The San Antonio Express-News endorsed Willett, but the Fort Worth Star-Telegram backed Smith. Smith lost to Willett by 4,979 votes. Primary election of 2016 (Losing runoff berth) Ten years after his last defeat for the state Supreme Court, Smith entered the Republican primary for the Place 5 seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals being vacated by Republican Cheryl Johnson. He ran third among four candidates and finished with 393,458 votes (19.6 percent). The second-place candidate, Brent Webster of Williamson County, with 410,530 votes (20.5 percent), led Smith by 17,072 votes and secured the runoff berth against the top candidate, Scott Walker, who polled 832,685 (41.5 percent). Walker did virtually no campaigning, received no newspaper endorsements, funded no advertising, and entrusted his campaign to his son. He shares the name of the Republican governor of Wisconsin, who withdrew from the 2016 presidential election. Walker may have hence prevailed in the judicial race on the basis of a well-known name. Walker attributed his strong showing to divine intervention: "I spent a lot of time praying. God really blessed me with a great victory." In last place was Sid Harle, the former prosecutor in the Bexar County district attorney's office and a 27-year district court judge from San Antonio, who drew 370,766 votes (18.5 percent). Walker subsequently handily defeated Webster in their runoff contest, 207,195 (57.9 percent) to 150,722 (42.1 percent). The runoff attracted only 2.5 percent of all registered voters statewide. Walker now faces Dori Contreras Garza, who polled 1,020,753 primary votes running unopposed in the Democratic primary. In his campaign, Smith had advocated consolidating the state Supreme Court with the Court of Criminal Appeals, both of which have nine members elected statewide, to reduce the number of judges required by the state. Smith is a former general counsel to the Texas Legal Foundation. In 2016, he is the editor of www.TexasLegalGuide.com. References 1961 births Living people People from Austin, Texas People from Tarrant County, Texas Texas lawyers Texas Republicans Justices of the Texas Supreme Court University of Texas at Arlington alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni