The Harris County Criminal Justice Center is photographed in Houston, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
It’s a tough year to be a Republican judge appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The governor appears as vulnerable as he’s ever been in his bid for a fourth term in office, and midterm elections heavily favor the party out of power in the White House. Conventional political wisdom and history would suggest that even if Abbott survives re-election, a blue wave could wipe out Republicans in down-ballot, local races.
Criminal District Judge, 180th Judicial District: Tami Pierce
Tami Pierce ★★★ — This Republican took over the court a year ago and has managed her docket well, but we have some concerns about her judicial temperament.
Stephanie Morales ★★1/2 — This Democratic challenger has experience as a prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer, but hasn’t tried many serious felony cases.
Criminal District Judge, 183rd Judicial District: Lance Long
Lance Long ★★★★ — This Republican has superb judicial temperament and ample criminal law experience in multiple jurisdictions, including 25 years as a Harris County prosecutor.
Julia Maldonado ★ — A former family court judge, this Democrat’s primary legal practice is in civil law and she hasn’t tried a criminal case in nine years. She didn’t meet with the editorial board. Please don’t vote for her.
Criminal District Judge, 228th Judicial District: Caroline Dozier
Caroline Dozier ★★★1/2 — A longtime Harris County prosecutor who inherited a courtroom with a huge case backlog, this Republican judge is well liked, fair-minded and committed to improving upon managing her docket.
Alyson Almaguer ★★★1/2 — A felony prosecutor in Harris County, this Democratic challenger is an impressive candidate with a compelling personal history.
Criminal District Judge, 486th Judicial District: Vanessa Velasquez
Vanessa Velasquez ★★★★ — This Republican is an accomplished jurist who has already served three terms as a Harris County felony court judge from 2006 through 2018, and remained in public service as a visiting judge.
Katie Wilson ★★★1/2 — A Harris County public defender and former prosecutor, the only knock on this Democrat is that she lacks the judicial experience of her opponent.
Criminal District Judge, 495th Judicial District: Lori Ann DeAngelo
Lori Ann DeAngelo ★★★1/2 — Twice appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to Harris County felony courts, this Republican hopes to stick this time by adopting a more open-minded judicial approach.
Tiffany Hill ★★★ — A Harris County public defender and former associate judge, this Democrat has some experience running a courtroom but didn’t make a compelling argument to oust DeAngelo.
Criminal District Judge, 497th Judicial District: Peyton Peebles
Peyton Peebles ★★★★ — This Republican incumbent has done a stellar job managing this brand new courtroom and is ably handling one of the county’s highest-profile and complex murder cases.
Breanna Schwartz ★★★ — A former Harris County prosecutor, this Democrat runs her own criminal law practice, taking mostly indigent clients in appellate cases and pre-trial settings.
That would be a significant loss for the Harris County court system. Since 2025, Abbott has appointed six judges to the felony courts. Some of them are presiding over new courtrooms created by the Legislature. Others are filling out terms of judges who resigned from the bench or died.
Article continues below this ad
There’s a baseline of experience and qualifications that are necessary to take over a felony bench. This is the top rung of the ladder for the legal profession, and all six of these jurists take that responsibility seriously. Many of them are longtime prosecutors, though several have extensive experience in criminal defense as well.
What they all have in common is a commitment to fairness and efficiency. They ably balance defendants’ rights and concerns about public safety. They are mostly well-liked by their peers in the legal community — including prosecutors and the defense bar. That doesn’t mean they always get it right. Each felony court judge wishes they had a crystal ball, particularly when it comes to setting bail, but changes to state law have also made it easier for judges to hold defendants accused of violent offenses at no bond.
We met with candidates in-person, talked to lawyers who practice in these courts and reviewed whatever publicly available information we could find for these nonpartisan endorsements. If the worst thing you can say about these judges is that a team of Abbott’s in-house lawyers vetted them and found them fit to serve the public, then voters in both parties should rest easy. While we have real concerns about how extensively Abbott has used his broad executive power to reshape the judiciary — notably appointing seven of the nine current state Supreme Court justices, some from his in-house team of partisan warriors — his felony court appointments in Harris County are focused on justice and worthy of a full term.
Tami Pierce is a candidate for the180th District Court in Harris County.
