The 2026 Election Field

I don't get around to blogging much anymore, but several people have asked me this week to publish a comprehensive list of who all is running in the 2026 Election for positions in the CJC.  Here's my best shot at a comprehensive list, based on the information available from the Harris County Republican and Democratic Party websites.  Please let me know if there are any errors.

Except in some extreme circumstances, I'm not making commentary on the races right now.  I'll write something about the contested primaries as they get closer.

NOTE:  I'm not sure if the term "incumbent" technically applies to a candidate who is appointed to a bench or not, so I use the notation of "(I)" to refer to the candidate currently occupying the bench.  

180th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Allison Jackson-Mathis & Stephanie Morales.  Allison and Stephanie are both criminal defense attorneys who practice in Harris County.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Tami Pierce (I).  Judge Pierce was appointed to the bench by Governor Abbott when Judge DaSean Jones stepped down to enter private practice.

182nd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Danny Lacayo (I) 
• REPUBLICAN-Brent Haynes.  I'm not familiar with Brent Haynes, but the State Bar website indicates that he is an Assistant District Attorney in Galveston County.

183rd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Katie Wilson & Julia Maldonado.  Katie Wilson is a former-prosecutor and currently works for the Harris County Public Defenders' Office.  Julia Maldonado is formerly a family court judge who does not practice criminal law to my knowledge.
• REPUBLICAN-Lance Long (I).  Judge Long was appointed to the bench by Governor Abbott following previous Judge Kristin Guiney's election to the Court of Appeals.

184th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Katherine Thomas (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Heather Hudson.  Heather is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney in the Appellate Division.

185th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Andrea Beall (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Mark Goldberg.  Mark is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney assigned to RIC Court.  Readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of his.

208th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Beverly Armstrong (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Stephen Driver.  Stephen is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney assigned to the Grand Jury Division.

209th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Brian Warren (I) & Robert Johnson & Ysidra "Sissy" Kyles.  This race is kind of a wild one because Judge Warren (who is a very well-liked and respected judge by both prosecutors and defense attorneys) has not one, but two challengers in the Democratic Primary.  Robert Johnson is the former judge of the 177th District Court, where he was wildly unpopular with anyone who had the misfortune of being in his court.  He was unkind, rude, and not very well-versed on the law.  I'm not familiar with Sissy Kyles, but I believe she is a criminal defense attorney.
• REPUBLICAN-Tony Coveny.  I've never heard of this attorney before.  His website lists him as a "food poisoning attorney."  No idea why he would want to be a criminal court judge, but I will save his number for the next time I visit Chipotle.  

228th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Alyson Almaguer.  Aly is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Felony District Court Chief.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Caroline Dozier (I).  Judge Dozier was appointed to the bench by Governor Abbott following the death of Judge Frank Aguilar.

230th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Chris Morton (I).
• REPUBLICAN-Megan Long.  Megan is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Felony District Court Chief.

232nd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Josh Hill (I) &Roderick Deon Rodgers.  Similar to the unexpected primary challenge taking place in the 209th, popular incumbent Judge Josh Hill is facing a challenge from Fort Bend County prosecutor Roderick Rodgers.  Rodgers is the husband of wildly unpopular former-338th District Court Judge Ramona Franklin (more on her later).  
• REPUBLICAN-Chuck Silverman.  As I noted in this earlier blog post, Chuck has reinvented himself more than Madonna.  He's a former-civil lawyer, former-judge, and former-Republican.  He just really really wants be a judge somewhere.  Anywhere.  Previous affiliations don't matter.

248th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Hilary Unger (I)
• REPUBLICAN-David Overhuls.  David is a former prosecutor and current defense attorney who bears a startling resemblance to John Denver.

262nd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Lori Gray (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Nathan Moss.  Nathan is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Division Chief in the Homicide Bureau.

263rd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Melissa Morris (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Jason Campo.  Jason is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Felony Chief in the Homicide Bureau.

482nd DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Veronica Nelson (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Bryan Honeycutt.  Bryan is Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Felony District Court Chief.

495th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Tiffany Hill.  Tiffany is a Criminal Defense Attorney and former Associate Judge.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Lori DeAngelo (I).  Judge DeAngelo was appointed to the bench of this newly-created court by Governor Abbott.

