After the 2020 election, it’s time for Texas Democrats to stop setting unrealistic expectations about top-ticket races and instead start focusing on the down-ballot seats they’ve already won. Over the past decade, Democrats have flipped district courts, appellate benches, sheriff’s departments, and county governments across the state. These positions languish at the bottom of the ballot but assert more direct control over life in Texas than any individual legislator could dream of.
Consider the race for justice of the peace (JP) in Harris County’s Precinct 5, Place 1, where Democratic challenger Israel Garcia beat Republican incumbent Justice Russ Ridgway. The position is so obscure that the Houston Chronicle editorial board didn’t even issue an endorsement in the race. But because JPs oversee eviction hearings, the position holds an outsize power over Texans who rent homes and apartments.
During the pandemic, an eviction can mean the difference between a safe quarantine and exposure to a deadly virus. People can’t follow a “stay-at-home” order if they can’t stay in their homes. That’s why the Texas Supreme Court temporarily halted evictions in March and why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented limits on evictions through the end of the year, so long as renters could prove they met a set of very broad qualifications.
