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Endorses Smith

The race

Place 3 on the Court of Criminal Appeals — Texas's highest court for criminal cases, including mandatory review of every death-penalty case — is an open seat: Judge Bert Richardson retired (and is himself running for a courts-of-appeals chief-justice seat in this cycle). Elected statewide November 3, 2026. Verified roster: Thomas Smith (R) vs. Okey Anyiam (D) vs. Mark Ash (L).

Thomas Smith — Challenger (open seat). An assistant attorney general in Ken Paxton's office — by his own questionnaire, a decade at the AG's office, the last five years as a Special Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Justice — and formerly counsel to Paxton when Paxton was a state senator. He clerked for the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, did civil practice, and wrote legislation. He won the May Republican runoff over Alison Fox, a longtime staff attorney at this court who carried newspaper-board and police-association endorsements — a real primary test, and we note what it cost his side of the ledger: the runoff winner is the less court-insider candidate. He is endorsed by Paxton and the True Texas Project, and emphasizes human-trafficking work and Texas's sanctuary-city ban. Finance at Feb. 21, 2026: $2,305 on hand — a shoestring file, stated plainly.

Okey Anyiam — Challenger. A Dallas criminal defense lawyer licensed since 1997 — nearly three decades of practice. His stated position is the restraint position: uphold the law without legislating from the bench. His endorsements are local and state Democratic organizations; his reported finance is minimal — a small individual contribution.

Mark Ash — Challenger (Libertarian). A criminal defense lawyer who has previously run for Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice and for Attorney General. No bench service; a repeat statewide candidate running on the Libertarian line.

Pros and cons

Smith: Pros: A decade inside the state's criminal-justice appellate machinery; legislative-drafting experience (he knows what enacted text is for); Paxton endorsement; survived a contested runoff. Cons: Never a judge; the AG's office he serves carries its own controversies, and proximity to Paxton is a lineage voters weigh both ways; minimal cash on hand. Anyiam: Pros: 29 years of criminal defense — the side of the courtroom that tests whether due process is real; an explicit anti-legislating-from-the-bench statement, which is our philosophy in his own words. Cons: Defense-only perspective with no prosecution or bench record; party-organization endorsements only; minimal campaign infrastructure. Ash: Pros: Criminal defense experience; a third option for voters who reject both parties. Cons: A perennial-candidate file with no appellate or bench record retrieved.

Record gaps

Search record (worked symmetrically for all three): campaign sites/statements and the Conservative Coalition of Harris County questionnaire (Smith — full answers retrieved); Texas Tribune/KPRC runoff coverage (experience, endorsements, finance for Smith and the runoff field); Law.com and Polk County voter-guide coverage (Anyiam, Ash); Vote411 and the Secretary of State certification (roster). No bar-poll preference figure for this open seat was retrieved, and no discipline or ethics record for any of the three was found in news, questionnaire, or guide coverage.

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Thomas Smith. In an open seat, the file that fits this court is the one built inside criminal appellate practice at the state level, with a law-and-order record grounded in due process — trafficking enforcement and enacted-law defense — over a decade. Anyiam's restraint statement is genuinely his strongest card, and we credit it; a statement is not a record, and his ledger is one-sided (defense only, no bench, no appellate post). Ash offers no comparable file. Smith is unproven as a judge — we say so — and aligned and experienced where it counts.

Vote Smith.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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