496th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-Michael Abner & Ramona Franklin.  Michael is a very well-liked and respected Harris County Assistant District Attorney currently serving as a Felony District Court Chief.  Ramona Franklin is the former Judge of the 338th District Court, who was defeated in her own primary in 2024.  She was a terrible judge who was known for erratic behavior such as prohibiting lawyers from entering court to stand with their clients during Covid, as well as forbidding entry to the media. After losing her bench, a bizarre hoax telephone campaign started promoting her for a Federal Bench, but that's a story for another day.  Like Robert Johnson, she is an ousted judge that nobody wants to see back on the bench.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Dan Simons (I).  Judge Simons was appointed to the bench of this newly-created court by Governor Abbott.

497th DISTRICT COURT

• DEMOCRAT-BreAnna Schwartz.  BreAnna is a former Harris County prosecutor and a current Criminal Defense Attorney.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Peyton Peebles (I).  Judge Peebles was appointed to the bench of this newly-created court by Governor Abbott.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 1

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Alex Salgado (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Erin Swanson.  Erin is a former Harris County prosecutor.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 2 (NOTE: Judge Paula Goodhart is not seeking re-election)

• DEMOCRAT-Matthew Ruben Perez.  Matt is a criminal defense attorney.
• REPUBLICAN-Matt Alford.  Matt is a former-prosecutor and a current criminal defense attorney.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 3

• DEMOCRAT-Carlos Aguayo & Anna Eady.  Both Carlos and Anna are criminal defense attorneys.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Leslie Johnson (I)

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 4

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Shannon Baldwin (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Rebecca Phillips Aceto.  Rebecca is a former Harris County prosecutor and a current defense attorney.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 5

• DEMOCRAT-Judge David Fleischer (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Stella Stevens.  Stella is a former Montgomery County prosecutor and a current defense attorney.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 6

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Kelley Andrews (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Josh Normand.  Josh is a Harris County Assistant District Attorney who is a Felony Two.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 7

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Andrew Wright (I) & Jorge Garcia Diaz & Rustin Foroutan.  Judge Andrew Wright is seeking his third term as judge of CCL # 7.  Jorge Garcia Diaz is an Assistant Public Defender in Harris County.  Rustin Foroutan is an Assistant Public Defender in Fort Bend.
• REPUBLICAN-Adam Brodrick.  Adam is an Assistant Harris County District Attorney who is a Felony District Court Chief.  He is a noted Mormon and arguably the most cheerful person in the courthouse.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 8

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Erika Ramirez.
• REPUBLICAN-Victor Flores.  Victor is an Assistant Harris County District Attorney.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 9

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Toria Finch (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Xavier Alfaro.  Xavier is a former Harris County and Fort Bend prosecutor.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 10

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Juanita Jackson (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Boa Hoang.  I am not familiar with Mr. Hoang, but the State Bar website indicates that he practices criminal and personal injury law.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 11

• DEMOCRAT- Judge Sedrick Walker (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Liz Buss.  Liz is an Assistant Harris County District Attorney who is a Felony District Court Chief.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 12

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Ashley Mayes Guice (I).  Judge Guice was appointed by the Harris County Commissioners' Court to fill the vacancy of Judge Genesis Draper, who left the bench to lead the Harris County Public Defenders' Office.
• REPUBLICAN-Anna Emmons.  Anna is a career prosecutor, having served as an Assistant District Attorney in Harris, Montgomery, and (currently) Liberty County.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 13

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Raul Rodriguez (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Amber Cox.  Amber is an Assistant Harris County District Attorney.

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 14

• DEMOCRAT-James Hu & Yahaira Quezada.  James is an Assistant Harris County County District Attorney.  Yahaira practices family and criminal and is currently an Associate Family Court Judge.
• REPUBLICAN-Judge Jessica Padilla (I)

COUNTY COURT AT LAW # 15

• DEMOCRAT-Judge Tonya Jones (I)
• REPUBLICAN-Stephen St. Martin.  Stephen is a former Assistant Harris County District Attorney and a current defense attorney.

