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Brian Walker (Texas)

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Brian Walker
Image of Brian Walker
Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7
Tenure

2021 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

4

Compensation

Base salary

$154,000

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Texas State University, 2000

Graduate

University of Oklahoma, 2018

Law

University of Houston Law School, 2003

Other

University of Oklahoma, 2018

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Air Force

Years of service

2010 - 2019

Service / branch

U.S. Air Force Reserve

Years of service

2010 - 2019

Personal
Birthplace
Dallas, Texas
Religion
Christian
Profession
Judge
Contact

Brian Walker (Republican Party) is a judge for Place 7 of the Texas Second District Court of Appeals. He assumed office on January 1, 2021. His current term ends on December 31, 2026.

Walker (Republican Party) ran for election for the Place 4 judge of the Texas Supreme Court. He lost in the Republican primary on March 5, 2024.

Walker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Walker was born in Dallas, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree from Texas State University in 2000, a law degree from the University of Houston Law School in 2003, and a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2018. His career experience includes working as an attorney. He served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves from 2010 to 2019. He served as Judge Advocate and was the first JAG to serve as a flight commander/instructor at U.S. Air Force Officer Training School (OTS) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.[1]

Walker has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]

  • Federalist Society, member
  • National Rifle Association
  • Ducks Unlimited
  • Texas Farm Bureau

Elections

2024

See also: Texas Supreme Court elections, 2024

General election

General election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4

Incumbent John Devine defeated Christine Weems in the general election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of John Devine
John Devine (R)
 
57.3
 
6,256,496
Image of Christine Weems
Christine Weems (D)
 
42.7
 
4,656,560

Total votes: 10,913,056
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4

Christine Weems advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Christine Weems
Christine Weems
 
100.0
 
825,485

Total votes: 825,485
Candidate Connection = 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.

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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4

Incumbent John Devine defeated Brian Walker in the Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of John Devine
John Devine
 
50.4
 
921,556
Image of Brian Walker
Brian Walker Candidate Connection
 
49.6
 
905,418

Total votes: 1,826,974
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas Supreme Court Place 4

Matthew Sercely advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on April 14, 2024.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

To view Walker's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Walker in this election.

2020

See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2020

General election

General election for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7

Brian Walker won election in the general election for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Brian Walker
Brian Walker (R) Candidate Connection
 
100.0
 
1,028,700

Total votes: 1,028,700
Candidate Connection = 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.

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Republican primary runoff election

Republican primary runoff for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7

Brian Walker defeated Elizabeth Beach in the Republican primary runoff for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7 on July 14, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Brian Walker
Brian Walker Candidate Connection
 
64.1
 
48,622
Image of Elizabeth Beach
Elizabeth Beach
 
35.9
 
27,213

Total votes: 75,835
Candidate Connection = 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.

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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7

Brian Walker and Elizabeth Beach advanced to a runoff. They defeated John P. Chupp in the Republican primary for Texas Second District Court of Appeals Place 7 on March 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Brian Walker
Brian Walker Candidate Connection
 
47.8
 
105,870
Image of Elizabeth Beach
Elizabeth Beach
 
36.1
 
80,027
John P. Chupp
 
16.1
 
35,620

Total votes: 221,517
Candidate Connection = 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


Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Brian Walker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Walker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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I currently serve as a Justice on the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, Texas. I am a fiscal and social conservative, and I have a very conservative judicial philosophy. Simply put, I believe that judges should follow the law. I do not believe that they should legislate from the bench. If elected, that is what I will do. I have several videos on my website at www.voteforwalker.com in which I personally discuss my background, my judicial philosophy, and why I'm running against my opponent.
  • There are judicial activists on the right. I believe my opponent is one of those. Judicial activists are those that decide the outcome in the case based on the parties, personal desires, or political pressures and concerns, and then those judges massage and manipulate the law, in order to get to the result that they want. I believe that we need good judges who are committed to upholding the Constitution and the dictates of the people (as their will is manifested through the legislature). If elected, I will continue to do that, just as I have done during my time serving at the second highest level in our state's judiciary.
  • Canon 3 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct (the law that tells judges how they must conduct themselves) says that "judicial duties should take precedence over ALL other activities." I will work hard for the people. In 3 plus years, I've never missed a single oral argument. Yet, my opponent has missed 28 out of 50 oral arguments in the past five months alone. That is wholly unacceptable! He admitted to Bloomberg Law that he has been campaigning instead, and that he believes "campaigning" is a part of his "judicial duties" under the code. That is ridiculous. The language in Canon 3 is clear and unambiguous. There is certainly no way that the framers of that section intended for "campaigning" to fall under "judicial duties."
  • Canon 2 of the code of judicial conduct dictates that "personal relationships" should never influence our judgment. Any time there is a conflict of interest, I will recuse myself. My opponent failed to disclose that he worked for a law firm that was the defendant in a matter that was appealed to his court. He didn't recuse himself but instead did what he could to help his old colleagues out. He essentially voted to keep his former colleague from being sued for several sexual molestations of a young boy and voted to protect his former law firm for being negligent in covering that alleged conduct up, while he was an employee of the law firm. In doing so, he appears to have violated at least three Texas ethics laws.
This is really a question for legislators. Judges should not be in the business of policy making. It doesn't mean that I do not have my passions. I have taught federal and state government as an adjunct professor and am very interested in all facets of government. Nonetheless, for the reasons mentioned above, I do not believe that this is a good question for judicial candidates to answer.
I mention my father, Judge Scott Walker, elsewhere. I most definitely look up to him. I remember about a year after he took the bench, one of his colleagues publicly explained that his calming presence had made their "conferences" so much more peaceful than they had been before he joined his court. That says a lot! I hope I could have even a small impact like that if I make into onto the Texas Supreme Court.
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" is a good one. It definitely displays the work ethic and integrity that someone serving in the highest levels of government should possess. When I taught government, I would show that film to my students.
Integrity, Service before Self, and Excellence. I was a Judge Advocate in the USAFR. Ironically, this was the three corps values of the U.S. Air Force. I think they are great characteristics for public servants in all realms. I've adopted them in my current judicial position and will carry them with me if elected to the Texas Supreme Court.
Integrity, a servant's heart, and a strong work ethic. I mention these elsewhere in this Q&A. I definitely believe these qualities are needed for the particular place on the Supreme Court and that I would bring them accordingly.
Showing up for one thing. As mentioned, while I've never missed a single oral argument in three-plus years on the bench, my opponent has missed 28 oral arguments in the past five months alone. As the Dallas Morning News recently wrote, that is "an embarrassing record!" If you go to my website at www.voteforwalker.com, I have snapshots of all 28 hearings. The optics are pathetic. You will see in almost every photo a gallery of spectators in our Texas supreme courtroom, eight judges, and a ninth empty chair. I think judges should show up and do the job they are elected to do. My opponent gets paid over $200k per year and he's missing 56% of the most important part of his job. And, if he's missing that much of the most visible part of his job, I can only imagine how much he is missing of the parts that aren't visible. I waited tables in college and we had an expression, "if the dining room isn't clean, you can only imagine what it's like in the parts of the restaurant that the customers cannot see!"

In addition to a strong work ethic, I believe that judges should bring integrity and ethics into their jobs in general. My opponent has been sanctioned by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct. I never have.

