Not one justice on this court got there by winning your vote. A court that rules on your water, your paycheck, your family, and your rights was filled entirely by one person. On November 3rd, help us make it the People’s Court.
Chief Justice, 15th Court of Appeals
Justice, Place 2
Justice, Place 3
Three races. Three ovals. One fair court.
Know the court
The Legislature created the 15th Court of Appeals in 2023, and it has been hearing cases since September 2024. It’s a statewide court with a short docket and a long reach: the civil cases that decide what state government can and can’t do.
When Texans challenge the Governor, the Attorney General, or a state agency — over your schools, your healthcare, your utilities, your rights — the appeal lands here first. It is the exclusive appellate venue for civil cases against the state.
Any case questioning whether a Texas statute violates the constitution flows through this court. In under two years its judges have already ruled on marijuana policy, abortion-related funding, and campaign-finance disputes.
Appeals from Texas’s new business courts — the high-dollar disputes between corporations, workers, and consumers — are decided here too. The referee for corporate Texas sits on this bench.
Why this race matters
Start with a fact that should bother every Texan, no matter how you vote: not one justice on this court got there by winning your vote.
Governor Abbott appointed every member of the 15th Court of Appeals. A court that rules on your water, your paycheck, your family, and your rights was filled entirely by one person, and until this election, Texans never had a say in it.
This isn’t about the individuals who hold the seats today. It’s about a principle older than the court itself: no statewide court can claim true impartiality if it is insulated from accountability. The law and the Constitution favor the voters.
November 3rd is the first time these three seats have ever appeared on a Texas ballot. Help us make this the People’s Court.
“The central issue is straightforward: do these seats belong to the governor who appointed them, or to the voters? We believe the law and the Constitution favor the voters.”
— Jerry, Tom & Marc
Follow the Justice TourMeet the slate
Three Texans with decades on the bench, holding our state accountable and faithful to the Constitution. A judge, a justice, and a firefighter-turned-lawyer, running together so the whole court changes at once.
running to be the court’s first elected Chief Justice
More than 40 years as a trial lawyer and judge, three law degrees, and six years as an elected justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston. Endorsed by working Texans, not corporate PACs.
running to be the first elected Justice, Place 2
U.S. Navy JAG Corps veteran and former elected justice on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, with four decades of legal experience and one rule: party affiliation has no place in a ruling.
running to be the first elected Justice, Place 3
Twenty years a Houston fire captain and paramedic, a registered nurse, and a board-certified attorney — endorsed by the Texas AFL-CIO. He knows exactly whose side the state should be on.
Fuel the flip
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On the trail
This is a statewide race won town by town. Find a meet-the-slate event, a block walk, or a phone bank near you — or sign up to host one.
Events are hosted on Mobilize — the link opens our full calendar.
Last day to register to vote
Early voting (expected)
Election Day
On the road
We didn’t want to run the kind of campaign where you only hear from us in an ad between now and November. So we’re going out to meet you instead. Follow along here.
This week, the three of us are starting something together. We’re running for the Texas 15th Court of Appeals: Jerry Zimmerer for Chief Justice, Tom Baker for Place 2, Marc Meyer for Place 3.
Let’s start with a fact that should bother every Texan, no matter how you vote: not a single justice on this court got there by winning your vote. A court that rules on your water, your paycheck, your family, and your rights was filled entirely by one person, and until this election, you never had a say in it. That’s what’s on the ballot November 3rd.
We’ll be showing up across the state, and we mean everywhere: the cities and the small towns, the places that only get remembered every two years. We’ll ask what’s weighing on you. We’ll take it back with us. Because a court can’t answer to people it doesn’t know.
The central issue is straightforward: do these seats belong to the governor who appointed them, or to the voters? We believe the law and the Constitution favor the voters. No statewide court can claim true impartiality if it is insulated from accountability.
On November 3rd, help us make this the People’s Court.
— Jerry, Tom, and Marc
Yesterday we launched our Texas Justice Tour, and there was no question in my mind about where it had to start. It had to start in the Valley.
For many, the 15th Court of Appeals feels like something that happens somewhere else: in Austin, behind closed doors, far from the people it’s supposed to serve. Governor Greg Abbott appointed every justice on this court. Not one of them was elected. Now, Tom, Marc, and I seek to be the first elected justices of the 15th Court of Appeals.
I spent the day with folks who actually make our democracy work. I met with party leadership like Richard Gonzales at the Hidalgo County Democratic Party’s CEC meeting, and with the grassroots organizers who knock the doors and make the calls that no one ever sees. I was introduced to the room by Reggie Richardson, President-Elect of the Hidalgo County Bar Association. I got to talk with grassroots activist Chrisleda Vera, Michelle Vallejo of Mujeres Unidas, and Julio Salinas, our Democratic candidate for State Representative in District 41.
And I ate very well, 107 Café being one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a while. What struck me most was how tightly this community holds itself together, right down to the small businesses.
