Early voters gave comfortable leads to first-term incumbent judges Lyda Ness Garcia of the 383rd District Court and Marlene Gonzalez of the 388th District Court in their reelection bids in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
In two other local contested judicial races, Selina Saenz is headed toward taking over the 65th District Court, and Linda Perez, who was appointed as judge of the County Criminal Court at Law No. 1 in December, will most likely retain her seat, early voting figures show.
The winner in the 65th court race will replace Judge Yahira Gutierrez, who is retiring. Perez replaced Judge Alma Trejo, who retired to run for district attorney.
The 383rd and 388th courts focus on family law issues such as divorce, child custody and protective orders.
Ness Garcia had 59% of the early vote and her challenger Miguel “Mike” Herrera received 41%, while Gonzalez led her opponent Joy Degenhart, 72% to 28%, respectively.
The winners of these races will take office Jan. 1, 2025, because there are no Republican contestants for these positions. The jobs, which currently pays $158,000 annually, have four-year terms.
383rd District Court
Ness Garcia, 52, campaigned on her efficiency, creativity and trustworthiness as a jurist. Until she took office in 2021, the graduate of the UT Austin School of Law practiced in El Paso since the late 1990s. She specialized in family law and sought to represent parents and children in high-conflict cases.
She earned most if not all the possible endorsements from political groups as well as vocal support from many attorneys and current and former elected officials. They called her fair, patient, thoughtful and knowledgeable.
Herrera, 74, was the presiding judge of the 383rd from 2001 through 2020. He did not seek reelection in 2020. He promoted himself as an old-school judge who would use technology as necessary, but preferred face-to-face hearings especially for custody cases, protective orders and enforcement actions. The graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law said he entered the race because he thought he could do a better job than the incumbent.
The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded Herrera in 2016 because he allowed his own divorce case to remain in his court for four months. In his defense, he said that he kept the case in his court because he and his former wife were trying to work things out. Herrera admitted to the commission that he should have handled some things differently, but he did not think he had done anything wrong.
Herrera financed almost all his campaign through almost $13,000 in personal loans while Ness Garcia reported a personal loan of nearly $17,000 and contributions of more than $71,000 with most donations made by law firms and attorneys. Her bigger contributions included $4,800 from the Pease & Associates Law Firm, almost $3,400 from Sam Flores Law, PLLC; and $2,000 from attorney Mark T. Davis.
388th District Court
Degenhart, 33, said she decided to run against Gonzalez to offer the electorate a fair and impartial alternative to the incumbent, who she and some of her peers considered biased and unprofessional. The first-time candidate said that Gonzalez created an adversarial atmosphere in her courtroom that led to more than five attorneys to request the judge recuse herself in their clients’ cases. Degenhart also claimed that the incumbent overused visiting judges at a cost of $95,000 to taxpayers.
The challenger began to practice family law in El Paso in 2016 after she graduated from Regent University School of Law in Virginia. She said her experience, integrity and professionalism would serve her well as a judge.
Gonzalez, 69, who practiced law for more than 30 years in El Paso, deflected Degenhart’s attacks with explanations for her decisions. For example, she said that she would recuse herself if a former client came before her court. The incumbent, who earned her law degree from Inter American University of Puerto Rico, said that her opponent’s accusations probably were based on her lack of understanding of the inner workings of the local judicial system.
The judge said that she is sensitive and compassionate to the needs of litigants, but she bases her decisions on the law, the facts and common sense, and sometimes out-of-the-box ideas.
Degenhart reported almost $12,000 in donations as well as outstanding loans of $39,100. Among her largest donations were $2,500 each from her law partner James Rey, and retiree Phyllis Strathmann.
Gonzalez’s financial report included more than $41,000 in donations and personal loans of $17,500 from her husband, Hector Hernandez. Some of her bigger contributors were James Lucas, her associate judge, $2,250; and attorneys Ismael Pease, $2,000; and Luis Yanez, $2,000.
65th District Court
The race to replace Gutierrez featured two experienced lawyers who routinely practiced in the 65th District Court, which handles mostly juvenile cases and protective orders.
Saenz, who is an assistant county attorney, received 57% of the early votes. Her opponent, Omar Carmona, received 43% of the early votes.
Carmona is well known for being the attorney who filed the initial lawsuit to oust the former district attorney.
County Criminal Court at Law No. 1
In the County Criminal Court at Law No. 1 race, Perez received 51% of the vote against her opponent, Linda Noelle Estrada, who received 41%. There is no Republican challenger in this race.
This judicial race became heated after Estrada distributed a flyer that showed Perez, 49, at an El Paso rally for then-President Trump. In the photo, Perez is being hugged by a local attorney wearing a MAGA hat. Perez, who has always voted as a Democrat, said she did not support Trump or the Republican party.
Perez, who worked in the public defender’s office, was appointed as the County Criminal Court at Law No. 1 judge by the El Paso County Commissioners Court in December.
Estrada, an Eastwood High School alumna, is serving as a full-time criminal jail magistrate judge. She previously was a criminal defense attorney.
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