This year, three seats on the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court will be decided – the first statewide judicial election since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Democrats this year are targeting three incumbents — Justices John Devine, Jane Bland and Jimmy Blacklock — hoping the bipartisan backlash over the abortion rulings will give them their first victory on the bench since 1994.

Polls have shown that Texas voters are largely dissatisfied with the strictness of the state’s abortion laws. But experts say Democrats face hurdles Tuesday because voters are not paying attention to the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil body. Since Jan. 1, Bland and Blacklock have also raised and spent more than three times as much as their opponents, judges Bonnie Lee Goldstein and DaSean Jones.

There are signs that Devine may be more vulnerable than his Republican colleagues in the race against Harris County District Court Judge Christine Weems. He was the only justice to have a primary opponent this year and narrowly survived a heated campaign that included, among other ethical concerns, his absence from half of the court’s oral arguments last year. Devine lags behind Weems in both fundraising and spending this cycle.

Devine has long been a fixture in conservative Christian legal affairs who has called separation of church and state a “myth” and, as a Supreme Court nominee in 2011, claimed to have been arrested 37 times during anti-abortion protests in the 1980s . Earlier this year, the Tribune reported that Devine had not recused himself from a high-profile sexual abuse lawsuit against Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler, even though he worked for Pressler’s law firm at the time of the alleged harassment. Last month, the Tribune also reported that Devine had overseen the trust of an elderly millionaire with dementia for years, despite bans on Texas judges from exercising such fiduciary roles for non-family members. Devine denied any wrongdoing and said the woman had viewed him like a son for decades.

The Texas Court of Appeals has traditionally been in the shadow of the state Supreme Court, its civilian counterpart in Texas’s two-tier judicial system. But this year, a series of political battles over the death penalty and voter fraud investigations have thrust the all-Republican Justice Department into an unexpected spotlight — and created a crucial shift for voters who will decide Tuesday between three justices backed by Attorney General Ken Paxton , or their Democratic challengers.

The surprise drama of this year’s race dates back to 2021, when the court ruled that Paxton’s office must seek permission from the district attorney’s office to prosecute cases of alleged voter fraud. Enraged, Paxton vowed revenge and launched a full-scale election campaign that decisively unseated three sitting judges during the March GOP primary.

On the ballot Tuesday are the three Paxton-endorsed candidates — David Schenck, Gina Parker and Lee Finley — and their respective Democratic challengers, Holly Taylor, Nancy Mulder and Chika Anyiam.

Separately, the appeals court has recently come under scrutiny for its role in the high-profile political dispute over Robert Roberson, a death row inmate whose scheduled execution was halted earlier this month by a bipartisan group of Texas House members. All three of the court’s outgoing justices voted to move forward with Roberson’s execution. But if even one of the court’s new justices were likely to take a different stance, it could open the door to a rehearing. Those chances are likely to decline if the Republican candidates win next week.

— Robert Downen