Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas; as of the 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, the largest city in Texas and fourth largest city in the United States. The county was founded in 1836 and organized in 1837. It is named for John Richardson Harris, who founded the town of Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou in 1826. According to the July 2022 census estimate, Harris County's population has shifted to 4,780,913 comprising over 16% of Texas's population. Harris County is included in the nine-county Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, which is the fifth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States.
The University of Houston Law Center is the law school of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 colleges of the University of Houston, a state university. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The law school's facilities are located on the university's 667-acre campus in southeast Houston.
Steven Wayne Smith is a Republican former Texas Supreme Court associate justice, who was defeated for renomination in 2004 through the active opposition of then-Governor Rick Perry. He was unseated by Paul W. Green. Smith again lost – very narrowly – a bid for nomination to the court in the March 7, 2006, GOP primary, when Perry again opposed his candidacy.
John Harris Whitmire is an American attorney and politician who is the 63rd mayor of Houston, Texas, the most populous city in Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, Whitmire was a member of the Texas State Senate from 1983 to 2023, representing District 15, which included much of northern Houston.
The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil matters in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort in criminal matters.
Donny Ray Willett is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was previously appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas on August 24, 2005, when former Justice Priscilla Owen created a vacancy on that court by joining the Fifth Circuit.
Sharon Faye Keller is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a Republican.
Joan J. Huffman is an American politician serving as a Republican member of the Texas Senate who represents District 17, which includes portions of Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Harris county.
Eva Martinez Guzman is an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a Republican member of the Texas Supreme Court from 2009 to 2021. Justice Guzman is a Shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka in the Houston and San Antonio, Texas offices.
James Patrick Sharp Jr., known as Jim Sharp, is a former justice of the First Texas Court of Appeals, based in Houston, Texas, serving from January 2009 to December 2014.
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the eighth district and a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
Cathleen Cochran Herasimchuk, was a judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A resident of Austin, Texas, she was initially appointed to the court on September 28, 2001 by Governor Rick Perry and elected by Texas voters in 2002 and 2008. She did not seek re-election to the bench in 2014 and was succeeded in her Place 9 seat by her fellow Republican, David Newell of Houston. She died on February 7, 2021.
Jeffrey Vincent Brown is a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and a former associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He was appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Donald Trump.
Barbara Parker Hervey is a Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; she holds the Place 7 seat.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas was the court of last resort for legal matters in the Republic of Texas from the Republic's independence from Mexico in 1836 until its annexation by the United States of America in 1846. The current Supreme Court of Texas was established that year.
Ronald Eugene Reynolds is an American lawyer and politician who is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives representing state District 27. He was first elected in 2010. Reynolds is the first African American elected as State Representative in Fort Bend County in Reconstruction. Currently, He is a Principal at Civitas Engineering and Group Vice President of Business Development.
Elsa R. Alcala, also known as Elsa Spjut, is a former Republican official who most recently served (2011–2018) as one of the nine judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She was appointed to the Place 8 on the bench by then Governor Rick Perry, when Charles Holcomb stepped down to run in 2012 for the United States Senate. On July 16, 2019 she announced she was leaving the Republican Party to support Democrats at the state and national level.
Robert Carl Richardson, known as Bert Richardson, is an American judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, to which he was elected in 2014.
Michael Edward Keasler, was a judge of the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state court of last resort for criminal cases in Texas, from January 1999 to December 2020.
The 2022 Texas elections were held on November 8, 2022. Primary elections were held on March 1, with runoffs held on May 24 for primary candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote.