To learn more about my views on this topic, please visit my website at www.voteforwalker.com. And, to find out more about the contrast between me and my opponent, please visit our "compare the candidates" page. There is a good deal of information and a great comparison chart that spells it out very well.
I would like people to know that I loved Texas and that I sacrificially served her with integrity. And, that I left her better than I found her when I was born here almost 47 years ago.
The Space Shuttle Challenger explosion comes to mind. Surely there were other things before that but that is what quickly came to mind. I was in the third grade and my teacher came into our classroom crying. Apparently, several of the teachers had huddled into their break room to watch the launch. You might remember that Christa McAuliffe was on the flight. She was a school teacher who got picked to go into space, so the teachers were very excited for her. That was most definitely a sad time for America!
I worked at a little general store in the very small community of Ovilla, Texas. I mopped floors, grilled burgers, rang people up, learned to count money, and did anything else that was needed. I started that job when I was 14 or 15 and I bought my first car at 15 because of it. I believe I worked there for about a year or two. That was a long time ago!
The Bible. The most revolutionary thing that I ever did was reading it cover to cover attempting to interpret it through the prism of total objectivity and not what I had necessarily been taught. I think everyone should do that. It will change your life!
I'm only saying Superman because he can fly. That would be a fun thing to do!
"How Do You Like Me Now?" I'm typing this only the day after Toby Keith passed away. My wife and I played that song last night as an homage to him. He always seemed to be a good guy and a great patriot!
Staying too busy! I work very hard not to put too much on my plate because I have struggled with that in the past. I have a wife and a daughter at home. Next to God, they are my second highest priority. I want to make sure that I serve Texas well, but that I'm there for them whenever they need me.
I think the public generally knows very little about the Texas Judiciary. The thing that surprises folks the most is that Texas actually has two supreme courts. The one I'm running for that is actually called the Texas Supreme Court is dedicated to civil matters whereas the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is dedicated to criminal matters. So, if a Supreme Court candidate campaigns that they are "tough on crime" they are tapping into the ignorance of the electorate because the Texas Supreme Court does not handle criminal matters.
It is generally the same as my judicial philosophy that I discuss elsewhere in this Q&A. Nonetheless, I think lawyers should represent their clients zealously, that they should be honest with their clients and with the courts. And, they should work hard to improve the public's perception of the legal profession. I think the courts and the bar can do a lot more in this regard.
This is an easy one! My father is Judge Scott Walker. He serves on the highest criminal court in Texas. The Court of Criminal Appeals that I discuss elsewhere in this Q&A. My father has always been a great influence on me. Dad is a man of great integrity. He is the best man that I know, and I had the good fortune to practice law with him for many years and to be able to handle several jury trials with him. If I do get elected to the Texas Supreme Court, although we will not be serving on the same court, we will be serving in the same building at the Supreme Court Building (at the State Capitol Complex in Austin). It will be nice to work close to him again!
100%. I also think that judges who have had private law practices typically have more empathy than those who have not. I had my own firm for many years, and I represented a lot of normal folks with your run of the mill legal problems. I believe that has made me much more sympathetic to those types of people since I have been on the bench.
I have won many awards over the years. I have them listed on my website. When I was still under the age of 40, I was voted by Texas Lawyer Magazine as one of the top twenty attorneys in Texas under the age of 40. I was one of only two attorneys with their own private law practices to win that award that year. Additionally, I was ranked a Top Attorney for Fort Worth Magazine for almost every year for a decade and I was named a "Super Lawyer" for two years and a "Super Lawyer Rising Star" for two years. Since I have been on the bench, the local bar association has done judicial polls asking local lawyers to rate the performance of the judges who serve in our area. I have received high marks in those polls.
I've read that polling shows that the public does not trust the judiciary in Texas. I believe that judges need to work systematically to improve that!
By making sure that the other branches are not violating our state's constitution and/or the federal constitution.
They can be. However, we have a judge on our court who hardly ever asks questions during hearings on oral argument and, yet, I believe she recently got the highest marks for being "the most respectful" during hearings or something similar to that. I can't remember what the wording was exactly but some of my colleagues were joking about how that wasn't necessarily the best litmus of being respectful. She is a wonderful person and very kind, but she isn't very verbose in hearings. When lawyers rate her as the most respectful are they really saying that they do not want the appeals court judges to not ask questions during hearings? The humor is that oral arguments are really designed to give judges the ability to ask questions!
Anyone who knows me knows that I know A LOT of jokes. I like to think I'm a good joke teller and a good story teller. Candidly, any joke I know would probably be way too long for the word limits. Nonetheless, Ed Meese, the U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan endorsed me years ago when I ran for office in 2008. He told me that President Reagan loved to tell jokes with an Irish accent and, oddly, I often do the same. I tried over 75 jury trials in my legal career and I almost always started with a joke that I called the "O'Malley Twins" joke. The jurors loved it and I never had a trial judge that wasn't laughing when I got done!
Up until today, I have not sought a single endorsement from a single individual. I've had several people tell me that they have endorsed me, but I didn't ask for them to do so. I am not saying that I do not care about endorsements, but I have learned that other factors are much more important in a judicial race. And, I truly believe that God has a big part in who gets elected to these positions. Nonetheless, the Dallas Morning News wrote the best editorial board endorsement that I have ever read in my political career just yesterday. I was happy to get their endorsement, but I was almost happier with their exhaustive handling of the issues in my campaign. I would challenge everyone interested in this election to read the article.
That government and government finances should be very transparent. Simply put, taxpayers should get a return on their investment, and they should know where their tax dollars are going.

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 website

Walker’s campaign website stated the following:

JUDICIAL ETHICS DICTATE THAT TEXAS JUDGES SHOULD NEVER "ALLOW FAMILY, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, FINANCIAL, OR OTHER RELATIONSHIPS TO INFLUENCE JUDICIAL CONDUCT OR JUDGMENT."

JUDGE WALKER HAS ALWAYS RECUSED HIMSELF WHENEVER THERE HAS BEEN EVEN AN APPEARANCE OF A CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN A CASE BEFORE HIM.

NEVER MISSED A HEARING IN THREE PLUS YEARS ON THE BENCH

NOT A CAREER POLITICIAN

PREVIOUSLY HAS BEEN ON THE BALLOT FOR ONLY TWO ELECTED OFFICES INCLUDING HIS CURRENT POSITION ON THE COURT OF APPEALS

NEVER BEEN SANCTIONED FOR JUDICIAL ETHICS VIOLATIONS

NEVER USED GOVERNMENTAL RESOURCES FOR A POLITICAL PURPOSE

SERVED NINE YEARS IN THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S CORPS OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE RESERVES

FIRST JAG IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE TO SERVE AS A DRILL INSTRUCTOR AT USAF OFFICER TRAINING SCHOOL

7TH GENERATION NATIVE TEXAN[2]

—Brian Walker’s campaign website (2024)[3]

