Lee Finley
Lee Finley (Republican Party) (also known as Gary) is a judge for Place 8 of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He assumed office on January 1, 2025. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Finley (Republican Party) ran for election for the Place 8 judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Finley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Lee Finley served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1990 to 1994. He earned an associate degree from Tarrant County College in 1996, a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas in 2000, and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2000. His career experience includes working as a managing partner at Finley & Associates PC.[1][2]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8
Lee Finley defeated Chika Anyiam in the general election for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Lee Finley (R)  | 58.9 | 6,385,238 |
 | Chika Anyiam (D) | 41.1 | 4,461,229 | |
| Total votes: 10,846,467 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Stephan Kinsella (L)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8
Chika Anyiam advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Chika Anyiam | 100.0 | 804,891 |
| Total votes: 804,891 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8
Lee Finley defeated incumbent Michelle Slaughter in the Republican primary for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lee Finley | 53.9 | 988,824 |
 | Michelle Slaughter | 46.1 | 846,549 | |
| Total votes: 1,835,373 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8
Stephan Kinsella advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 on April 14, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ |  | Stephan Kinsella (L) |
| ||||
| = 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 finance
Endorsements
Finley received the following endorsements.
- Former President Donald Trump (R)
2022
See also: Municipal elections in Collin County, Texas (2022)
General election
General election for Collin County Judge
Incumbent Chris Hill defeated Joshua Murray in the general election for Collin County Judge on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Chris Hill (R) | 57.0 | 201,969 | |
 | Joshua Murray (D) | 43.0 | 152,154 | |
| Total votes: 354,123 | |||
| = 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 election
Democratic primary for Collin County Judge
Joshua Murray defeated David Smith in the Democratic primary for Collin County Judge on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joshua Murray | 51.1 | 16,015 |
| David Smith | 48.9 | 15,301 | ||
| Total votes: 31,316 | |||
| = 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 Collin County Judge
Incumbent Chris Hill defeated Lee Finley in the Republican primary for Collin County Judge on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Chris Hill | 70.0 | 44,762 | |
| Lee Finley | 30.0 | 19,153 | |
| Total votes: 63,915 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Lee Finley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Finley's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am endorsed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
I am a true lifelong Conservative Republican. I am, and have always been; Strongly pro life Pro second amendment Pro individual rights, and Anti big government.
- Ensure Election Integrity.
Election integrity is absolutely critical to protecting and defending the conservative Republican values that we believe in.
In 1951 the Texas Legislature passed a law to protect election integrity in Texas by authorizing the TX attorney General to prosecute violations of Texas election laws. For more than 70 years, your Texas Attorney Generals used that law to fight for election integrity in Texas by vigorously prosecuting election fraud.
But 2 years ago, the Court of Criminal Appeals struck down that law, removing the ability of the Texas attorney general to prosecute violations of election laws.
We must restore election integrity in Texas. - Improve the Efficiency of the Court. The Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest appellate Court in Texas for criminal matters. Recently the court has been taking 3, 4 or even 5 years to render decisions. In a recent case interpreting a change to the Forgery Statute, the Court took 35 months to render a decision on a relatively simple question of law. For those 35 months, many District Attorneys were not prosecuting forgery crimes, because they were waiting on the Court to make a decision interpreting the statute. This resulted in a significant increase in counterfeit currency and forged checks, which hit small businesses hard and did untold damage to the Texas economy. The Court must do better.
- Restore the Reputation of the Texas Criminal Justice System. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has lost focus on ensuring justice for Texas citizens, and brought discredit on the Criminal Justice system in Texas. From the Michael Richards case, where the Court intentionally closed the Court Clerk's office, in order to prevent a death row inmate from filing an appeal, (resulting in his execution that night), to the Roy Criner case, where the Court refused to vacate a conviction, even in the face of DNA evidence that conclusively excluded the defendant, the Court has denied justice to Texans, while bringing disrepute to the Texas Criminal Justice system.
The Federalist Papers.
Educated voters are the best defense against activist judges and corrupt politicians. We need greater financial transparency and much greater government accountability.
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 website
Finley’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
INTEGRITY COMMITMENT CONSERVATIVE |
” |
| —Lee Finley’s campaign website (2024)[4] | ||
2022
Lee Finley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Finley's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am an attorney, a Veteran and a life long Conservative Republican. Collin County has the highest median Property Tax Burden out of all 254 Texas Counties. I will: 1. Reduce the Property Tax Burden, 2. Restore Criminal Magistration to our elected Judges, and
3. Treat EVERY citizen with Dignity and Respect, regardless of their party affiliation.- I have more than 20 years experience as an attorney, licensed in multiple State and Federal Jurisdictions.
