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Endorses Richardson

The race

Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals, sitting in San Antonio, hearing civil and criminal appeals from its South Texas district. November 3, 2026. Verified roster: Antonia "Toni" Arteaga (D) vs. Bert Richardson (R). Note the cross-current: Richardson is leaving the statewide Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 seat (an open seat in this same election) to run for this chief-justice post.

Antonia "Toni" Arteaga — Challenger. Judge of the 57th District Court in Bexar County since 2008 — now in her fifth term, the longest-serving civil district judge in the county — with hundreds of complex civil cases presided. She served as president of the Texas Association of District Judges. Endorsed by the North East Bexar County Democrats and the Bexar County Young Democrats per the San Antonio voter booklet. Credits: eighteen years of trial-court leadership and the respect of the state's trial judges, who elected her their association president. Dirt check: no discipline found; no appellate service — a chief justice administers an appellate court she has never sat on — and no stated appellate philosophy was retrieved.

Bert Richardson — Challenger. A judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals since 2014, before that judge of the 379th District Court. The San Antonio booklet credits his statewide service with participation in 50+ death-penalty cases and a role in exonerating 8 defendants from wrongful conviction — we print that as the booklet's account of his record, and it cuts in his favor on due process: a law-and-order judge whose file includes freeing the wrongfully convicted is exactly the pairing our doctrine describes. He describes himself as a "conservative-minded jurist" and is endorsed by the Texas Alliance for Life and the San Antonio Express-News per the same booklet. Dirt check: no discipline found; the fair question — why step down from the state's highest criminal court to an intermediate court — is one he answers by seeking the chief's administrative post in his home region; voters may price the ambition either way, and we note it without inventing a motive.

Pros and cons

Arteaga: Pros: Eighteen years on a civil trial bench; trial-judge association presidency; deep Bexar County roots. Cons: No appellate record; party-organization endorsements only on the file retrieved; no break record. Richardson: Pros: Twelve years on a statewide appellate court; death-penalty docket experience; a documented exoneration count that evidences due-process seriousness; conservative self-description plus TAL and newspaper endorsements. Cons: A lateral-down move that invites the ambition question; a criminal-court background for a court whose chief also runs a heavy civil docket.

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Bert Richardson. Appellate experience is the chief justice's core qualification, and Richardson has twelve years of it at the state's highest criminal court, with a record that pairs finality work (50+ capital cases) with exonerations — law-and-order grounded in due process, demonstrated rather than promised. Arteaga's trial service is long and honored; it is the wrong court's experience for this chair, and no break record fills the gap.

Vote Richardson.

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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