Three Republicans backed by Attorney General Ken Paxton won seats on the state’s top criminal appeals court. Gina Parker, Lee Finley and David Schenck were declared winners by The Associated Press around 1 a.

Michael Karlis is a Staff Writer at the San Antonio Current. He is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., whose work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Orlando Weekly, NewsBreak, 420 Magazine and Mexico Travel Today. He reports primarily on breaking news, politics...

Three new faces will join the bench, but the political balance of power will remain the same on the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Republicans won all six races for seats on the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals in Tuesday’s election. In the race for presiding judge on the state’s highest criminal court, Republican David Schenck beat Democrat Holly Taylor with about 99% of polling locations reporting.