Sarah Hawkins Warren
Sarah Hawkins Warren is a judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. She assumed office on September 17, 2018. Her current term ends on December 31, 2026.
Hawkins Warren is running for re-election for judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. She is on the ballot in the general election on May 19, 2026.[source]
Warren first became a member of the court by appointment. Governor Nathan Deal (R) appointed Warren on August 22, 2018, to replace Justice Britt Grant.[1] She was sworn in September 17, 2018.[2] To learn more about this appointment, 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.[3] Warren received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Warren earned a B.A., magna cum laude, in public policy and Spanish from Duke University in 2004 and obtained a J.D., magna cum laude, from the Duke University School of Law in 2008.[5] During law school, she was editor-in-chief of Law and Contemporary Problems and served on the Federalist Society's executive committee.[2]
Warren served as deputy press secretary for the White House Office of Management and Budget in 2005 and, before that, worked on President George W. Bush’s debate prep team for his 2004 re-election campaign.[6] After law school, she clerked for Judge J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and for Judge Richard Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.[7] Warren worked as a litigation partner for Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C., before joining the state Department of Law. She served as deputy solicitor general and special counsel for water litigation from 2015 to 2017, then as solicitor general from 2017 to 2018. She was then appointed to the state supreme court.[8]
As of July 2021, Warren was on the advisory board of the Federalist Society's Atlanta Lawyers Chapter.[2]
Elections
2026
See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on May 19, 2026.
General election for Georgia Supreme Court
Incumbent Sarah Hawkins Warren (Nonpartisan) and Jen Jordan (Nonpartisan) are running in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 19, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Sarah Hawkins Warren (Nonpartisan) | |
 | Jen Jordan (Nonpartisan) | |
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2020
See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Georgia Supreme Court
Incumbent Sarah Hawkins Warren defeated Hal Moroz in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on June 9, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sarah Hawkins Warren (Nonpartisan) | 78.7 | 1,652,532 |
 | Hal Moroz (Nonpartisan) | 21.3 | 446,026 | |
| Total votes: 2,098,558 | |||
| = 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
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2020
Sarah Hawkins Warren did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
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.
Appointments
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Britt Grant left the Georgia Supreme Court after she was elevated to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.[9]
Under Georgia law, if a vacancy appears on the supreme court, the position is filled by assisted appointment. The governor chooses an appointee from a list of qualified candidates compiled by the judicial nominating commission. If appointed, an interim judge must run in the next general election held at least six months after the appointment, and, if confirmed by voters, he or she may finish the rest of the predecessor's term.[10]
Grant's replacement, Sarah Warren, was Gov. Nathan Deal's fourth nominee to the nine-member supreme court.
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.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- 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.
Sarah
Hawkins Warren
Georgia
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Warren donated $10,000 to Republican candidates and organizations. She was a registered Republican prior to 2020. Warren was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2018. At the time of her appointment, Georgia was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Georgia
- See also: Judicial selection in Georgia
The nine justices on the Georgia Supreme Court are chosen by popular vote in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to retain their seats.[13]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
Chief justice
The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.[13]
Vacancies
If a vacancy appears on the court, the position is filled by assisted appointment. The governor chooses an appointee from a list of qualified candidates compiled by the judicial nominating commission. As of March 2023, the judicial nominating commission consisted of 35 members, each appointed by the governor. For each court vacancy, the commission recommends candidates, but the governor is not bound to the commission's choices and may choose to appoint a judge not found on the list.[14] If appointed, an interim judge must run in the next general election held at least six months after the appointment, and, if confirmed by voters, he or she may finish the rest of the predecessor's term.[13][15][16] There is one current vacancy on the Georgia Supreme Court, out of the court's 9 judicial positions. The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Georgia’s top appellate lawyer tapped as next Ga. Supreme Court justice," August 22, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Supreme Court of Georgia, "Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren," accessed July 28, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Martindale, "Hon. Sarah Hawkins Warren," accessed July 28, 2021
- ↑ Office of Attorney General Chris Carr, "Sarah Warren," accessed August 23, 2018
- ↑ The Federalist Society, "Sarah Hawkins Warren," accessed August 23, 2018
- ↑ Duke Law, "Sarah Hawkins Warren ’08," accessed August 23, 2018
- ↑ Congress.gov, "PN1808 — Britt Cagle Grant — The Judiciary," accessed August 1, 2018
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Executive Order," accessed March 29, 2023
- ↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Gov. Kemp Names 35 to Judicial Nominating Commission," October 27, 2021
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia
State courts:
Georgia Supreme Court • Georgia Court of Appeals • Georgia Superior Courts • Georgia State Courts • Georgia Business Court • Georgia Tax Court • Georgia Juvenile Courts • Georgia Probate Courts • Georgia Magistrate Courts • Georgia Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Georgia • Georgia judicial elections • Judicial selection in Georgia
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