That covers all of the criminal court benches in the CJC.  There are contested races in all of the Juvenile Benches, which handles both criminal and family court related issues.  I know only one of the candidates over there and that is 315th District Court Judge Leah Shapiro, who is a genuinely awesome human being and judge who is running for re-election.

As noted above, I will write about the contested primaries as we get closer to them.  

Other Early Criminal Court Filings for the 2026 Election

 While we are on the subject of judges and elections, there are some folks that have made some announcements (or have at least made a filing) that signal an intention to run for office in the 2026.  Here's who we have so far:

As mentioned in the last post, former-183rd District Court Judge Chuck Silverman has switched to the Republican Party and will be challenging incumbent Democrat Judge Josh Hill.

• Former Prosecutor and current Defense Attorney David Overhuls is running as a Republican for the 248th District Court against incumbent Democrat Judge Hillary Unger.
• Prosecutor Nathan Moss is running for the 262nd District Court as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Judge Lori Chambers-Gray.
• Defense Attorney Matt Alford has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 2.  I have been told that he is running as a Republican and that incumbent Judge Paula Goodhart is not running again.
• Defense Attorney Anna Eady has also filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 2.
• Defense attorney Allison Mathis has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run as a Democrat for County Court at Law # 3 against incumbent Judge Leslie Johnson.
• Former Prosecutor and current Defense Attorney Rebecca Philips Aceto has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 4 against incumbent Democrat Judge Shannon Baldwin.
• Harris County Prosecutor (and noted Mormon) Adam Brodrick has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 7 against incumbent Democrat Judge Andrew Wright.
• Harris County Prosecutor Liz Buss has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 11 against incumbent Democrat Judge Sedrick Walker.
• Harris County Prosecutor and former Judge Ashley Guice has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 12 (presumably as a Democrat).  NOTE:  This Court is about to come open as Judge Genesis Draper takes the position of Harris County Public Defender.  The County Commissioners will be appointing a replacement for Judge Draper who will most likely be a Democrat that will then run for the bench in 2026.  As of this writing, it is unclear who that person will be.
• Former Harris County Prosecutor and current Liberty County Prosecutor Anna Emmons has also filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 12.  
• Former Prosecutor, Former Defense Attorney and current Family Court Associate Judge Yahaira Quezada has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run for County Court at Law # 14 against incumbent Republican Judge Jessica Padilla.
• Current Prosecutor Michael Abner has also filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run as a Democrat for County Court at Law # 14.  
• Former Prosecutor and current Defense Attorney Stephen St. Martin has filed an Appointment of Treasurer to run (presumably as a Republican) for County Court at Law # 15 against incumbent Democrat Judge Tonya Jones.

That's all I have at the moment.  If I left anyone off the list, it was inadvertent and please feel free to correct me.

Chuck Silverman's Laughable Republican Conversion

I have to admit that I have a complicated relationship with former 183rd District Court Judge Chuck Silverman.

I first heard his name in 2014 when he ran as a Democratic challenger to Incumbent Republican Judge Denise Collins for the 208th District Court.  Back then, I wrote the following:

He lost that election, only to return again in 2018, running against Republican Incumbent Judge Vanessa Velasquez.  To be fair, I had known Judge Velasquez since my early days as a prosecutor and absolutely adore her.  She was a great judge (and continues to be a great visiting judge), and there probably wasn't anyone that I would have supported to run against her.  

But Chuck Silverman, in my opinion, was uniquely unqualified to run against Judge Velasquez.  While she had spent decades of her career solely devoted to criminal law, Silverman was a civil lawyer whose only credentials in the criminal arena were having watched a few criminal proceedings and being "mentored" by highly controversial criminal District Court Judge Randy Roll.   I wasn't shy in 2018 in expressing my disdain for his candidacy.  It wasn't personal, really.  I still believe that civil lawyers shouldn't try to become criminal judges just because, goshdarnit, they just really really want to be a judge.

But 2018 was a good year for the Dems, and sadly, Judge Velasquez lost the election and the candidate that I had said some extremely negative things about was the new judge.  I had several cases pending in the 183rd as it transitioned from the Velasquez Administration to the Silverman Administration, but that was something I knew I would have to deal with when I wrote what I wrote on the blog about him.