Kirk Sides/Staff photographer
Criminal District Judge, 180th Judicial District: Tami Pierce
It took three years for Republican Tami Pierce to finally preside over the 180th District Court. She is willing to do whatever it takes to remain on the bench, even if it makes for an uncomfortable endorsement screening.
Article continues below this ad
In addition to being a former prosecutor and defense attorney, Pierce, 63, was a police officer, investigator, hostage negotiator and sergeant. During her screening with the editorial board, she treated her opponent, Democrat Stephanie Morales, a defense attorney and former Harris County prosecutor, like a suspect in an interrogation room.
First, however, Pierce was combative and defensive when Morales, 37, pointed out her lack of prosecutorial experience in Harris County. Pierce was a prosecutor in Liberty and Polk counties. She called it “disrespectful” to be accused of “not knowing my citizenry” in Harris County where she has long lived. She bristled at Morales’ insinuation that she was “lazy” by not going through a more stringent application process to work for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Pierce then attempted a gotcha moment by producing documentation that Morales had failed to pay her dues on time with the State Bar of Texas and owed more than $45,000 to the Texas Ethics Commission for late campaign filings when she previously ran for state representative in 2024.
The contentious back and forth raised questions about Pierce’s temperament, and somewhat validated Morales’ contention that she is “a prosecutor from the bench.”
“I have been a prosecutor and a defense attorney,” Pierce told us. “I know the defendant’s rights, and I adhere to those. I am very open-minded, and I listen to both sides. The defense attorney will always be allowed to make their arguments, and sometimes I go back to him. I said, ‘Do you have anything further to say?’ Because that’s what impartiality is all about.”
Article continues below this ad
Pierce’s bulldog persistence is part of what got her to the bench in the first place. She first ran for this court in 2022 against incumbent Democrat DaSean Jones, losing by 449 votes. The tight margin motivated Pierce to challenge the results in civil court, where she won after a visiting judge ruled that 1,400 votes should not have been counted. Jones appealed that decision, and the case moved to a three-judge panel of the 1st Court of Appeals in January 2025. Before the court could issue a ruling, Jones dropped his appeal “with prejudice” and resigned from his seat last October.
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Pierce to fill out Jones’ term shortly thereafter, so she has had less time to prove herself than most of the governor’s other Harris County felony court appointees. Her one-year clearance rate is solid, at 95%, and her case backlog is right around the average for the 29 felony courts. She was not evaluated by the Houston Bar Association survey last year, but her marks from the defense bar reflected some room for improvement. Only 50% of the respondents approved of her overall performance.
Stephanie Morales is a candidate for the 180th District Court in Harris County.
Courtesy
Morales, however, has a resume too thin for us to overlook. She began her career as an immigration lawyer and then was a prosecutor in Harris County for two years. She started her own law firm in 2017, focusing on criminal defense for misdemeanors, felonies and juvenile cases. But Pierce noted that Morales has no experience trying the most serious felony cases as a lead attorney — valuable foundational experience for any prospective jurist.
Pierce’s tactics and defensiveness were unusual for a judicial endorsement screening. She did raise reasonable points about Morales’ management and organizational skills but we’re more concerned about the difference in experience. Morales immediately paid her State Bar of Texas dues in front of us after Pierce brought it up. As for the unresolved campaign violations, Morales said they were for late filings, in part because she was “in the hospital for various things,” and said she’s working on getting those fees removed by producing the required affidavits.
Article continues below this ad
Pierce gets our endorsement for a full term, but if she wins, her temperament bears watching.
Judge Lance Long is a candidate for the 183rd Criminal Court in Harris County.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle
Criminal District Judge, 183rd Judicial District: Lance Long
There’s no requirement that felony court judges be unfailingly polite, but civility is perhaps the defining characteristic of Republican Lance Long’s brief tenure leading the 183rd District Court.
“I insist on calling everybody, no matter what they’re charged with, as ‘mister’ or ‘miss,’” Long, 60, told us. “I think people are people in the criminal courthouse, and that’s forgotten. I try to keep it a pleasant, courteous, efficient, but respectful courtroom to all that are there.”
Article continues below this ad
Case in point: the first thing Long did when taking over this bench in January 2025 was demand that defendants be present for every court setting for their case. In some contexts, this policy might read as onerous, but for Long it comes from a place of transparency and empathy. He didn’t want defendants in custody to feel like decisions were being made about their cases and their lives without them present.
