Steven Wayne Smith

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.

On January 3, 2006, Smith announced that he would enter the March 7 Republican primary for Place 2 on the Texas Supreme Court. He opposed Justice Don Willett of Austin, a Baylor and Duke University Law School graduate who was appointed to the bench in fall 2005 by Governor Perry.

Bush announced on January 19, 2006, that he was supporting Willett.

Perry and U.S. Senator John Cornyn opposed Smith's candidacy and he eventually lost the primary to Green. Green was unopposed in the 2004 general election. Green still holds this seat on the Supreme Court.

In 2004, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison supported Smith's reelection, but she endorsed Willett in the 2006 race. Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, himself a former Texas Supreme Court justice, also endorsed Willett. The San Antonio Express-News endorsed Willett, but the Fort Worth Star-Telegram backed Smith. Smith lost to Willett by 4,979 votes.

Smith served on the high Texas court from November 2002 through January 2005.

Smith was elected to the court in 2002 by first defeating Xavier Rodriguez, an appointee of Governor Rick Perry, in the Republican primary. Smith polled 306,730 votes (53.49 percent) to Rodriguez's 266,648 ballots (46.50 percent). Rodriguez spent $558,000, called himself a "moderate", and lost; Smith spent $9,500, called himself a "conservative", and won in an upset.

The 2002 election was for the unexpired portion of a normal six-year term. The term began with the re-election of Greg Abbott to the seat in 1998. Under the Texas Constitution, after he resigned in 2001 to run for Texas Attorney General. an election had to be scheduled for fall 2002 for the remaining two years of Abbott's original term. Thus, Smith had to run for re-election in 2004.

In 1998, Smith ran for the Republican nomination for Place 4 on the Texas Supreme Court. He opposed the then incumbent Deborah Hankinson, who had been appointed to the body in 1997 by then-Governor George W. Bush.

A fifth-generation Texan, Smith was reared in Everman south of Fort Worth. He attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where he received a B.B.A. in finance, the first member of his extended family to have graduated from college. Smith attended the University of Texas Law School, where he concentrated on federal law. He graduated with honors in 1986.

Steven Wayne Smith (born October 26, 1961), is a Republican former Texas Supreme Court associate justice, who was defeated for renomination in 2004 through the active opposition of then Governor Rick Perry. He was unseated by Paul W. Green. Smith again lost – very narrowly – a bid for nomination to the court in the March 7, 2006, GOP primary, when Perry again opposed his candidacy.