Beto O'Rourke Mobilized So Many Democratic Voters That They Swept Even Local Judges Out of Office
Beto O’Rourke didn’t manage to boot Ted Cruz from the Senate this week, but he got a consolation prize: His long-shot race for Congress drew an unprecedented number of Democratic voters to the Texas polls. As a result, their party swept every judicial seat in the state’s most populous county, knocking out Republican judges who had staunchly opposed bail reform and sent kids of color into juvenile detention at shockingly high rates.
In Harris County, which is home to Houston and the third-largest county in the United States, Democrats unseated 59 Republican judges—including all 23 district judges, all 13 family court judges, all eight county civil judges and probate judges, and all 15 misdemeanor judges. Of the newly appointed Democrats, an unprecedented 19 are black women, significantly changing the face of a judiciary that had been primarily white. Democrats also fared unexpectedly well in the state’s appellate courts, almost all of which were dominated by Republicans. The Third Court of Appeals flipped to Democratic control, a crucial victory given that its jurisdiction includes Austin and its judges often hear challenges to laws passed by the statehouse. Republicans also lost control of the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, which hasn’t had a Democratic judge since the early 1990s.
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/11/texas-harris-country-judges-bail-beto-orourke-juvenile-justice/
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