Cindy Stormer
Cindy Stormer (Democratic Party) is running for election for the Number 1 judge of the Tarrant County Criminal District Court in Texas. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. She advanced from the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026.
Biography
Cindy Stormer was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Her career experience includes working as an attorney, professor, author, and police officer.[1]
As of 2024, Stormer was affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Justice Network Tarrant County
- Broadway Baptist Church
- Justice Committee
- Tarrant County Community College
- League of Women Voters
Elections
2026
See also: Municipal elections in Tarrant County, Texas (2026)
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1
Cindy Stormer (D) and Sherri Wagner (R) are running in the general election for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Cindy Stormer (D) | |
 | Sherri Wagner (R) | |
| ||||
 = 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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Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1
Cindy Stormer (D) advanced from the Democratic primary for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1 on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cindy Stormer | 100.0 | 155,261 |
| Total votes: 155,261 | |||
| = 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
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1
Sherri Wagner (R) advanced from the Republican primary for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1 on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sherri Wagner | 100.0 | 116,545 |
| Total votes: 116,545 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Tarrant County, Texas (2024)
General election
General election for Texas 213th District Court
Incumbent Chris Wolfe defeated Cindy Stormer in the general election for Texas 213th District Court on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Chris Wolfe (R) | 53.6 | 421,549 | |
| Cindy Stormer (D) | 46.4 | 365,586 | |
| Total votes: 787,135 | |||
| = 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 213th District Court
Cindy Stormer advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas 213th District Court on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cindy Stormer | 100.0 | 58,361 |
| Total votes: 58,361 | |||
| = 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 213th District Court
Incumbent Chris Wolfe advanced from the Republican primary for Texas 213th District Court on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Chris Wolfe | 100.0 | 107,899 | |
| Total votes: 107,899 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Stormer in this election.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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You can ask Cindy Stormer to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing cindystormer@gmail.com.
Campaign website
Stormer's campaign website stated the following:
PROTECTING YOUR RIGHTS STARTS NOW
SMART ON CRIME
Cindy believes Tarrant County can be made safer by having experienced judges dedicated to swift, appropriate justice, not by spending more money on jails.
- Reduce crime by moving more cases faster. Get the violent offenders to prison instead out on bond in your community.
- End the process of sending inmates to out-of-county, for-profit prisons by working hard and moving cases. Cindy has done this before - reducing crime while reducing the jail population.
- Reduce lawsuits due to overcrowding in the jail. She has written the book on best practices in fixing the criminal justice system.
Note: Tarrant County Citizens paid 55 million dollars recently for an out-of-county, for-profit prison while Tarrant County Judges left people in jail twice the length of their sentence on average.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE POWERFUL EFFECT OF GOOD ATTORNEYS
FREEDOM TO BREATHE
Black, brown, or white, we deserve the freedom to breathe.
As the Former Chief of the Mental Health Division in the Dallas District Attorney's Office, Cindy Stormer knows the law and how to utilize best practices and evidence based solutions. for optimal outcomes of cases. Cindy is a hardworking lawyer who gets the job done. See the "Testimonials" tab on this website.
FREEDOM TO PROSPER
It doesn’t matter whether we’ve lived in Tarrant County all our lives or have moved here recently, the amount of money we have in our wallet now shouldn’t block our freedom to prosper in the future.
With a smarter justice system, we can provide freedom from fear of becoming a crime statistic, and still support our most vulnerable citizens. By providing a speedy movement of cases through our judicial system, we can save taxpayer dollars without sacrificing safety.
We need smart, hardworking, compassionate attorneys who will get those with mental health problems the help they need, and who will streamline the judicial process.
Together we can put our tax dollars to work more effectively so that everyone has the freedom to thrive in a safe environment.
FREEDOM TO BE SAFE
Everyone in our community, whatever social status, race or gender, deserves to be safe. Justice done in a timely manner ensures violent offenders are in jail, and those accused of lesser crimes don’t languish in jail.
Certain members of our system prioritize power and profit over protection. They are lining their pockets instead of serving all the people in our county.
We need people and a system dedicated to timely justice. We need to make sure judges mete out punishments respectful of all defendants, yet appropriate to the crime.
— Cindy Stormer's campaign website (March 10, 2026)
2024
Cindy Stormer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Stormer's responses.
