history.
Justice Hecht earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law.
Place 6
The Texas Supreme Court's newest member, Justice Jane Bland, a Republican, will continue to serve on the bench after defeating Democratic challenger Kathy Cheng, a managing member of Cheng & Associates PLLC. She received 55.41% of the vote to Cheng's 44.59%. Justice Bland was appointed to the court in August 2019 by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to replace Justice Jeff Brown, who now serves as a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas.
Before her appointment to the state Supreme Court, Justice Bland served on the First Court of Appeals in Houston for 15 years until she lost her seat in 2018. She served as a Harris County District Court judge before that.
Under Texas law, Justice Bland was required to run in the general election that immediately followed her appointment to the bench.
Justice Bland earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
Place 7
Justice Jeff Boyd, a Republican, has won his second full term on the state's highest court, defeating Democratic challenger Dallas County District Judge Staci Williams. He received 53.53% of the vote to Judge Williams' 44.22%.
Justice Boyd was first appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2012 by former Gov. Rick Perry and was re-elected in 2014.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Abilene Christian University and his law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law.
Place 8
Justice Brett Busby, the court's second newest member, won his re-election bid, defeating Democratic challenger Third Court of Appeals Justice Gisela Triana. He received 53.62% of the vote to Judge Triana's 43.86%.
Justice Busby was appointed to the bench in February 2019 by Abbott to fill the seat of retiring Justice Phil Johnson. Before his appointment, Justice Busby served on the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston from 2012 to 2018, when he lost his seat during a blue wave that swept through the state's lower courts.
Before that, he worked as an appellate litigator for Bracewell LLP and has argued cases in front of both the state's high court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under Texas law, Justice Busby was required to run in the general election that immediately followed his appointment to the bench.
Justice Busby earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his law degree from Columbia Law School.
--Editing by Pamela Wilkinson.
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