Debra Hembree Lambert
Debra Hembree Lambert is a judge of the Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District. She assumed office on January 7, 2019. Her current term ends on January 4, 2027.
Lambert is running for re-election for judge of the Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District. She declared candidacy for the primary scheduled on May 19, 2026.[source]
Lambert was elected by her peers to a four-year term as chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2024, effective January 6, 2025.[1]
Lambert 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.[2] Lambert received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Lambert was a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, representing the 3rd Appellate District, Division 1, from 2015 to 2018.
Biography
Lambert received her bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky University in 1983 and her J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1989.[4]
Lambert began her legal career practicing law in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, while also serving as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney and as city attorney for the city of Mount Vernon. In 1999, Gov. Paul E. Patton (D) appointed her as a family court judge for the 28th Circuit Court. While serving as a family court judge, she created the first drug court in the area. In 2007, Lambert returned to private practice until her election to the court of appeals in 2014.[5]
Lambert was a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, representing the 3rd Appellate District, Division 1, from 2015 to 2018.
Elections
2026
See also: Kentucky Supreme Court elections, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on May 19, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary
Nonpartisan primary election for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District
Incumbent Debra Hembree Lambert (Nonpartisan) is running in the primary for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District on May 19, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Debra Hembree Lambert (Nonpartisan) | |
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2018
General election
General election for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District
Debra Hembree Lambert defeated Daniel Ballou in the general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Debra Hembree Lambert (Nonpartisan) | 65.1 | 95,237 |
| Daniel Ballou (Nonpartisan) | 34.9 | 51,075 | ||
| Total votes: 146,312 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = 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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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District
Debra Hembree Lambert and Daniel Ballou defeated David A. Tapp in the primary for Kentucky Supreme Court 3rd District on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Debra Hembree Lambert (Nonpartisan) | 50.2 | 64,028 |
| ✔ | Daniel Ballou (Nonpartisan) | 25.3 | 32,277 | |
 | David A. Tapp (Nonpartisan) | 24.5 | 31,289 | |
| Total votes: 127,594 | |||
| = 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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2014
- See also: Kentucky judicial elections, 2014
Lambert defeated incumbent Michael Caperton in the general election for the Kentucky Court of Appeals on November 4, 2014, receiving 53.4% of the vote.[6]
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.
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.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- 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.
Debra Hembree
Lambert
Kentucky
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
- Endorsed by Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Lambert donated $1000 to Republican candidates and organizations. Lambert received donations from and was endorsed by the Tri County Republican Women as well as the Kentucky Right to Life. At the time of her election, Kentucky was a Republican trifecta.
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.[9]
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.[9]
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.[9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Kentucky BAR Association, “Debra Hembree Lambert elected Chief Justice" accessed January 9, 2025
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Lebanon Enterprise, "Justice of the Supreme Court candidate – Debra Lambert," October 31, 2018
- ↑ Kentucky Courts, "Debra Hembree Lambert," 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.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 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.
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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