I’ll fight to make Greg Abbott’s court the People’s Court: accountable and faithful to the Constitution.
Thank you to everyone who shook my hand and shared a story yesterday. It’s the honor of my life to ask to represent you across this state.
— Jerry Zimmerer
Why we’re running
Not handed out in Austin.
Texas has elected its judges for more than 150 years. It’s not a perfect system, but it rests on a simple promise: the people a court serves get to choose who sits on it.
The 15th Court of Appeals started differently. The Legislature created it in 2023 and gave it the state’s most consequential civil docket: cases involving the state and its agencies, and challenges to state laws. In 2024, Governor Abbott appointed all three of its justices. Not one of those seats has ever appeared on a ballot, until this November.
A court can’t answer to people it doesn’t know.
That’s why we’re not running an ad-only campaign. We’re on the road instead, on the Texas Justice Tour, in the cities and the small towns and the places that only get remembered every two years. We ask what’s weighing on you, and we take it back with us. Whoever wins these races in November serves a six-year term. Those years should be answerable to the people of Texas.
We’re running as a slate because a three-judge court changes as a whole. Each of us brings decades of legal experience and years on the bench, and each of us believes the same things: judges should be elected, rulings should be impartial, and the power of the state must always be tempered by the rights of the individual.
Democrat for Chief Justice
Jerry has spent more than 40 years in Texas courtrooms as a trial lawyer and judge, including six years as an elected justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston — a seat he won from the voters, not from a governor. Before the law, he spent over a decade building networks at AT&T Mobility, and he later ran his own Houston practice focused on cybersecurity, health, and commercial arbitration.
He’s running for Chief Justice because he believes a court’s legitimacy comes from the people it serves — and because he’s seen what an efficient, transparent, professionally run appellate court looks like from the inside. His campaign is backed by Houston-area labor unions and working Texans, not corporate PACs.
Democrat for Justice, Place 2
Tom served his country in the U.S. Naval Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, served his community as an assistant county attorney, built a private practice over four decades, and served the people of Texas as an elected justice on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin from 2019 to 2024.
His judicial philosophy fits in one sentence: party affiliation and political philosophy should never decide a ruling. He’s running because a court created to hear cases against the state cannot be staffed by the state’s appointees — and because Texans deserve judges whose only loyalty is to the law and the people who elected them.
Democrat for Justice, Place 3
Before Marc ever argued a case, he ran into burning buildings. He spent twenty years as a captain and paramedic with the Houston Fire Department, became a registered nurse, and served hospice patients — then earned his law degree and built a practice defending healthcare providers against state licensing boards. He is Board Certified in Administrative Law, the law of what the government can and cannot do to you.
Marc is running — with the endorsement of the Texas AFL-CIO — because he has spent his whole life on the side of ordinary people in their hardest moments, and because he believes the power of the state must always be tempered by the rights of the individual. That belief belongs on this bench.
Issues
Judges don’t make campaign promises about how they’ll rule — and you should be suspicious of any who do. But how a court is chosen, funded, and run is fair game. These are the issues of the 15th Court of Appeals.
The core issue of this race is the race itself. Every seat on this court was filled by one man’s signature, and its judges have spent nearly two years ruling on statewide disputes without ever facing a voter. November 2026 is the first — and for six years, the last — chance Texans have to decide who judges the state.
Our slate exists to restore the basic Texas principle that judicial power flows up from the people, not down from the Governor’s office.
This court’s docket is, by design, the people versus the state: suits against the Governor, the Attorney General, and every state agency. The state should win when the law is on its side — and lose when it isn’t. That only works when the judges owe the state nothing.
Marc Meyer built his legal career defending Texans against state licensing boards; the slate’s shared conviction is that the power of the state must be tempered by the rights of the individual, in every case, for every Texan.
We run as Democrats because that’s how Texas judicial elections work — but as Tom Baker has said throughout his career on the bench, party affiliation and political philosophy should not impact any ruling before a court. Litigants should never be able to predict a ruling by checking who appointed the judge.
On a court that decides cases about marijuana, abortion-related policy, and campaign finance, impartiality isn’t a nicety. It’s the whole job.
The three incumbents’ campaigns are financed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s PAC, energy-company PACs, and big-firm money — the same interests whose cases come before the court. Our slate is funded by union halls, small donors, and working Texans.
When a business-court appeal or a consumer case reaches this bench, the people of Texas deserve judges whose donor lists don’t read like the appearance docket.
Appellate justice shouldn’t be a members-only club for the state and Fortune 500 litigants. That means plain-language opinions, fair treatment of self-represented Texans, and a bench that reflects the people it serves — firefighters and nurses as well as corporate partners.
Justice delayed is justice denied — especially when the case decides whether a state law stands. Jerry Zimmerer has made court efficiency a hallmark of his judicial career: timely opinions, clear reasoning, and a docket that moves. A court this consequential owes Texans answers, in writing, on time.
Contact us
Volunteer, host an event, request a speaker, or just ask a question. A real person from the campaign will get back to you.