Art Clayton (Texas 397th District Court, Texas, candidate 2026)
From Ballotpedia
Art Clayton (Republican Party) is running for election for judge of the Texas 397th District Court. Clayton is on the ballot in the Republican primary on March 3, 2026.[source]
Clayton completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Art Clayton provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on January 26, 2026:
- High school: MacArthur High School, Irving, Texas
- Bachelor's: Austin College, Sherman, Texas
- J.D.: Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, 1998
- Profession: Attorney
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
Republican primary
Republican primary for Texas 397th District Court
Art Clayton (R) and Christina Fox (R) are running in the Republican primary for Texas 397th District Court on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Art Clayton  | |
| Christina Fox | ||
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| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Clayton received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Clayton's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Art Clayton completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clayton's responses.
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I have been married for 27 years, have two children and one grandchild. I'm a life-long Presbyterian and I'm ordained as an elder in the church. I earned my undergraduate degree at Austin College, then graduated from law school in 1998 and was licensed to practice law in Texas. I first worked at a civil litigation firm doing products liability, medical malpractice and general civil litigation. In 1999, I began working at the Johnson County Attorney’s Office on civil matters, juvenile law, and criminal matters for the county. I then went to the District Attorney’s Office in Tarrant County where I worked nearly 20 years. I served as a prosecutor in Gang & Homicide, special unit chief and as a court chief. In total I have tried nearly 250 cases, focusing on violent crimes including murders, capital murders, sexual assault cases, and sexual crimes against children. In 2023, I returned to Grayson County at the DA’s Office. I worked two years as the civil attorney for Grayson County where I represented all of the political subdivisions of the county. In 2025, I returned to the criminal practice where I worked on homicides and child sex abuse cases. I have practiced appellate law and argued at the Court of Appeals. I have trained prosecutors through TDCAA, been published in the prosecutor magazine, led the CLE training committee at the DA’s office in Fort Worth, taught CLE’s for the State Bar, lectured to law enforcement agencies on criminal matters, and numerous civic groups.
- I have the legal experience needed for Grayson County. I've handled the most complex and violent criminal matters. I have experience reducing docket backlog and working in legal systems to combat rising case load with increased population and limited recourses. I will follow the Constitution, the laws, and refuse to legislate from the bench. I will work to keep our community safe while understanding not all cases are the same. The community needs to rehabilitate those who are willing to become productive members of Grayson County. My experience working on serious cases gives me the ability to handle each case based on its merits and understand the best outcome for individual defendants. I see the need to reform the dockets of our courts.
- I am a lifelong Republican. I have donated my time to the Grayson County Republican Party as a precinct chair and as the head of the Election Integrity Committee. Through the GCRP, I have assisted formulating Texas legislation to protect children against pornography. I plan to work together with our political subdivisions to move Grayson County forward to continued growth and prosperity.
- I am a conservative. I believe in family values to make our community strong. I have worked to support children and families. I will work to lower costs to the taxpayer by reducing backlog and more efficiently work court dockets. My goal is to implement a differentiated case docket to handle docket size. There is a need to address the growing issues of mental illness in our legal system. Another goal is to create a mental health diversion plan to better move defendants suffering from mental illness from the criminal system into mental health treatment and commitment if needed. The hope is to give these individuals the tools they need to be more productive citizens without burdening our limited criminal justice resources.
I seek to conduct the workings of the court in a fashion that is best for children. I will ensure that there are systems is place to provide child witnesses comfort and support while testifying. I will also urge litigants not to use their children as pawns against each other. If parents choose to ignore their responsibilities to their children, I will enforce the law to protect and ensure the safety and support of children. Every child needs and deserves their parents to be at their best. I intend to give people the tools to make that happen.
I am endorsed by the Chair and Vice Chair of the Grayson County Republican Party, the Grayson County Sheriff, all of the Grayson County Commissioners, the District Clerk, a majority of the GCRP precinct chairs, nearly all the mayors in our jurisdiction, former County Judge, former commissioners, and former mayors. I have the endorsement of the Texas Homeschool Coalition and the Texas True Project. I am supported by business owners, law enforcement, the medical community and members of most civic organizations. Judges cannot endorse candidates, but I have the endorsements of several of the spouses of our judges.
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.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
