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Jay Mitchell
Jay Mitchell (Republican Party) is running for election for Attorney General of Alabama. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Mitchell (Republican Party) was a judge of the Alabama Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 11, 2019. He left office on May 19, 2025.
Mitchell became a member of the Alabama Supreme Court through a partisan election in 2018. To read more about judicial selection in Alabama, 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] Mitchell received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Mitchell was born in Mobile, Alabama, and lives in Homewood. He received a B.A. from Birmingham-Southern College in 1998, an M.A. from University College Dublin in 1999, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2002.[3][4]
Mitchell was an attorney in private practice before being elected to the state supreme court. As of 2021, he was a member of The Federalist Society.[3]
Elections
2026
See also: Alabama Attorney General election, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for Attorney General of Alabama
Pamela Casey, Jay Mitchell, and Katherine Robertson are running in the general election for Attorney General of Alabama on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Pamela Casey (R) | ||
 | Jay Mitchell (R) | |
| Katherine Robertson (R) | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Alabama Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Alabama Supreme Court
Incumbent Jay Mitchell won election in the general election for Alabama Supreme Court on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jay Mitchell (R) | 97.8 | 1,555,235 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.2 | 35,034 | ||
| Total votes: 1,590,269 | |||
| = 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
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Jay Mitchell advanced from the Republican primary for Alabama Supreme Court.
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Mitchell in this election.
2018
General election
General election for Alabama Supreme Court
Jay Mitchell defeated Donna Wesson Smalley in the general election for Alabama Supreme Court on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jay Mitchell (R) | 60.5 | 1,014,761 |
 | Donna Wesson Smalley (D) | 39.4 | 661,034 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 1,302 | ||
| Total votes: 1,677,097 (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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Alabama Supreme Court
Donna Wesson Smalley advanced from the Democratic primary for Alabama Supreme Court on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Donna Wesson Smalley |
| ||||
| = 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 Alabama Supreme Court
Jay Mitchell defeated John Bahakel in the Republican primary for Alabama Supreme Court on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jay Mitchell | 71.1 | 306,025 |
 | John Bahakel | 28.9 | 124,668 | |
| Total votes: 430,693 | |||
| = 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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Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jay Mitchell has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Jay Mitchell, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
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2024
Jay Mitchell did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
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.
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.[5]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[6]
- 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.
Jay
Mitchell
Alabama
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
- Endorsed by Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Mitchell ran as a Republican to gain his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court. He donated $1,460 to Republican candidates and organizations. Mitchell received donations and endorsements from Republican-affiliated organizations including the Business Council of Alabama, the Retailers of Alabama PAC, and the Alabama Association of Realtors. Alabama was a Republican trifecta at the time of his election.
State supreme court judicial selection in Alabama
- See also: Judicial selection in Alabama
The nine justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are selected through partisan elections for six-year terms. They appear on partisan election ballots statewide and face re-election if they wish to serve again.[7] For more information about these elections, visit the Alabama judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- licensed to practice law for at least 10 years;
- a state resident for at least one year;
- under the age of 70 at the time of election (judges who turn 70 in office may serve until their terms expire).[8][9]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by popular vote, serving in that office for his or her full six-year term.[7][10]
Vacancies
Should a vacancy occur between regularly scheduled elections, which take place in November of even-numbered years, an interim justice is appointed by the governor. Any justice appointed in this fashion must then stand for election in the next general election occurring at least one year after taking office.[7][11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2026 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.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alabama Judicial System, "Associate Justice Mitchell," accessed June 8, 2021
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Jay Mitchell," accessed June 8, 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Alabama Judicial System, "Qualification of Judges," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Judicial Retirement Laws, "Alabama: Mandatory Retirement Provisions Applicable Generally," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "Minimum Qualifications for Public Office," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Article VI, Alabama Constitution - Section 152," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Alabama, Middle District of Alabama, Southern District of Alabama • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Alabama, Middle District of Alabama, Southern District of Alabama
State courts:
Alabama Supreme Court • Alabama Court of Civil Appeals • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals • Alabama Circuit Courts • Alabama District Courts • Alabama Juvenile Courts • Alabama Municipal Courts • Alabama Probate Courts • Alabama Small Claims Courts
State resources:
Courts in Alabama • Alabama judicial elections • Judicial selection in Alabama