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BrainStormer, Dealing Logically, Ethically, and Efficiently with the Mentally Vulnerable and those with Addictive Tendencies (What is wrong with the criminal justice system and how to fix it).
Texas Small Firm Practice Tools, by James Publishing 2006 to date (updated annually) - a law book covering 16 different practice areas with over 500 forms.
- Former ELECTED DISTRICT ATTORNEY, 235th Judicial District. I ENDED THE PROCESS OF SENDING INMATES TO FOR-PROFIT, OUT-OF-COUNTY PRISONS. REDUCING CRIME WHILE REDUCING THE JAIL POPULATION.
- Former Assistant District Attorney - DALLAS SUPER CHIEF - Administrative Division (supervising over 140 staff/attorneys) and Chief Financial Officer managing budgets of approximately fifty million dollars (supervised and managed the following Divisions: Mental Health, Checks/Financial Crimes, Technology, Financial Services, Support Staff, Records, Human Resources, Grants, Animal Cruelty, Truancy, Victim/Witness, Justice of the Peace Courts, Court of Appeals One, and more); responded to audits on the local, State and Federal level. . . I managed the mental health trial docket in all criminal courts in Dallas County.
Former DNA Attorney for Dallas County’s internationally famous CONVICTION INTEGRITY (investigated, managed, and reevaluated hundreds of cases).
Former CHIEF ATTORNEY FOR THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT, Assistant City Attorney and Executive Officer DPD.
Former Tarrant Assistant District Attorney
Former Police Officer-
Be SMART ON CRIME and Save Democracy, change happens at the grassroots level. I am a Professor of Government. Tarrant county is becoming the EPICENTER for VOTER SUPPRESSION: Crystal, Mason prosecution got National attention when she was prosecuted for voting. And now voter suppression and intimidation is continuing with investigative units in the District Attorney and Sheriff's Offices; INSURRECTIONISTS: that tried to overthrow democracy on January 6; Nazi white supremacists: who walk around in our businesses in full Nazi regalia and distribute literature; And hate crimes, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
We must be the change we want to see.
Qualified local Democratic candidates should alleviate this nonsense.
- Reduce crime by moving more cases faster. Get the violent offenders to prison instead of on bond in our community. Judges are not moving violent offenders to prison e.g. murderers are in our community on bond for up to five years AND they are not moving low-level, non-violent offenders out of jail when they should not be in jail, e.g. innocent woman arrested, kept in jail 5 months without a single court hearing, ignored when she went into labor and beat on the walls of the cell, where her baby died . . . this is destroying lives and COSTING US MILLIONS IN LAWSUITS!!!!! Both extremes are making us less safe. We need someone Smart on Crime at the Courthouse.
- I will end the process of sending inmates to out-of-county, for profit prisons by working hard and moving cases. I will reduce lawsuits due to overcrowding in the jail. Over 60 people have died in the Tarrant County jail under the current administration (approximately five years). That is three times the national average. This is because the jail is overcrowded because the judges are not moving the cases. For example: Lon Burnham (Ret. State representative) presented to Commissioner’s Court (Jan.) that he and hundreds of potential jurors were told “your services are not needed, you are dismissed because there are over 30 judges that are not holding court today.” I will make use of the Mental Health Diversion Center.
“Mental Health Diversion center. In the past year the center was basically unused.” per a local judge. Our citizens are paying to staff this facility that has a
400 capacity per month – that is 4800 per year. This alone would take care of the 430 we are currently sending out-of-county, for-profit jail.
One in every two people in the Tarrant County jail has a diagnosed mental illness, but we have no mental health attorneys.
I also admire the teachings of Jesus (not the white, Christian, nationalist, evangelical distorted version of Christianity);
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.;
Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice;
Mahatma Ghandi;
Alexander Hamilton;
Abraham Lincoln (except for the part about native Americans):
Mother Theresa and many others.
On Ginsberg, Top of her class, but denied employment based on sex.
She was the first person on both the Harvard and Columbia law reviews.
She became a female law professor at Rutgers—and fought for equal pay.
She represented men at no charge convincing white, male judges to rule for the clients against discrimination based on sex.
Supreme Court judges allowed in her Trojan horse of thousands of well-reasoned opinions.
The judges snatched them up. Adopted them as their own.
Once precedent had been set she returned, stealth-like.
