Thomas Smith has won the Republican nomination for Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 after defeating Alison Fox in Tuesday’s Primary runoff election. The CCA is Texas’ highest criminal appellate court.
The May 26 runoff followed the March 3 Primary in which none of the candidates secured more than 50 percent of the vote. Fox received 31.3 percent while Smith took 30.7 percent, forcing the two top vote-getters into Tuesday’s runoff.
Incumbent Judge Bert Richardson chose not to seek reelection to the statewide court, leaving the seat open. Richardson—who was first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014 and reelected in 2020—is instead running for Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio.
Smith has been serving as a special assistant attorney general and received the endorsement of Attorney General Ken Paxton. He previously served as Paxton’s counsel when he was a state senator. Fox currently works as a staff attorney at the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Earlier this month, the runoff campaign heated up after Fox held a Sept. 30, 2025 petition-signing event in Fort Worth sponsored by criminal defense attorneys Cody Cofer and Frank Sellers. Both were representing defendants charged in connection with the July 4 attack on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado.
Fox defended the event, stating she was unaware of the attorneys’ involvement in the case at the time and emphasizing that “every person accused of a crime is entitled to legal representation under our system of justice.”
Smith characterized the event as evidence that Fox “is not really a Republican,” calling her “the most leftist candidate to ever appear on a statewide Republican ballot in Texas.”
“She’s a former Soros DA lawyer who recruited Democrats to vote in our primary to cancel out Republican votes,” he added.
Smith will face Democrat Okey Anyiam—a Dallas criminal defense attorney—in the November General Election.
Other CCA Races
Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals has three of its nine seats up for election in 2026. In addition to Place 3 are Places 4 and 9.
For Place 4, incumbent Republican Kevin Yeary is seeking reelection after serving on the court for more than a decade. He will face Democrat Audra Riley in November, who currently presides over Criminal District Court No. 3 in Dallas County. Yeary was the only judge to vote against the 2021 ruling that declared the Office of the Attorney General cannot unilaterally prosecute election cases.
Place 9 is also an open seat, as Judge David Newell is not running for reelection. According to his January 2026 campaign finance report, Newell’s campaign made a $4,000 contribution to Fox’s Place 3 CCA campaign in October 2025. This violated the Texas Election Code, which prohibits judicial candidates and officeholders from using campaign contributions to make political contributions exceeding $100 per calendar year to another candidate.
Running for Place 9, John Messinger—an assistant state prosecuting attorney—will face Democrat attorney Holly Taylor in November.