“They see that there’s a judge paying attention to their case, that their lawyers are working for them, and I do that on all the cases.”
Long’s path to the bench was circuitous. He spent 25 years as a Harris County prosecutor, but was let go as part of a mass purge when Kim Ogg took over as district attorney in 2017. He then embarked on a nomadic legal career: Jefferson County as a staff attorney; Jersey Village as a city prosecutor; a contract attorney for Corpus Christi, as well as for Wharton and Smith counties.
When Kristin Guiney won an appellate court seat in 2024, a vacancy on the 183rd District Court opened up. Guiney, who worked with Long as a Harris County prosecutor, called him the morning after the election and asked if he’d be interested in replacing her. Gov. Greg Abbott made it official, appointing him to fill out the rest of Guiney’s term.
In less than two years, Long has made a good impression on his colleagues. He was one of the higher-rated jurists on the Houston Bar Association’s judicial evaluation questionnaire last year. His clearance rate sits at 99% and his jail population is low. You won’t find his name in any unseemly headlines.
Julia Maldonado is the Democratic candidate for the 183rd criminal district court.
Julia Maldonado
Criminal law is Long’s life, and he’s good at it. We can’t say the same for his opponent, Democrat Julia Maldonado. She was a family court judge for eight years, but not a particularly noteworthy one. She had the lowest rating among family court judges in the 2023 Houston Bar Association poll and a poor reputation for her temperament among lawyers who practiced in her court.
Maldonado did not meet with us to make a case for her endorsement. Even if she did, she simply does not have the qualifications to match Long’s experience. Maldonado’s primary legal practice is in civil law and she hasn’t tried a criminal case in nine years. It’s telling that the Mexican-American Bar Association of Houston, of which Maldonado is a board member, co-endorsed both of them.
Long is hard-working, compassionate, efficient and will continue to do an exemplary job leading this court. He should be an easy choice for voters in both parties.
Caroline Dozier is a candidate for the 228 District Court in Harris County.
Courtesy
Criminal District Judge, 228th Judicial District: Caroline Dozier
It’s a very good problem for Harris County voters to have two solid candidates to choose from for the 228th District Court.
In a perfect world both Republican Caroline Dozier and Democrat Alyson Almaguer would end up on a felony bench. Dozier, 59, and Almaguer, 36, happen to be friends and former colleagues as Harris County prosecutors. By the end of the screening, Dozier was encouraging Almaguer to “come hang out with me” if the Democrat wins the election to learn the ropes on running a courtroom.
Dozier started her career under former District Attorney Johnny Holmes in 1993. Her prosecutorial track record is impressive. She’s worked in the misdemeanor division, trial bureau, post-conviction writs division, and worked gangs, narcotics and organized crime cases.
When Judge Frank Aguilar died in a car crash in September 2024, it left a vacancy in the 228th District Court. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Dozier to fill out the rest of Aguilar’s term. Dozier told us that her learning curve was steep. She described a judicial approach focused on treating cases and people as individuals, listening carefully, and drawing on different judges’ strengths. She tailors bond conditions on a case-by-case basis and uses the least restrictive measures she believes will force defendants to return to court while also considering public safety.
Dozier inherited a court with a substantial backlog of more than 1,000 cases but has since whittled that down to 892. Still, her 3-month and 1-year clearance rates are below average for the felony courts.
To her credit, Dozier acknowledged that she needs to move cases faster, adding that she recently hired a new court coordinator to assist with managing a big docket.
“If you have too many cases on the docket, everybody’s overworked,” Dozier said. “They’re not giving attention to the cases that they need. The court doesn’t have enough time to deal with each case more uniquely and individually. So numbers are important. I’ve been working at it.”
Almaguer brings a different perspective to the bench. Even though she’s been a prosecutor in Harris County for nine years — currently as a felony chief in the 182nd Judicial District Court — she grew up in a family of criminal defense lawyers. Her older brother was also a convicted felon who served time in prison and was murdered at 25.
“I know what it’s like to be that family that goes to visit someone behind glass, I know what it’s like to put money in commissary, I know what bonds do to a family,” Almaguer said. “In addition to that, I know what it’s like to be the next of kin. He was murdered. Nobody ever figured out what happened to him. No one ever found the person, but I knew what it was like to go through the investigation, to go through that hurt.”