She had knit a legal garment one delicate link at a time until it was strong enough to withstand any challenge.
She battled—and overcame—sexism personally.
Twenty-seven years a member of the United States Supreme Court.
Continuing the fight.
Even her losses were victories with the skillful dissents.
She will be quoted for centuries.
Her intellect now woven into the American fabric.
Humbly, fiercely asking her brethren for no special favors but that they get their feet off our necks.
Icon. Rockstar. Grace.
BrainStormer, Dealing Logically, Ethically, and Efficiently with the Mentally Vulnerable and those with Addictive Tendencies (What is wrong with the criminal justice system and how to fix it) by Cindy Stormer.
Texas Small Firm Practice Tools, by Cindy Stormer and published by James Publishing 2006 to date (updated annually) - a law book covering 16 different practice areas with over 500 forms. This is one of James Publishing’s (large publisher of law books) bestselling books.
I, Cindy Stormer, was the Chief of the Mental Health Division of the Dallas District Attorney’s office from 2009 to 2015
I wrote the legal paper on Mental Health for the State Bar’s Advanced Criminal Law course. I was a career prosecutor, defense attorney, police officer . . .
Are we afraid of them or just mad at them? If we are just mad – they should not be incarcerated. That is the formula. The solution for implementing the formula is Mental Health Public Defenders.
The Assistant District Attorney (ADA)- competency attorney saved Dallas County $300,000 the first year the position was created by getting people out of the jail and into hospitals or other treatment. This was a fraction of this ADA’s salary.
It costs the taxpayers on average, more than twice as much to keep the mentally ill in jail and the mentally ill tend to stay in jail an average of four times longer than other defendants because of their inability to advocate for themselves, e.g. if it is $150 per day for the average defendant, it is over $300 per day to keep the mentally ill in jail.
Judges must work hard to stop the jail deaths and overcrowding. We must end this suffering and avoid the lawsuits. Tarrant County paid one million dollars in September when a man (who should not have been in the jail) lay in the jail cell for six hours after his death before jailers noticed he was dead.
A lawsuit is pending in the case where a baby was born in the jail to a mother who had committed no crime and at no point during the mother’s five months in jail did she have a court hearing.
Robert Miller was pepper-sprayed to death by jailers, but the official cause of death is sickle-cell disease. He did not have sickle-cell disease.
Georgia Kay Baldwin died from dehydration in a Tarrant County jail cell in what a lawsuit calls a “a tragic, completely unnecessary death.”
“Corey Rodrigues sustained various injuries from the July 2020 beating (by jailers), including bleeding in his lungs, a collapsed lung, multiple rib fractures and a broken cheek bone that required surgery.. . Even though he was in great pain after the beating, Rodrigues did not receive medical care for two days. . . . the charges against all three men were dismissed due to “prosecutorial discretion” Star Telegram. Tarrant County settled that lawsuit recently.
For a more complete summary of my qualifications, please see my
website: StormerForTexas.com and
Facebook page: Cindy Stormer for Judge
I am a hard worker. I put myself through law school, college, and even high school. I was raised on a farm by a pack of wild older brothers so I know how to fight smart and work hard.
I have a judicial temperament (compassion, decisiveness, open-mindedness, sensitivity, courtesy, patience, freedom from bias and commitment to equal justice.), honest, trustworthy, integrity, transparency, empathy, work ethic, intelligence.
I have the experience. I have handled thousands of criminal cases in multiple jurisdictions.
When I was an elected district attorney, there was a 25% reduction in crime, and at the same time the jail population was reduced by about one-half, and we stopped sending inmates out of county to for-profit incarceration saving massive amounts of taxpayer dollars.
At the Dallas District Attorney’s Office, I and one attorney I supervised, were the only attorneys in the building that practiced in all the criminal courts in the building: Mental Health, Therapeutic Courts, Drug Courts, Veteran’s Courts, etc..
Licensed: United States Supreme Court; State Bar of Texas; United States District Court-Eastern District; United States District Court-Northern District, Texas, Kansas.
Appellate experience: United States Supreme Court; United States District Courts; Courts of Appeals in Texas: Second (Fort Worth); Fourth (San Antonio); Fifth (Dallas); Sixth (Texarkana); Seventh (Amarillo); Eighth (El Paso); Ninth (Beaumont); Tenth (Waco); Eleventh (Eastland), authoring over three hundred appellate briefs and/or writs.
