Maggie Ellis

Maggie Ellis

Democratic Party

Candidate, Texas Supreme Court Place 1 Chief Justice

Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

Tenure

2025 - Present

Term ends

2030

Years in position

0

Predecessor

Edward Smith

Compensation

Base salary

$192,500

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Next election

March 3, 2026

Personal

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Official website

Personal Facebook

Personal X

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Maggie Ellis (Democratic Party) is a judge for Place 2 of the Texas Third District Court of Appeals. She assumed office on January 1, 2025. Her current term ends on December 31, 2030.

Ellis (Democratic Party) is running for election for the Place 1, Chief Justice judge of the Texas Supreme Court. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on March 3, 2026.^[source]

Biography

Maggie Ellis' career experience includes working as an attorney.

Elections

2026

See also: Texas Supreme Court elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 1 Chief Justice

Cory Carlyle (D) and Maggie Ellis (D) are running in the Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 1 Chief Justice on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Cory Carlyle
		Maggie Ellis

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 1 Chief Justice

Incumbent Jimmy Blacklock (R) and Steve Smith (R) are running in the Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 1 Chief Justice on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Jimmy Blacklock
	Submit photo	Steve Smith

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= 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: 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

---

	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.
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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

---

	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 Ellis in this election.

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Travis County, Texas (2020)

General election

General election for Texas 200th District Court

Jessica Mangrum won election in the general election for Texas 200th District Court on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jessica Mangrum (D)	100.0	430,990

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 430,990
= 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 200th District Court

Jessica Mangrum defeated Maggie Ellis in the Democratic primary for Texas 200th District Court on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jessica Mangrum	52.8	91,013
		Maggie Ellis	47.2	81,383

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 172,396
= 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

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Maggie Ellis has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Maggie Ellis, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

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2024

Maggie Ellis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ellis' 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.

As a child, I experienced homelessness, transience, abuse, and educational neglect, and I became the only one of my eight siblings to earn a college degree. I was a teacher, foster mother, and community volunteer, and I went to law school to advocate for children and families who were like me and my siblings. I have written the appeals for cases I tried, and I have handled thousands of hearings in court, ranging from divorce, child custody, contract disputes, aggravated robbery and sexual assault while working in private practice, as an Assistant District Attorney, and as a judge.

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?

• I have experience working on all sides of the docket, in both civil and criminal cases, representing individuals, representing the State, and as a judge.
• I will bring a lived understanding of what many people who come before the court have experienced.
• The keystone of my campaign has been that you can't serve people you don't see. My husband and I put tens of thousands of miles on our vehicle traveling to all 24 counties in the Court's jurisdiction to visit with thousands of people who are served by the 3rd Court of Appeals.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Fairness, due process, and access to justice.

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

A commitment to fairness, due process, and justice, and being efficient with cases.

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

Kindness, compassion, and a strong commitment to justice.

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.

2020

Maggie Ellis did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

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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Maggie Ellis campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2	Won general	$81,065	$74,145
Grand total			$81,065	$74,145
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

2026 Elections

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External links

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Officeholder

Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2

Website

Personal

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Edward Smith (D)	Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 2 2025-Present	Succeeded by -

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