We’re confident there wouldn’t be much daylight between Almaguer and Dozier as far as their core judicial values. It’s a choice between Almaguer’s breadth of personal and professional perspective versus Dozier’s depth of courtroom and judicial experience. We’ll give the edge to Dozier to maintain a steady hand in a court that needs it.
Vanessa Velasquez is a candidate for the 486th District Court in Harris County.
Jon Shapley/Staff photographer
Criminal District Judge, 486th Judicial District: Vanessa Velasquez
Even after losing re-election for a fourth term in 2018 as a felony court judge, Vanessa Velasquez couldn’t quit the Harris County court system.
Velasquez, 65, certainly wasn’t ready to retire, so she became a visiting judge. When COVID threw the courts in disarray, Velasquez helped pick juries at NRG Stadium, and she regularly steps in to preside over felony cases when needed.
She passed up opportunities to run for a felony court again, but when Aaron Burdette stepped down as judge for the 486th Judicial District in May, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed her in July. This court was created by the Legislature in 2023, and when Burdette took the bench in 2025, he was saddled with 1,200 cases. The case backlog is now under 500, and Velasquez hasn’t missed a beat, maintaining the fifth-highest 1-year clearance rate of the 29 felony courts.
Velasquez has leaned on her past experience as a judge, but believes she’s an even better jurist now. When she ran in 2018, for instance, we criticized her hard-line policy of revoking bonds for defendants who showed up late to her court twice. She’s ditched that approach now that she’s back on the bench.
“I’m older, I’d like to think that I’m wiser, but I know this: I’m definitely more patient than I used to be,” Velasquez told us. She takes a case-by-case, measured approach to bond, and gives defendants second chances when appropriate. She noted for instance that she wouldn’t automatically revoke a defendant’s bond for simply failing a drug test.
Katie Wilson, a Harris County public defender, is a candidate for the 486th District Court.
Photo Courtesy Katie Wilson
Running against an experienced jurist such as Velasquez is a tough break for Democrat Katie Wilson, a fine candidate in her own right. We endorsed Wilson, 45, a Harris County public defender and senior litigator for the Public Defender’s Office mental health division, when she ran in the primary for the 183rd District Court, a race she lost by only 815 votes. When Burdette resigned, Wilson was selected by Harris County Democratic precinct chairs to run for his bench. She didn’t know who her opponent would be until Velasquez was appointed months later.
As veterans of the Harris County court system, there was clear mutual respect between the two candidates. Wilson has had cases in Velasquez’s court and acknowledged that she’s a “good judge” whom she wouldn’t have challenged in a typical electoral process. Both candidates are conscientious and thoughtful about the law and best practices for attorneys and prosecutors. They share concerns about delays in getting evidence and agree on the need for defendants in custody to come to every important court setting in their case as a matter of due process.
Voters can’t go wrong here, but Velasquez is our pick. She’s done the job before, and done it well, while also showing the ability to adapt her judicial approach.
Lori DeAngelo is running for election to the 495th District Court in Harris County.
Jill Karnicki, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
Criminal District Judge, 495th Judicial District: Lori Ann DeAngelo
Whether Republican Lori Ann DeAngelo wins or loses her election for a Harris County felony court bench this year, it won’t be because of her dog.
DeAngelo, 53, was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to preside over the 487th District Court in 2024. In her brief stint, she was criticized for bringing Lola, her 10-pound Italian greyhound, to court every other Friday. Her opponent in that race suggested that DeAngelo treated the dog better than some defendants who appear in her courtroom. The dog wasn’t the main reason this board didn’t endorse DeAngelo — she lost that contest to Democrat Stacy Allen Barrow — but she got the message. When Abbott again appointed her to preside over the 495th District Court in December 2024, she decided Lola would stay at home.
“I wasn’t going to let the headline be about a courtroom pooch,” DeAngelo told us. “So Lola doesn’t get to come to court anymore. I’ve changed several things, and that’s one of them.”
Another change DeAngelo made is taking a more “open-minded, community-based” approach to running her courtroom. In her previous stint on the felony court bench, DeAngelo was a stickler for tardiness. If defendants were 15 minutes late to her court, she would detain them in the jury area and threaten to revoke their bond. She would even hold them in jail if they were late a third time.
