Ursula Hall

This page was current at the end of the official's last term in office covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Ursula Hall

Prior offices

Texas 165th District Court

---

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Wellesley College

Law

South Texas College of Law

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Personal Facebook

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Ursula Hall was a judge of the Texas 165th District Court. She left office on December 31, 2024.

Hall (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Texas 165th District Court. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Biography

Hall earned an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College, going on to earn a J.D. from the South Texas College of Law.

Hall served as an associate municipal judge for the City of Houston. She previously worked in a large law firm and also opened her own law office.

Elections

2024

See also: Municipal elections in Harris County, Texas (2024)

General election

General election for Texas 165th District Court

Bruce Bain defeated incumbent Ursula Hall in the general election for Texas 165th District Court on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bruce Bain (R)	50.8	739,109
		Ursula Hall (D)	49.2	716,555

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,455,664
= 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 165th District Court

Incumbent Ursula Hall defeated Jill Yaziji in the Democratic primary for Texas 165th District Court on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ursula Hall	62.7	92,134
		Jill Yaziji	37.3	54,880

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 147,014
= 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 165th District Court

Bruce Bain advanced from the Republican primary for Texas 165th District Court on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bruce Bain	100.0	142,666

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 142,666
= 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 Hall in this election.

2020

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

General election

General election for Texas 165th District Court

Incumbent Ursula Hall defeated Bruce Bain in the general election for Texas 165th District Court on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ursula Hall (D)	53.6	834,192
		Bruce Bain (R)	46.4	723,475

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,557,667
= 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 165th District Court

Incumbent Ursula Hall defeated Megan Daic and Jimmie Brown Jr. in the Democratic primary for Texas 165th District Court on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ursula Hall	54.9	137,049
	Submit photo	Megan Daic	29.7	74,024
	Submit photo	Jimmie Brown Jr.	15.4	38,372

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 249,445
= 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 165th District Court

Bruce Bain advanced from the Republican primary for Texas 165th District Court on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bruce Bain	100.0	154,336

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 154,336
= 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.

2016

See also: Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2016

Texas held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. A primary election took place on March 1, 2016. A primary runoff election was held on May 24, 2016, for any seat where the top vote recipient did not receive a majority of the primary vote. Ursula Hall defeated Josefina Rendon in the Texas 165th District Court Democratic primary.

Texas 165th District Court, Democratic Primary, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Ursula Hall	54.90%	87,116
Josefina Rendon	45.10%	71,577
Total Votes		158,693
Source: Harris County, Texas, "Democratic Party Cumulative Report-Unofficial," accessed March 2, 2016

Ursula Hall defeated incumbent Debra Ibarra Mayfield in the Texas 165th District Court general election.

Texas 165th District Court, General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Ursula Hall	51.01%	647,172
	Republican	Debra Ibarra Mayfield Incumbent	48.99%	621,668
Total Votes				1,268,840
Source: Harris County, Texas, "Election Results," accessed December 9, 2016

Selection method

See also: Partisan election of judges

The judges of the Texas District Courts are chosen in partisan elections. They serve four-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to continue serving.

Though Texas is home to more than 400 district courts, the courts are grouped into nine administrative judicial regions. Each region is overseen by a presiding judge who is appointed by the governor to a four-year term. According to the state courts website, the presiding judge may be a "regular elected or retired district judge, a former judge with at least 12 years of service as a district judge, or a retired appellate judge with judicial experience on a district court."

Qualifications
To serve on the district courts, a judge must be:

• a U.S. citizen;
• a resident of Texas;
• licensed to practice law in the state;
• between the ages of 25 and 75;*
• a practicing lawyer and/or state judge for at least four years; and
• a resident of his or her respective judicial district for at least two years.

*While no judge older than 74 may run for office, sitting judges who turn 75 are permitted to continue serving until their term expires.

Endorsements

Hall received the following endorsements in 2016:

• Area 5 Democrats
• Coalition of Harris County Democratic Elected Officials
• South Houston Communities
• Houston GLBT Political Caucus
• Harris County Council of Organizations
• Tejano Democrats

2014

See also: Texas judicial elections, 2014

Hall ran for election to the 189th District Court.
Primary: She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary on March 4, 2014.
General: She faced Bill Burke in the general election on November 4, 2014. 

