John Messinger

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

John Messinger

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Law

Baylor Law School, 2006

Personal

Religion

Baptist

Profession

Prosecutor

Contact

Campaign website

Personal Facebook

John Messinger (Republican Party) ran for election for the Place 2 judge of the Texas Third District Court of Appeals. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

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

Biography

John Messinger's career experience includes working as a prosecutor. He earned a law degree from Baylor Law School in 2006. Messinger has been affiliated with Radiance Women's Center.

Elections

2024

See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2024

General election

General election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

Maggie Ellis defeated John Messinger in the general election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Maggie Ellis (D)	50.9	700,587
		John Messinger (R)	49.1	675,885

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,376,472
= 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 runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

Maggie Ellis defeated incumbent Edward Smith in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2 on May 28, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Maggie Ellis	65.0	17,385
		Edward Smith	35.0	9,362

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 26,747
= 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 Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

Maggie Ellis and incumbent Edward Smith advanced to a runoff. They defeated Melissa Lorber in the Democratic primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Maggie Ellis	40.5	56,909
✔		Edward Smith	31.5	44,192
		Melissa Lorber	28.0	39,337

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 140,438
= 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 Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

John Messinger advanced from the Republican primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Messinger	100.0	185,153

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 185,153
= 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 Messinger in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

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

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a Christian, a husband, and a father of three young children (6, 4, and 2). I moved to Texas to go to law school because I wanted to live and raise a family in a place that valued freedom. I believe that you cannot have freedom without responsibility. Too much of the conversation today is about what is owed to people instead of what is expected of them. I try to be thankful for the things God has given me.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• In a system of law, you don't get justice without following the law. Many people casually toss the word "justice" around. It doesn't mean "whatever one thinks is fair." Reasonable people disagree about what is fair. When people disagree about matters of law, they are settled in courts. If judges did whatever they felt was right or fair in a given case, there would be no system of justice. All we would have are little dictators who decide things differently from Court to court and county to county.
• If the law seems unfair, go to the Legislature and get it fixed. Sometimes, accurate application of the law leads to results that were unforeseen. Sometimes, the results were intended but the voters change their minds about what they want the law to be. In either event, the answer is to have a discussion in the branch of government designed to make law: the legislative branch. It is not the job of judges to decide what they think Texans want and to make the law say that.
• Experience matters. Real experience. Any lawyer who has managed not to get disbarred for ten years can run for a court of appeals. Although it is certainly possible for one of them to acquire the expertise to manage a busy docket, issue sixty or more opinions a year, and participate in twice as many other cases, it is nice when a candidate for an appellate court has experience doing appeals. For the last 13+ years, my job has been to evaluate the opinions of courts of appeals and, if necessary, have them corrected by the highest criminal court in Texas. I've written hundreds of briefs and petitions for discretionary review. Very few people have comparable experience.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am a career prosecutor, so I tend to focus on the nuts and bolts of government: rule of law, functioning courts, etc. But the real problem underlying most others is the breakdown of the family. A lot of well-meaning people crafted policies that have demonstrably had the unintended consequence of weakening families. No amount of money can replace the structure that intact families provide. It starts with valuing life. It continues with commitment to your spouse and children. Government can try to incentivize (or at least not discourage it) these things but change needs to start at home and in our communities.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Humility. Public service should be just that: service. You have a job people have trusted you to do. That job existed before you and will exist after you. An elected official should remember that.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I am well-qualified for the job but understand it is not about me. It is easy for any elected official, forced to run for office and earn votes, to get caught up in seeing their name on signs and in voter guides and whatnot. It is probably why so many politicians don't know when to leave. I've lived almost 50 years before all of this and will enjoy whatever life God gives me if my political life ends in November.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

An appellate judge should fairly administer the law and write opinions that ordinary people can understand so they can decide whether to pursue further appeal (if possible) or a legislative fix (where applicable). Fair administration requires ignoring the identities and social positions of the parties and not giving into compassion; Lady Justice is blind for a reason.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Probably the Challenger explosion. I would have been 8 or 9 years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked at our local library as a page for about two years in high school.

Do you believe that empathy is an important quality for a judge?

No. It is a vital quality for human beings. In our everyday interactions, we should be mindful that we cannot know each other's hearts or what experiences led everyone to where we meet them. But empathy is a terrible quality for a judge, especially an appellate judge. The last thing anyone should want is a judge who lets his feelings about one or both parties influence his decision. Again, Lady Justice is blind for a reason.

Why are you running for this particular court seat?

The person I chose to run against had no appellate experience before he ran in 2018 and no other experience that spoke to his ability to get the job done. His tenure did not convince me otherwise. I was not alone. He drew two primary challengers and lost his runoff.

What is your primary concern about today's legal system in your state?

Lack of expertise. There are far too many jurists, especially on the appellate level, who lack the ability to dispassionately decide cases in a timely manner. I've seen firsthand what happens when everyone has to sit around for years wondering whether a court of appeals will, for example, uphold a penal law. Victims, police, prosecutors, and lower judges all had to wait for over three years to know whether their cases could proceed. That delay can cause anxiety, permit further criminality, and of course costs money. People deserve to have their claims settled as correctly as possible as quickly as possible. A court of appeals is no place for on-the-job training.

Would you be interested in serving on a higher court in the future? If so, which court appeals to you?

My legal passion is criminal law. I never thought I would run for this position. If I run again, it would be for the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Tell us your favorite joke.

A man and a woman strike up a conversation. They're getting along famously until they discover they are in different political parties. The man says, "I'm surprised you're a Democrat; you seem smart." The woman replies, "I'm surprised you're a Republican; you seem like a decent human being."

I hope both sides can laugh at that. We have a lot more in common than we don't.

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

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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.

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John Messinger campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2	Lost general	$36,418	$44,248
Grand total			$36,418	$44,248
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal 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

2024 Elections

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Candidate

Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

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