- I am a Marine corps veteran, trained as an EMT, with experience and training in mass casualty and natural disaster response.
- I will treat every Citizen with Dignity and Respect. I will end the politics of division and conflict in County Government, and serve you as a County Judge who will make every effort to work with, rather that again, my fellow elected officials.
Criminal Magistration must be returned to the control of the elected Judges of the County.
However, as I always start from the position that Individual Rights take priority, unless and until there is a compelling reason for them not to, I am compelled to conclude that it is not within the Government's authority to force a person to read a book to be eligible to vote, regardless of hoe much goo d it would o that person.
Except in instances of minors, or mental health, or other legal incapacity, it is not acceptable for the Government to use its coercive powers to restrict your individual rights, for your benefit.
First we must restore trust, and we do that by listening to each other with open minds. When we can learn to trust each other, we can seek, find, and capitalize on new approaches that generate benefits far greater than the sum of their parts.
I'm selfish. I would like to experience the joy of improving the lives of a million people.
As a former US Marine who served as a ground pounder, I enjoy the escape into a simpler ethical framework that brought me comfort when I served.
I believe in individual rights over local government, local over State, and State over Federal, whenever, and to whatever extent, practical.
The current climate of overbearing Federal Government Intrusion into Individual and State's rights is not consistent with the original intent of the US Constitution, and directly in conflict with the 10th Amendment.
County Judge is not a position that is called upon to impose sentence, so empathy in the traditional Judicial sense does not apply.
However, the County Judge should be the leader of the County. He should seek to bring disparate groups closer together, and lead by example, listening with the utmost care to those who disagree with him most. We learn little from those who agree with us, because they neither test the merits of our beliefs, nor present us with alternative viewpoints.
The best way to determine if you are wrong, and by extension, if you are right, is to invite someone who disagrees with you to attack your theory or position as vigorously as they can.
However, as the incumbent County Judge in not an attorney, and as being an attorney is not an absolute requirement for County Judge under the February 15, 1876 Texas Constitution, it wouldn't be fair, or relevant, for me to list those ratings.
As Texas goes, so the Nation goes.
The Republican Party will not elect a President unless they win Texas.
The Republican Party will not win Texas, unless they win Collin County.
Collin county is the battleground. Collin County is the linch pin.
Collin County has not had a credible Democrat Party presence County wide in decades. For too long, Collin County has been factionalized, with several Republican factions engaged in almost non stop infighting. We see this reflected in the use of law enforcement resources for political purposes, and the use of divisiveness for political gain.
The incumbent is fond of saying that he believes "Politics is a combat sport".
I couldn't disagree more strongly.
Politics is, or at least should be, the art of getting things done.
We get more done when we find creative ways to work together, rather than constantly fighting amongst ourselves.
I want to lead by example. I want a County Government that sets an example for the citizens it serves, and that begins by treating everyone who appears before the Commisioner's Court with the Dignity and Respect that they are fundamentally entitled to.
I have excellent relationships with our legislators, both State and Federal.
Far too often criminal justice resources are used as a stop gap for missing mental health services and support. This misapplication of resources dramatically increases the overall cost of both indigent criminal defense, and mental health interventions and treatment.
Collin County needs to return the Criminal Magistration system back to the control of the elected Judges. In 2019, the incumbent County Judge caused oversight and supervision of Criminal Magistration in Collin County to be removed from the elected Judges and placed under the control of the County Judge (who is not an attorney) and the Commisioner's Court. This was inappropriate, and was done for the wrong reasons.
We can do it together.
However, the incumbent County Judge's lack of a Bar rating is not indicative of poor ability.
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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State supreme court judicial selection in Texas
- See also: Judicial selection in Texas
The nine justices of the Texas Supreme Court are selected in statewide partisan elections. The elected justices serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court.[5]
Qualifications
To serve on the Supreme Court, a justice must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a resident of Texas;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- between the ages of 35 and 75;[6][7] and
- a practicing lawyer and/or justice for at least 10 years.[5]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court is selected by voters at large. He or she serves in that capacity for a full six-year term.[5]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement who must be confirmed by the Texas Senate. The appointee serves until the next general election, in which he or she may compete to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.[5]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Candidate Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 |
Officeholder Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 1, 2022
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 20, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lee Finley for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 8, “Elect Lee Finley,” accessed February 19, 2024
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Texas," archived October 3, 2014
- ↑ While no justice older than 74 may run for office, sitting justices who turn 75 are permitted to remain on the court until their terms expire.
- ↑ Texas State Historical Association, "Judiciary," accessed September 12, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michelle Slaughter (R) |
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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
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State of Texas Austin (capital) |
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