According to the Office of Court Administration, for months, no work has been done at all by Tarrant County Criminal Court Judges. They are not even bothering to report any work that is done. I encourage citizens to go to the Tarrant County Courthouse and see this for yourself.
When I was an elected district attorney, there was a 25% reduction in crime, and at the same time the jail population was reduced by about one-half, and we stopped sending inmates out of county to for-profit incarceration saving massive amounts of taxpayer dollars.
1. Violent offenders should be in prison. I am an experienced prosecutor who has tried murder cases (including capital murder). I would set dangerous criminal’s cases for trial and get them to prison where they belong instead of in our communities on bond.
2. Innocent people should not be in jail. I would ensure that innocent citizens did not languish in jail. We are discovering that there are many that fit this description in the Tarrant County Jail.
She was a respected and skillful attorney who used her abilities to help others at every opportunity that was presented to her. She was committed to Justice and a fierce advocate of the oppressed having been the Conviction Integrity /DNA attorney and spent years doing criminal defense.
She ran for Judge to bring attention to the deaths and suffering in the jail (even though no Democratic Candidate had won a judicial office in the County since 1988 - 36 years) caused in part by judges not moving the cases and allowing some innocent people to suffer and die.
She volunteered at the church food pantry. She was a hard worker and always worked to leave the world a better place. She would say “I may not change the world, but I can change my little piece of it”. She helped the children of her family to be the best they could be and reach their full potential.
She worked in every aspect of criminal justice: police officer, prosecutor, defense attorney, DNA/wrongful convictions, mental health, . . . She used best evidence procedures to get to the root causes of why the people end up in jail for these minor offenses. Housing, education, healthcare, childcare… and worked to fix those problems, instead of feeding the prison industrial complex. She even wrote a book on the subject. Her work made our community safer, reduced crime, and recidivism, and lowered the expense at the same time.
She was passionate about democracy. She was a professor of: Federal Government; State and Local Government; United States Government; Legal Research; Legal Writing; Criminal Procedure and Evidence; American State and Local Government; Family Law; Probate, Trusts, and Estates; Torts; Civil Litigation - Texas Trial Practices; Citizenship; and more.
Other great books that have inspired me are “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It may have been instrumental in me, wanting to go to law school and it may have led me to become a conviction, integrity/wrongful conviction, lawyer, with the Dallas District Attorney’s office, working to overturn numerous wrongful convictions. It is outrageous that this book is now banned in schools. Teachers can no longer teach using this book. Banning books is now inspiring me to run for office. We must take every effort to stop this nonsense and right-wing extremism.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow is another great classic. You feel like you are a better person for having read it.
From Les Miserables
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
will fairness and justice enhance
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
What did one math book say to the other math book? “Look buddy I’ve got my own problems. “
There are 14 magistrates (judges making approximately $150,000 per year) a main function of which is to set bonds so people can get out of jail. Apparently until recently they could not set personal bonds. Note: A personal bond is one at no cost so people who are innocent or have no money – low level, non-violent offenses do not sit in jail for months unnecessarily.
“We couldn’t figure out how to set a personal bond.” Greg Shugart, Criminal Court Administrator. 1/18/24 Town Hall Meeting. One example of this: a man on a $25 bond, the crime: “He was sitting in a curb and refused to move for street sweeper. He stayed in jail over 90 days. Ninety days at $85 per day. That is about $7,600. THAT IS YOUR MONEY” Commissioner Simmons.
Judges must be intelligent, trained and be using best practices to make us safer. Dallas County was one of the first to adopt a mental health criminal justice program and was found to have the most successful mental health program (of the counties studied) according to a 2010 comprehensive, eighteen-month study conducted by a research scientist from Texas A & M in conjunction with the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.
Defendants from the mental health caseload in Dallas exhibited the lowest risk of recidivism of the counties studied. Dallas has the broadest and most comprehensive array of diversion-oriented programming of any Texas county studied in that research.
Ryan Brown, the Budget Director for Dallas County, announced to Commissioner’s court that “Mental Health was a very good use of those funds.”
Dallas County repeatedly discovered that mental health public defenders and ADA’s were saving taxpayers money, administering justice, restoring lives, reuniting families, helping the community, and more.
1. SAFETY
2. LOWER EXPENSE
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See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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
