GISELA TRIANA

An Austin court on Thursday dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal challenging Travis County and Austin’s New Years holiday curfew, months after it ended — in a perhaps symbolic win for local officials.

It’s notoriously difficult for judicial candidates, even those running for the state’s high courts, to capture voters’ attention. Voters have the chance to choose four justices on the nine-member Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest court for civil matters, and three judges on its sister body, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. This year, though, the Texas Supreme Court has found itself in the spotlight far more than usual with major coronavirus-related decisions and an unusually long list of election-related cases. “Once again, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court steps into this election against the interests of voters and a functioning democracy,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said after the Harris County decision. The nation’s high court again overturned the Texas court’s decision, and Moore has since been resentenced to life in prison and released on parole.

Voters have the chance to choose four justices on the nine-member Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest court for civil matters, and three judges on its sister body, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. This year, though, the Texas Supreme Court has found itself in the spotlight far more than usual with major coronavirus-related decisions and an unusually long list of election-related cases. In May, the high court ruled that lack of immunity to the coronavirus does not itself make a voter eligible for an absentee ballot. “Once again, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court steps into this election against the interests of voters and a functioning democracy,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said after the Harris County decision. The nation’s high court again overturned the Texas court’s decision, and Moore has since been resentenced to life in prison and released on parole.

Typically not top of mind for voters, the nine Republican justices of the Texas Supreme Court have come under the spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic with a slate of high-profile and controversy-generating moves. I think peoples eyes are opening up, said 3rd Court of Appeals Justice Gisela Triana, one of the four women running for Supreme Court on the Democratic ticket this year. On Tuesday, a federal court ruled on the same issue a legal morass that some predict may ultimately be resolved at the U.S. Supreme Court. She took particular aim at a tweet by Busby, one of the Republican justices on the ballot this fall, who posted last week about a Texas Supreme Court order that he suggested would help Texans struggling to pay rent. The Texas Supreme Court order he referred to was the one that lifted a statewide moratorium on evictions.

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But as Texas primary voters walk into the polls March 3, most are unlikely to have that or any information about the 14 Democratic candidates competing this year for seats on the states two high courts. This years experimental design a high-turnout presidential primary, a slate of low-information judicial races, many gender-split contests makes the 2020 Democratic primary seem like a better test of ballot names and gender preferences than it is a referendum on candidate qualifications. I never want to stand on the sidelines and let things happen, said Triana, an appellate justice in Austin who is running this year for Supreme Court. In my experience, if voters dont know much of anything about these candidates, were likely to see a lot of women voters voting for women candidates. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals plays a similar role, deciding death penalty appeals among other criminal matters ranging from drug charges to murder.

For Brandon Birmingham, a state district judge in Dallas, the 2020 race for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals started on election night 2018. Within weeks, he’d reached out to the state Democratic Party. This year, with a controversial Republican president on the ballot and sky-high stakes for Texas Democrats, candidates are hoping the races look more like heroes’ journeys. Democrats have not run a contested primary for the state’s high courts since 2008. As recently as last year, Democrats failed to even field a candidate in one race for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.