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Christopher Nickell
2019 - Present
2031
5
Christopher Nickell is a judge of the Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District. He assumed office on December 11, 2019. His current term ends on January 6, 2031.
Nickell ran for re-election for judge of the Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Nickell first became a member of the Kentucky Supreme Court through a nonpartisan election. To read more about judicial selection in Kentucky, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Nickell received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Nickell previously served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, representing the 1st Appellate District, Division 1, from 2006 to 2019.[3]
Biography
Nickell earned his bachelor's degree in political science and communications from DePauw University in 1981 and his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1984. Nickell practiced law for 22 years before his election to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. He was a trial attorney, prosecutor, public defender, and an instructor at Murray State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[4]
As of July 2021, Nickell was the international director for Lions Club International.[4]
Elections
2022
See also: Kentucky Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
General election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District
Incumbent Christopher Nickell won election in the general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Christopher Nickell (Nonpartisan) | 100.0 | 115,659 |
| Total votes: 115,659 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Christopher Nickell advanced from the primary for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District.
2019
See also: Kentucky Supreme Court elections, 2019
General election
Special general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District
Christopher Nickell defeated Whitney Westerfield in the special general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Christopher Nickell (Nonpartisan) | 57.3 | 71,991 |
 | Whitney Westerfield (Nonpartisan) | 42.7 | 53,633 | |
| Total votes: 125,624 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
2014
- See also: Kentucky judicial elections, 2014
Nickell ran for re-election to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. He was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.[5]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Christopher Nickell did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Christopher
Nickell
Kentucky
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Received donations from Democrat-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Nickell was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He changed his party registration shortly before running for the Kentucky Supreme Court. He donated $2,000 to Democrats and $600 to Republicans. Nickell received contributions and endorsements from the United Mine Workers of America, a group that regularly backs Democratic candidates.
State supreme court judicial selection in Kentucky
- See also: Judicial selection in Kentucky
The seven justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court are elected to eight-year terms in nonpartisan elections. They must run for re-election if they wish to serve subsequent terms.[8]
Qualifications
To serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court, the judge must be:
| “ | ” |
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is chosen by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for four years.[8]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a successor from a list of three names provided by the Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission. If the term the appointee will fill expires at the next election, the appointment is for the remainder of the term. If the term does not expire at the next election and that election is more than three months away, the appointee must stand for election, and the election is for the remainder of the unexpired term. If the term does not expire at the next election, but the election is less than three months away, the appointee must stand for election in the election following the next. The election is for the remainder of the unexpired term, if any; if none of the term is left, the election is for a full term.[8]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Kentucky Today, "Veteran appeals judge seeks vacated seat on Ky. Supreme Court," February 4, 2019
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kentucky Courts, "Christopher Shea Nickell," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ Kentucky SOS, "November 4, 2014, General Election Results," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 15, 2021
- ↑ Kentucky Board of Elections, "Candidate Qualifications," accessed March 31, 2023
- ↑ Kentucky Legislature, "Kentucky Constitution, Section 122," accessed June 1, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Kentucky, Western District of Kentucky • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Kentucky, Western District of Kentucky
State courts:
Kentucky Supreme Court • Kentucky Court of Appeals • Kentucky Circuit Courts • Kentucky District Courts • Kentucky Family Court
State resources:
Courts in Kentucky • Kentucky judicial elections • Judicial selection in Kentucky
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