Eva Guzman

Eva Guzman
Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas Place 9
In office October 8, 2009 – June 11, 2021
Appointed by	Rick Perry
Preceded by	Scott Brister
Succeeded by	Evan A. Young
Personal details
Born	(1961-01-12) January 12, 1961 (age 60) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Education	University of Houston (BA) South Texas College of Law (JD) Duke University (LLM)

Eva Martinez Guzman (born January 12, 1961) is an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a Republican member of the Texas Supreme Court from 2009 to 2021.

In a June 7, 2021 letter to Governor Greg Abbott, Guzman announced her resignation effective by the end of the week.^{[1] [2]} Guzman later announced a challenge to incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton in the 2022 GOP primary.^[3] Incumbent Ken Paxton is also being challenged by George Prescott Bush and Congressman Louie Gohmert.

Guzman was initially appointed to the court by then-Governor Rick Perry in 2009 to fill the seat vacated by Justice Scott Brister, who had resigned with more than a year left in his term.

Early life and education[]

Guzman is one of seven children of Mexican immigrant parents. Born in Chicago, she was raised in Houston, where she graduated from the predominantly Hispanic Stephen F. Austin High School in 1979.^[4]

Guzman received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston, a J.D. degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston, and an LL.M. degree from Duke University School of Law.^[5] She has been licensed to practice law in Texas since November 4, 1989.

Career[]

Prior to her appointment to the state supreme court, Guzman was one of nine justices on the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, where she participated in deciding thousands of civil and criminal appeals and wrote hundreds of published opinions. She also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Before she as appointed to the appellate court, Guzman sat on a Family District Court bench in Harris County.^[6]

Texas Supreme Court[]

At the time of her appointment to the supreme court, then-Governor Perry called Guzman a "principled conservative with an "unmatched work ethic."^[4][6] Guzman won the GOP nomination for her seat in the primary election held on March 2, 2010. She defeated Judge Rose Vela of the 13th Court of Appeals 721,456 (65.3 percent) to 384,135 (34.7 percent).^[7] In the November 2 general election, Guzman defeated Democrat Blake H. Bailey.^[8]

In the Republican primary election held on March 1, 2016, Justice Guzman won renomination for a second six-year term by defeating Joe Pool, the son of Joe R. Pool, a Democratic U.S. representative from Dallas who died in 1968. She received 1,269,231 votes (59.2 percent) to Pool's 874,128 (40.8 percent).^[9] In the November 8, 2016 general election, Guzman defeated her Democratic opponent, Savannah Robinson, with 4,884,441 votes (55.8 percent), to 3,445,959 (39.4 percent) for Robinson. Two other contenders, Don Fulton and Jim Chisholm of the Libertarian and Green parties, respectively, polled 304,587 votes (3.5 percent) and 119,022 (1.4 percent).^[10]

Guzman did not serve out her last term on the supreme court. In her June 7, 2021 resignation letter to Governor Greg Abbott, Guzman expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve the people of Texas and highlighted her work on two supreme court commissions devoted to children in the legal system and access to justice for Texans of limited means.^[11] She did not offer a reason for her abrupt resignation.

Guzman has since filed papers with the Texas Ethics Commission manifesting her intent to run for the office of Texas Attorney General.^[12]

2022 Texas attorney general election[]

Guzman formally announced on Monday, June 21, 2021 that she is running for the Republican nomination for attorney general.^[13] The current incumbent, Ken Paxton, who is embroiled in multiple civil and criminal controversies, thus acquired a second high-profile challenger from within his own party.^[14] Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced his bid to take on Paxton earlier in the year,^[15] a move under consideration since 2020 in light of the mounting ethics and public integrity issues surrounding Paxton.^[16]

While extolling her exemplary judicial career spanning more than two decades and her qualifications, Guzman does not currently distinguish herself much from Paxton's political stances. She describes herself as a conservative eager to fight the Biden Administration ("will be ready to sue the Biden administration on Day 1 to protect Texans"), and clamors for the support of the right wing of the party, which is expected to play a key role in the primary stage of her race to become the first female Attorney General in Texas. "I'm in a three-way primary," Guzman is reported as saying. "I welcome all the support I could get, including from former President Trump."^[17] Trump has previously said that he likes both Paxton and Bush and indicated that an endorsement would be forthcoming.^[18]

In mid-September, a Republican member of the Texas Legislature, Representative Matt Krause, announced that he, too, had decided to run for attorney general.^[19] Krause is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and aligns ideologically with Paxton, but promises to perform the job without the legal troubles that have dogged Paxton for most of his time in office.^[19][20] Krause's announcement makes the GOP primary for Attorney General a four-way contest, with the possible need for a run-off between the top scorers.

On the Democrats' side, Galveston attorney and former mayor Joe Jaworski announced as early as last year that he would take on Ken Paxton.^{[21] [22]} On his campaign website, Jaworski presents himself as someone who can restore integrity to public service in Texas, and stresses the need for a change.^[23] Depending on the outcome of the four-way primary race on the Republican side, his opponent in the general election campaign could be a GOP candidate other than Paxton, which would affect the anti-corruption and integrity thematic on both sides in the partisan contest. It might even refocus the race on competing view of the role of the attorney general in Texas politics and in the nation. Under Republican political control, the State of Texas has had a contentious relationship with both the federal government (when under Democratic control) and with the local governments of the major metropolitan centers within the state, most of which are run by Democrats.

Personal life[]

Guzman is married to retired Houston Police Sergeant Antonio Ray "Tony" Guzman (born 1958). ^[6] The couple has one adult daughter, Melanie Alexis, who is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and was licensed in Texas in 2019.

A resident of Cypress in Harris County, Guzman is the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Texas high court for civil appeals. Another Hispanic, David Medina, was elected to the court in 2006 and served until 2012, the year he was defeated by John P. Devine in the Republican primary run-off for re-nomination to his supreme court seat.

Guzman was recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association as "Latina Judge of the Year" and as "2009 Judge of the Year" by the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas Foundation.

See also[]

• List of Hispanic/Latino American jurists
• Hispanic and Latino conservatism in the United States

References[]