Barnard tapped to fill open 73rd Civil District Court seat
Marialyn Barnard, a former interim Bexar County commissioner and appellate justice, is the new judge of San Antonio’s 73rd Civil District Court.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced her appointment on Friday.
Barnard, 70, will serve through the end of 2024. She fills the vacancy left when Judge David Canales decided to step down late last year.
Canales, a Democrat, was first elected to the 73rd Civil District Court in 2012. He told the Express-news that he resigned to spend more time with his wife and sons, who he said have been the target of social media harassment by litigants.
Barnard, a Republican, served on the San Antoniobased 4th Court of Appeals from 2009 to 2018. Then-gov. Rick Perry appointed her to the court, and she went on to win the 2010 and 2012 elections before losing the seat in 2018 to Democrat Beth Watkins.
In 2022, then-county Judge Nelson Wolff appointed Barnard to serve as interim Bexar County Commissioner for Precinct 3 through 2022 in place of Trish Deberry, who resigned to run for county judge.
Barnard was one of several candidates who vied to be the GOP nominee in the November 2022 special election to fill the remainder of Deberry’s term. The Bexar County Republican Party’s North Side precinct chairs ultimately selected Grant Moody as their nominee. He won the seat and is seeking reelection this year.
Three Democrats are running for the open 73rd Judicial District in the March 5 primary election: Ana Laura Ramirez, Dannick Villaseñor-hernandez and Elizabeth Martinez.
No Republicans filed for that seat.