{"id":471,"date":"2026-05-27T17:01:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=471"},"modified":"2026-05-27T17:01:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:01:42","slug":"judicial-turnover-continues-but-this-democratic-incumbent-hung-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=471","title":{"rendered":"Judicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A rush of nontraditional primary voters wiped out six Democratic judges in the March primary, while a seventh incumbent, Judge Cesar Garcia in County Court at Law No. 10, was pushed to a runoff from his three-way race.<\/p>\n

Read more Labor activist Adrian Reyna declares victory in Democratic runoff for Texas House District 125<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Democrats\u2019 voting patterns seemed to return to normal for the primary runoff. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Republicans were still eager to root out moderates across the board, including a race to fill Judge Bert Richardson\u2019s seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.<\/p>\n

In a Democratic primary runoff with far lower turnout and fewer exciting races than the March primary, Garcia held off challenger Shannon Roberta Salm\u00f3n to keep his County Court at Law No. 10 seat. <\/p>\n

He did so with a resounding 64.8% of the vote, and does not have a Republican opponent in November.<\/p>\n

Garcia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Paxton ally chosen for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals<\/h4>\n

In the GOP\u2019s runoff for a seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Republicans chose Thomas Smith, a longtime staffer to Attorney General Ken Paxton in both the AG\u2019s office and Paxton\u2019s state Senate office before that.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s highest criminal court became a major target of the right after its 2022 decision denying Paxton broad authority to prosecute election fraud.<\/p>\n

In 2024 three incumbent Republicans who signed that decision were swept out in the primary \u2014 and this year the two of the remaining judges who were up for reelection opted not to run. <\/p>\n

Richardson is instead seeking a position on a lower court, where he did not face a GOP opponent in the primary.<\/p>\n

Still, Smith faced opposition from\u00a0Alison Fox, a research attorney on the court whose boss, Judge Jesse McClure, authored the opinion that offended Paxton.<\/p>\n

Read more U.S. Sen. John Cornyn loses in bad night for GOP moderates<\/a><\/p>\n

Fox said it was a \u201cscary time\u201d after that decision, because her boss received death threats from fellow Republican. But she said she was running this year to preserve the integrity of the state\u2019s supreme criminal court, which she said still \u201cdeserves experienced practitioners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith has never practiced criminal law in Texas, but said on social media that he was running because he was\u00a0tired of the court electing\u00a0\u201cpolitical chameleons.\u201d He blamed the court\u00a0for stripping power from Paxton\u2019s office, and linked Fox to the decision authored by her boss.<\/p>\n

Republicans have controlled every statewide bench seat for many years, but the winner will face Democrat\u00a0Okey Anyiam\u00a0in November.<\/p>\n

New faces for Bexar County courts<\/h4>\n

Of the six Democrats who upset incumbent judges in the primary, one of them, Alicia Perez, will be sworn in to her new position on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Perez defeated then-Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez for the Democratic nomination in\u00a0County Court at Law No. 13 in March.\u00a0County Commissioners are now appointing her to take over early after Speedlin Gonzalez resigned to avoid punishment from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.<\/p>\n

A second insurgent Democrat, Audrey\u00a0Martinez, faced a lawsuit from the incumbent she beat in the primary for\u00a0Court at Law No. 14, Judge Carlo Rodriguez Key. <\/p>\n

Key alleged\u00a0that Martinez doesn\u2019t meet\u00a0the eligibility requirements because she doesn\u2019t live in Bexar County \u2014 giving ousted judges hope that one of them might be able to return if Democratic precinct chairs had to select a replacement.<\/p>\n

This month Martinez was cleared for the November ballot, however, after a judge dismissed\u00a0Key\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Key will remain in the role until the end of his term.<\/p>\n

Martinez, who doesn\u2019t have a Republican opponent in November, told the Report she was \u201cgrateful this matter is now behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Bexar County voters toss another District Clerk, swapping in Christine \u2018Chris\u2019 Castillo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Cesar Garcia held off challenger Shannon Roberta Salm\u00f3n to keep his County Court at Law No. 10 seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections-2026"],"yoast_head":"\nJudicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on - San Antonio moving report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=471\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on - San Antonio moving report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judge Cesar Garcia held off challenger Shannon Roberta Salm\u00f3n to keep his County Court at Law No. 10 seat.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=471\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"San Antonio moving report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T17:01:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b194b4d25ee8d0b8eb5f4fbdd99e52ad\"},\"headline\":\"Judicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T17:01:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471\"},\"wordCount\":651,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cda9e7fe55c33e05c5528b04caa26c90.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Elections 2026\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\\\/?p=471\",\"name\":\"Judicial turnover continues, but this Democratic incumbent hung on - 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