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Adrian Spears (Texas Court of Appeals)
Adrian Spears (Republican Party) is a judge for Place 5 of the Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals. He assumed office on January 1, 2025. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Spears (Republican Party) ran for election for the Place 5 judge of the Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Spears completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Adrian Spears was born in San Antonio, Texas. He earned a high school diploma from Alamo Heights High School, a bachelor's degree in accounting from Texas Tech University in 2004, and a J.D. from St. Mary's University in 2006.[1] Spears' career experience includes working as a lawyer with the Martinez De Vara Law Firm.[2][3]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5
Adrian Spears defeated incumbent Liza Rodriguez in the general election for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Adrian Spears (R)  | 51.1 | 558,509 |
 | Liza Rodriguez (D) | 48.9 | 534,607 | |
| Total votes: 1,093,116 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5
Incumbent Liza Rodriguez advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Liza Rodriguez | 100.0 | 104,995 |
| Total votes: 104,995 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5
Adrian Spears advanced from the Republican primary for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Adrian Spears | 100.0 | 142,025 |
| Total votes: 142,025 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Spears in this election.
2018
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Steve Allison defeated Celina Montoya and Mallory Olfers in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Steve Allison (R) | 53.2 | 38,843 | |
 | Celina Montoya (D) | 44.7 | 32,679 | |
| Mallory Olfers (L) | 2.1 | 1,529 | ||
| Total votes: 73,051 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary runoff election
Republican primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Steve Allison defeated Matt Beebe in the Republican primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Steve Allison | 57.5 | 6,054 | |
 | Matt Beebe | 42.5 | 4,482 | |
| Total votes: 10,536 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Celina Montoya advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Celina Montoya | 100.0 | 8,737 |
| Total votes: 8,737 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Matt Beebe | 29.5 | 4,351 |
| ✔ | Steve Allison | 26.3 | 3,884 | |
| Carlton Soules | 13.2 | 1,945 | ||
| Charlotte Williamson | 12.9 | 1,896 | ||
| Marc Whyte | 12.3 | 1,821 | ||
| Adrian Spears | 5.8 | 853 | |
| Total votes: 14,750 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Overview of 2018 Republican primaries
The 2018 Texas state legislative Republican primaries featured conflict between two factions. One group was opposed to House Speaker Joe Straus (R) and his preferred policies on issues like education financing and property taxes. The anti-Straus wing included members of the Texas Freedom Caucus and organizations such as Empower Texans and Texas Right to Life. The other group was supportive of Straus and his policy priorities. The pro-Straus wing included incumbent legislators allied with Straus and organizations such as the Associated Republicans of Texas and the Texas Association of Business. To learn more about these factions and the conflict between them, visit our page on factional conflict among Texas Republicans.
The primaries occurred on March 6, 2018, with runoffs on May 22, 2018. There were 48 contested state legislative Republican primaries, outnumbering contested primaries in 2016 (43) and 2014 (44). To see our full coverage of the state legislative Republican primaries, including who key influencers were backing and what the primaries meant for the 2019 House speaker's race, visit our primary coverage page.
The charts below outline the March 6 primary races for the state Senate and the state House. They show how the factions performed on election night.
| Texas Senate Republicans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Before March 6 primaries | After March 6 primaries | |
| Pro-Straus | 2 | 1 | |
| Anti-Straus | 1 | 3 | |
| Unknown | 3 | 3 | |
| Open seats | 1 | - | |
| Runoffs | - | - | |
| Too close to call | - | - | |
| Total | 7 | 7 | |
| Texas House Republicans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Before March 6 primaries | After March 6 primaries | |
| Pro-Straus | 20 | 20 | |
| Anti-Straus | 4 | 9 | |
| Unknown | 2 | 5 | |
| Open seats | 15 | - | |
| Runoffs | - | 7 | |
| Too close to call | - | - | |
| Total | 41 | 41 | |
Primary we watched
This primary was one of 48 we tracked for the March 6 elections.
Did the incumbent file to run for re-election?
| No. |
What made this a race to watch?
| Six Republicans filed to run in the election to replace House Speaker Joe Straus (R): Steve Allison, Matt Beebe, Carlton Soules, Adrian Spears, Charlotte Williamson, and Marc Whyte. As of January 31, 2018, all candidates in this race except for Allison had signed the form committing to vote for the Republican caucus' choice for speaker on the House floor. See our coverage of the primary runoff in this race here. Endorsements for Beebe
Endorsements for Allison |
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Adrian Spears completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Spears' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Judges should be elected based on qualifications and experience without regard to political affiliations and personal beliefs. Experience is the foundation to mold an attorney into a competent judge with qualities such as temperance, patience, knowledge of the law and rules, ability to resolve disputes, decisiveness, fairness and confidence to make a ruling. I have over 17 years of legal experience dedicated to serving the people of Texas as the next Judge for the Fourth Court of Appeals, Place 5. With a proven record as a lawyer, prosecutor, and presiding municipal court judge, I am committed to upholding justice, defending constitutional rights, and ensuring the law is applied fairly.
- My experience representing governmental entities allowed me to learn all areas of the law defending lawsuits from trial thru appeal in areas such as vehicle accidents, contract disputes, employment litigation, constitutional law, zoning, annexation, open meetings act, as well as prosecution of criminal cases and ordinances violations, and all areas of law in between. I have handled these types of cases from pre-litigation to trial as well as several appeals across the State of Texas. The Fourth Court of Appeals hears civil cases dealing with all areas of the law as well as criminal cases. I have the necessary skill set and the opportunity to apply all my years of experience in these matters to the cases before the Fourth Court of Appeals.
- Now more than ever we see the importance of electing judges that will interpret and follow the law.
Judges need to ensure that citizens are afforded all of their rights under the United States and Texas Constitutions and laws of Texas.
Judges should have the knowledge, experience and judicial temperament to faithfully carry out these responsibilities. All upcoming judicial elections are important for Texans!
Judges need to ensure that citizens are afforded all of their rights under the United States and Texas Constitutions and laws of Texas.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 |
Officeholder Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Adrian Spears for House District 121, "About Adrian Spears," accessed February 15, 2018
- ↑ The Martinez de Vara Law Firm, "Adrian A. Spears, II," accessed February 15, 2018
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 7, 2024
- ↑ Twitter, "Jonathan Stickland," December 29, 2017
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastf26 - ↑ San Antonio Express-News, "Allison to replace Straus on GOP ticket," February 15, 2018
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Liza Rodriguez (D) |
Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 5 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
Federal courts:
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas
State courts:
Texas Supreme Court • Texas Court of Appeals • Texas Court of Criminal Appeals • Texas District Courts • Texas County Courts • Texas County Courts at Law • Texas Statutory Probate Courts • Texas Justice of the Peace Courts
State resources:
Courts in Texas • Texas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Texas
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