To his credit, Judge Silverman was very gracious about those things I had written about him.  He even joked about it with me.  He was never anything but polite and friendly when I was in his court.  He appointed me to represent more than a few indigent clients during his term on the bench.  Although I still maintained my skepticism at civil lawyers becoming criminal judges, Judge Silverman was at least nice about it.  He wasn't going to go in the Judicial Hall of Fame any time soon, but he was fine as a judge.

In 2022, Silverman lost in the Democratic Primary when he ran for re-election, being defeated by Gemayel Haynes (who went on to be defeated by Republican Kristin Guiney).  He was vocally bitter about it and most of that bitterness was directed at the Democratic Party in Harris County.  It was a little ironic coming from him.  When he had campaigned in 2018, he had been very vocal about his deep ties to County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and seemed to relish all things Dem.  After his loss, he seemed to feel that they had let him down and he felt betrayed.  Suddenly, he went from bragging about riding bikes with Commissioner Ellis to labeling Ellis as the person leading Harris County into ruin.

His Facebook posts (where we were friends) started becoming more and more conservative and they absolutely reeked of sour grapes.

A few month ago, Silverman posted something on Facebook that concerned me.  I can't find the post now, but it basically argued against the funding of indigent defense and lobbied for that money to be spent on the victims of crime.  I responded in the comments that I found that to be very contrary to how I felt he performed during his time on the bench.  I told him I thought he had been fair and honored the presumption of innocence of those before him, but his position on Facebook seemed contrary to that.  The post very much seemed to embrace the idea of "guilty until proven innocent" and it didn't seem like he wanted to offer much assistance to those who couldn't afford their own defense.  

I wasn't disrespectful in my response back then, and I don't think he took it as such.  He responded that I had misunderstood the point of his post and we pretty much left it at that.

I wasn't surprised in the least when I learned earlier this year that he had announced he was running as a Republican against 232nd District Court incumbent Josh Hill.  Following in the disingenuous footsteps of failed Democratic candidate Kimbra Ogg, Silverman had apparently decided that if one party can't get you the elected position you want, just switch to the other one.  Don't let principles slow you down any.  The Republican Party made surprising gains during the 2024 election and as of this writing, it is anyone's guess as to how that will play out in 2026.

Today, Chuck had an interesting post on Facebook:

 There's no doubting his conversion to the Republican side of things is complete.  I'm not a fan of Greg Abbott, but that's not what bothered me.  It was his captioning of "Crime has consequences.  Victims deserve justice."  I later noticed that he had the same phrase on his profile picture, along with (bizarrely) a Trademark notation.

Clearly, he's all over that Republican messaging designed to make voters feel less safe with Democratic Judges.  

But here's the problem - Judges aren't supposed to be victims' rights advocates.  They are supposed to be fair and neutral arbiters of the law.  The job description calls for that impartiality, and as a former judge, Chuck Silverman should know that.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure he knows that, and he's just pandering to the Republican Party mantra.  It's pretty shameless, in my opinion.  One has to wonder what his messaging would have been if he had made it out of the Democratic Primary in 2022 as the candidate on the ballot.

I wrote a comment on his Facebook post and told him that I thought it was contrary to the Presumption of Innocence and that trademarking the phrase "Crime Has Consequences. Victims Deserve Justice." was contrary to the job description for a judge.  I was respectful in my tone, but I felt that the issue needed to be addressed.

He responded by deleting my comment and unfriending me on Facebook.  Whatever happened to the Republicans being against censorship?  

But the message is important here.  How important?  Well, important enough to make me get off my ass and do a blog post for the first time in almost a year (I've been busy).

Judges aren't supposed to be Victims' Rights Advocates.  They are supposed to follow the law.  The second they don't, the whole system goes off the rails and innocent people are at far greater risk of being convicted.  It is concerning to see a judicial candidate who embraces being tough on crime rather than respecting the law.  

But Chuck Silverman's career has been one of shifting his position on whatever was most politically beneficial.  Whether he was a civil lawyer shifting to a criminal judge or Democrat shifting to Republican, Silverman seems to go wherever he thinks the voters are most likely take him the furthest.