Pending appeal, of course.
One of Harris County’s 2022 judicial races could be back on the ballot in May 2025 after a visiting judge from Bexar County ordered a redo earlier this month.
Voters are set to go back to the polls for a rematch in the 180th District Court judicial race over two years after Republican candidate Tami Pierce lost by just 449 votes to Democratic Judge DaSean Jones.
[…]
After ordering the new election, Peeples was tasked with deciding when the election should be held and whether it should be scheduled at all before the appeals process has concluded.
Ultimately, Peeples ruled that the new election will take place on May 3, 2025.
One reason behind Peeples’ decision is that Jones is already on the November ballot as the Democratic nominee running for Texas Supreme Court Place 2 against incumbent Republican Jimmy Blacklock.
“The court cannot put this election on the November 5, 2024 ballot because Judge Jones is seeking a higher office on November 5, and he cannot be on the ballot for two offices at the same time,” Peeples wrote in his ruling.
See here for the previous update. The Republicans wanted the election ordered for this November, which I’d approve of if Jones weren’t already on the ballot for SCOTx. Judge Peeples, correctly in my view if you’re not going to wait on the appeals court, decided against that. Jones of course wanted the ruling deferred until the appeals court weighed in, at least on that matter. Whatever the case, he will remain on the bench pending the outcome of both his elections.
You know how I feel about this, so let’s game out the possible scenarios:
1. Jones wins his race for Supreme Court in November. Unlikely, I agree, but possible. If it happens, he steps down from his current bench, Greg Abbott appoints a replacement (we can probably guess who), and the bench comes up for a vote again in 2026 as normal, with Abbott’s appointee as the incumbent. No special election needed, so the May special is cancelled. I assume the current appeal would be mooted, but the argument that Judge Peeples was wrong in how he decided this case may be sufficient to pursue it. I’m completely out of my depth here.
2. The appeals court has two items two decide: Whether there should be an election before they rule on the merits of Jones’ appeal, and the appeal itself. The first ruling is likely to come fairly quickly, but the second one could take many months. If they put the election off but subsequently rule against Jones, we could maybe see this redo race get pushed back to November 2025, or even later. Whatever the appeals court does, I’m sure SCOTx will also be asked to weigh in. That could also take many months, so if we are ultimately waiting on SCOTx to settle this, it’s not clear to me that we could have a redo before the next scheduled election. Or maybe not, who knows. I suppose these courts could act sufficiently quickly if they want to.
3. Alternately, the courts could allow the redo election to occur as the merits appeal progresses, which would mean next May as scheduled, and which would also presumably moot any further appeals from Jones if he wins. Pierce, as the winner at the district court level, would have no further recourse if she loses again in May. Assuming she doesn’t sue to overturn that election too, which is a road too dark for me to go down at this time.
What happens if Pierce wins in May and Jones wins on appeal is a can of worms I’d rather not open at this time. The simplest scenarios are Jones wins a seat on the Supreme Court this November, and Jones wins the rematch in May. Jones winning his appeal on the merits would also be nice and simple, but I doubt that would or even could happen before May. Everything else…is complicated.
Oh, and if we do have that election in May, I will go on record now and say it will have much higher turnout than the HCDE elections did. People will be much more aware of it and the stakes involved, there will be more time to lead up to it and with much more coverage – I’d bet there are national stories that would be written about it – and there would be much more money spent. It still wouldn’t be like a November election, but it won’t go unnoticed, that’s for sure.