2020

Candidate Connection

Brian Walker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Walker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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I have been an attorney for over 16 years. I have practiced civil litigation, criminal defense, and military/veteran's law. I have authored over 100 appeals in state and federal courts, and have sat first chair in over 75 civil and criminal jury trials in state and federal courts. I served for nine years as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, and was the first JAG in the history of the USAF to serve as a Drill Instructor at Air Force Officer Training School. I'm a former Assistant District Attorney, a former staffer at the Texas Capitol, and a former intern on the first Bush presidential campaign. I came within 120 votes of winning a seat on the Texas House of Representatives, and more recently served as my father's Political Consultant in his successful bid for the supreme criminal court in Texas, The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
  • I will be faithful to the law.
  • I will not legislate from the bench.
  • I will allow my Christian values to help guide me in making the right decisions.
Judges are not in the business of creating policy. I don't hide my conservative feelings on matters such as life, liberty, and a strict adherence to the Constitution, but I don't think it's prudent for a judicial candidate to give voters a policy plan since judges should not be creating policy but should only be strictly interpreting the law.
Being an appellate judge isn't easy and an appellate court is not like a trial court. Serving as an appellate judge requires one to do a tremendous amount of legal analysis, research, reading, and writing. While my opponent hasn't authored a single appellate brief in her career, according to the Texas state-wide appellate database, I have authored over 100 appellate briefs and will have very little learning curve if elected.
I will explain the three main things I'd like to focus on to help the court run as efficiently as possible. This is the most practical thing I can discuss that will hopefully leave a good legacy after I leave.

I would first focus on "turn around time" on authoring opinions. Once judges are assigned opinions, the amount of time they spend researching, analyzing, and ultimately writing them can be tracked. Although a rushed product can hurt the quality of an opinion, judicial efficiency is still an important part of good stewardship. Accordingly, I would always stay mindful of the "turn around time" on the opinions that I authored and compare the timing with other judges throughout the 14 courts of appeals in Texas.

Second, I would focus on "turn around time" for the various steps in doing the above. Each legal opinion has various steps in it's life-cycle. There are the research steps that go into an opinion, there are the analysis steps that take place throughout an opinion's life-cycle, and there are the various steps in authorship that take place in an opinion's life-cycle. The various points in the actual drafting of a legal opinion include the rough draft, the working copy that circulates among the judges, and the final product. I would create ways to track and compare the "turn around time" for all of those various steps in the authorship process.

Third, I would focus on keeping office expenses as low as possible. In my opinion, this is somewhat of a "no brainer." We are called to be good stewards in life and, public servants most definitely have a duty to be good stewards of public resources. Accordingly, I would monitor the costs of running my office and do everything I could to run things in a financially prudent way.

I got my first official part-time job when I was 15. I worked at a general store in my hometown. I worked there for a couple of years. I took the job because I wanted to bring in money to buy my first car.
If you consider the Bible to be a book, it is definitely my favorite. I try to be in the Word daily. However, outside of the Bible, my next favorite book is "Lincoln" by David Herbert Donald. It is a great biography on President Abraham Lincoln. There is so much about Lincoln and his life that is inspirational to me. I have a passion for reading biographies. The lives of significant people throughout history really interests me.
Please see my comments about Justice Scalia. However, I'll reiterate that I believe a good appellate judge is a judge who follows the law and doesn't take it upon themselves to legislate from the bench.
I had the opportunity to meet Justice Antonin Scalia in the Lawyer's Lounge at the U.S. Supreme Court. I was really impressed by how open and affable he was. I also really appreciated his conservative judicial philosophy. He once said that a good appellate judge won't always like the outcomes of their opinions if they follow the law in the way that they are supposed to. To me that is the best way to describe a conservative judicial philosophy.
I have been given a "Perfect 10 Rating" by Avvo for many years in all three of my areas of practice. When I was still under the age of 40, I received the "Lawyer on the Rise Award" from Texas Lawyer Magazine which is given to the top 20 attorneys in Texas under the age of 40. I was one of only two attorneys in private practice to receive that award. I received the distinction of being named a "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers Magazine when I was still under the age of 40. That award is only given to the top 2.5% of lawyers in the United States under the age of 40 and, more recently in 2020, I was named a "Super Lawyer" by that same periodical for the top attorneys in America over the age of 40. I have been named a "Top Attorney" almost every year in the past decade by Fort Worth, Texas Magazine. Back in 2012, I was given the "Leadership Award" by the Tarrant County Bar Association's Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans Committee for leading that group which gives pro bono legal services to needy military veterans.

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.


Brian Walker campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* Texas Supreme Court Place 4Lost primary$49,040 $62,936
Grand total$49,040 $62,936
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 20, 2020.
  2. Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  3. Justice Brian Walker for Texas Supreme Court, “Compare the Candidates,” accessed February 7, 2024