DeAngelo says she’s softened her temperament in her second go-round as a judge. Her colleagues seem to agree: 71% of respondents to last year’s Houston Bar Association judicial evaluation gave her “excellent” or “very good” marks on being courteous towards attorneys and witnesses.
“I don’t automatically revoke somebody’s bond if they’re late a third time,” she told us. “I do take it on a case-by-case basis. I don’t expect people to make a habit of being late to court, especially super late.”
DeAngelo’s courtroom also has one of the lowest active caseloads of all the felony courts, and her clearance rate for the year is at 96%.
Tiffany Hill is running for election to the 495th District Court in Harris County.
Courtesy
Her opponent, Democrat Tiffany Hill, also has experience presiding over felony courts, albeit as an associate judge. When caseloads ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hill, 40, assisted in taking on felony dockets for overtaxed courtrooms.
The main contrast between these two qualified candidates is their breadth of experience. DeAngelo spent 20 years as a Harris County prosecutor and five years as a criminal defense attorney, the sort of balance that voters should look for in a criminal court judge. Besides her stint as an associate judge, Hill has worked entirely in criminal defense, currently as a Harris County public defender.
“I believe my background is slightly different, where I can understand the majority of the people that are coming into the courtroom and being able to use discernment in ways that will keep our community protected, but also recognizing when some chances need to be given to certain people,” Hill told us.
Hill has a bright future, but she didn’t make a compelling argument as to where DeAngelo has fallen short. DeAngelo clearly has fans in the governor’s office, but hasn’t had as much luck winning over voters. We believe she deserves a chance at a full term.
Judge Peyton Peebles is a candidate for the 497th District Court.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Criminal District Judge, 497th Judicial District: Peyton Peebles
The ongoing Lee Gilley saga has all the markings of a case that would trip up a judge with less criminal law experience than Republican Peyton Peebles.
The details are salacious: Gilley is arrested, accused of murdering his pregnant wife, he posts a $1 million bond — which was granted by a visiting judge, not Peebles — and flees the country for Italy where he is still in custody fighting extradition back to the U.S. The media attention became so overwhelming that Peebles had to issue a gag order to both prosecutors and Gilley’s defense attorney. It’s easily the most high-profile case Peebles has presided over since Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to lead the 497th District Court, a new felony courtroom created by the Legislature in 2025.
Yet Peebles, 55, who has worked as a Harris County prosecutor, criminal defense attorney and staff attorney for the county misdemeanor courts, has kept a steady hand on the wheel. He’s maintained his court’s reputation for efficiency — he has the second-highest 3-month clearance rate of all the felony courts — while doing everything within his power to ensure that Gilley eventually gets a fair trial.
“You are entitled to a jury who, even if they have heard about the case, have not prejudged anything, and who can set any of those issues aside and base their decision only on what they hear come out during trial,” Peebles said. “I think judges are beholden to issue orders to the extent possible and necessary to ensure that those protections remain in place. All we can do is be ready as soon as Mr. Gilley is back within the jurisdiction of Harris County to be as efficient as we can moving forward.”
Breanna Schwartz is a Democratic candidate for the 497th criminal district court in Harris County.
Courtesy
Peebles’ opponent, Democrat Breanna Schwartz, also boasts the balance of experience we look for to lead felony courts: nine years as a prosecutor and currently in private practice doing criminal defense work. Schwartz, 40, emphasized that her focus as a lawyer is on rehabilitation and reintegration. She primarily takes indigent defense cases, and even as a prosecutor she helped start the Responsive Interventions for Change (RIC) Court, where nonviolent, low-level felony offenders are diverted into supervised treatment and community supervision instead of jail or prison.
Both candidates share a public service orientation and an emphasis on fairness, with some subtle differences. With setting bonds, for instance, Peebles laid out specific factors that he considers — the criminal charge, defendant’s history, ability to pay and public safety risk. Schwartz said she would enforce the least restrictive bond conditions for defendants, rather than focusing on the dollar amount of bail, and said that requests to hold defendants without bond should be used “sparingly.”
Schwartz is certainly qualified to be a judge, but Peebles hasn’t given the public any reason to boot him after less than two years on the bench. His impressive legal experience and reputation for fairness has earned plaudits from the Harris County defense bar and the Houston Bar Association. He deserves a full term to continue his fine work.