2010

Hall ran for election to the 189th District Court, but she was defeated by incumbent Bill Burke in the general election.

See also: Texas district court judicial elections, 2010

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ursula Hall did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Ursula Hall did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2016

Hall's campaign website included the following themes for 2016:

“ Integrity The integrity of the judge is, in the final analysis, the keystone of the judicial system; for it is integrity which enables a judge to disregard personalities and partisan political influences and enables him or her to base decisions solely on the facts, and the law applicable to those facts. It is, therefore, imperative that a judicial candidate’s integrity and character with regard to honesty and truthfulness be above reproach. An individual with the integrity necessary to quality must be one who is able, among other things, to speak the truth without exaggeration, admit responsibility for mistakes and put aside self-aggrandizement. Other elements demonstrating integrity are intellectual honesty, fairness, impartiality, ability to disregard prejudices, obedience to the law and moral courage. Legal Knowledge and Ability A judge should possess a high degree of knowledge of established legal principles and procedures and have a high degree of ability to interpret and apply them to specific factual situations. Legal knowledge may be defined as familiarity with established legal principles and evidentiary and procedural rules. Legal ability is the intellectual capacity to interpret and apply established legal principles to specific factual situations and to communicate, both orally and in writing, the reasoning leading to the legal conclusion. Legal ability connotes also certain kinds of behavior by the judge such as the ability to reach concise decisions rapidly once he or she is apprised of sufficient facts, the ability to respond to issues in a reasonably unequivocal manner and to quickly grasp the essence of questions presented. Mediation is not the practice of law. Mediation is a process in which an impartial individual assists the parties in reaching a voluntary settlement. Such assistance does not constitute the practice of law. The parties to the mediation are not represented by the mediator. Mediators’ discussion of legal issues. In disputes where the parties. legal rights or obligations are at issue, the mediator’s discussions with the parties may involve legal issues. Such discussions do not create an attorney-client relationship, and do not constitute legal advice, whether or not the mediator is an attorney. Professional Experience A judge should possess a judicial temperament, which includes common sense, compassion, decisiveness, firmness, humility, open-mindedness, patience, tact and understanding. Judicial temperament is universally regarded as a valid and important criterion in the evaluation of a candidate. There are several indicia of judicial temperament which, while premised upon subjective judgment, are sufficiently understood by lawyers and non-lawyers alike to afford workable guidelines for the evaluator. Among the qualities which comprise judicial temperament are patience, open-mindedness, courtesy, tact, firmness, understanding, compassion and humility. Because the judicial temperament requires an ability to deal with counsel, jurors, witnesses and parties calmly and courteously, and the willingness to hear and consider the views of all sides. It requires the ability to be even-tempered, yet firm; open-minded, yet willing and able to reach a decision; confident, yet not egocentric. Because of the range of topics and issues with which a judge may be required to deal, judicial temperament requires a willingness and ability to assimilate data outside the judge’s own experience. It requires, moreover, an even disposition, buttressed by a keen sense of justice which creates an intellectual serenity in the approach to complex decisions, and forbearance under provocation. Judicial temperament also implies a mature sense of proportion; reverence for the law, but appreciation that the role of law is not static and unchanging; understanding of the judge’s important role in the judicial process, yet recognition that the administration of justice and the rights of the parties transcend the judge’s personal desires. Judicial temperament is typified by recognition that there must be compassion as the judge deals with matters put before him or her. Factors which indicate a lack of judicial temperament are also identifiable and understandable. Judicial temperament thus implies an absence of arrogance, impatience, pomposity, loquacity, irascibility, arbitrariness or tyranny. Judicial temperament is a quality which is not easily identifiable, but which does not wholly evade discovery. Its absence can usually be fairly ascertained. Wide-ranging interviews should be undertaken to provide insight into the temperament of a judicial candidate. ” —Ursula Hall (2016),

See also

2024 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

Texas 165th District Court

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Personal

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Footnotes

Texas courts

---

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