Racial and ethnic diversity of the judges serving on Texas trial courts improved in the wake of the 2018 elections.

That election season, Democrats ousted Republicans from benches in the Lone Star State's major metro areas. While judicial watchers have grieved the loss of highly experienced judges, just because of the letter after their names on the ballot, statistics show that one consequence of the sweep was beneficial: greater diversity on the bench.

Some political observers have said that divisive politics at the national level could fuel another partisan sweep in Texas this year. Democratic gains that transformed the state's big cities in 2018 could spread to the suburbs surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin in November, posited the Texas Observer.

If so, could this bring even greater diversity to the Texas judiciary?

Although no one can answer that question yet, here's an overview of happened to the face of the judiciary in the wake of the 2018 sweep. Texas Lawyer analyzed data from the Texas Office of Court Administration  to determine how the racial makeup of the bench changed. The judge count from Sept. 1, 2018, shows the makeup of the judiciary prior to the sweep, while the Sept. 1, 2019, numbers provide the count after the sweep.

The state's two high courts didn't change at all in terms of diversity, while the 14 intermediate appellate courts picked up a handful of diverse judges. The biggest gains in judge diversity happened at the trial-court level.

District court diversity

The district courts in Texas saw big improvements in the ranks of African American, Hispanic or Latino and Asian or Pacific Islander judges in 2019.

Hover your cursor over the chart below to view the numbers. The yellow bar shows 2018 and the green bar shows 2019.

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Note: The figures represent the number of judges counted on Sept. 1, 2018, compared to Sept. 1, 2019, which are dates that correspond with the fiscal year for the state of Texas. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM.

The number of African American district judges grew by 46% year over year. They made up 9% of the total number of district judges in 2019, compared with 6% in 2018.

The number of Asian or Pacific Islander judges grew from five to eight, a 60% increase, although they still make up a small percentage of district judges as a whole: Only 2% of the state's 462 district judges in 2019 identified as Asian or Pacific Islander, compared with 1% in 2018.

The number of Hispanic or Latino judges saw a 12% jump from 2018 to 2019. They make up a greater percentage of district judges as a whole: 18% of the district judges in 2019 were Hispanic or Latino, which is a 1-point increase compared with 2018.

As the ranks of minority judges grew, there was a corresponding dip in the numbers of white, non-Hispanic district judges in the state. The numbers of white judges decreased year over year by 3%, although they're still the majority of the bench. In 2019, 68% of district judges were white, compared with 72% in 2018.

Here's how the state's 462 district judges broke down by racial and ethnic makeup in 2019.

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Note: The figures represent the number of judges counted on Sept. 1, 2019, the start of the fiscal year for the state of Texas. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM.

County Court-at-Law diversity

It appears that impressive gains in diversity also occurred at the county court-at-law level of the Texas judiciary.

Hover your cursor over the chart below to view the actual numbers. The purple bar shows 2018 and the pink bar shows 2019.

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Note: The figures represent the number of judges counted on Sept. 1, 2018, compared to Sept. 1, 2019, which are dates that correspond with the fiscal year for the state of Texas. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM.

The data here is less reliable because of irregularities in reporting year over year. This is because in 2018, 20 of the state's 245 county court-at-law judges failed to report their race or ethnicity. The number of nonreporters dropped to just one of the 247 county court-at-law judges in 2019. There's no way to tell whether the 19 extra judges who decided to report their race and ethnicity may account for some of the gains in the diversity numbers from 2018 to 2019.

For example, the statistics show a whopping 213% increase in the number of African American county court-at-law judges from 2018 to 2019. This means the 25 African American judges in 2019 made up 10% of the total 247 county court-at-law judges. That would represent a significant 7-point gain compared with 2018, when African American judges accounted for just 3% of the total county court-at-law judges.

A significant year-over-year gain of 28% occurred in the number of Hispanic of Latino judges. They're starting to make up a good portion of the judiciary at this level: In 2019, 20% of the 247 county court-at-law judges were Hispanic or Latino, which is a 4-point increase compared to their rate of 16% in 2018.

The number of white county court-at-law judges dropped as the numbers of minority jurists climbed. There was a 3% year-over-year decrease in the number of white county court-at-law judges from 2018 to 2019. They're still the majority on this level of bench, though. In 2019, white judges accounted for 68% of the total number of county court-at-law judges, which is a 3-point decrease from 71% in 2018.

Here's how the state's 247 county court-at-law judges broke down by racial and ethnic makeup in 2019.

Source: Texas Office of Court Administration. Note: The figures represent the number of judges counted on Sept. 1, 2019, the start of the fiscal year for the state of Texas. Graphic: Angela Morris/ALM.