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Wesley Brent Powell
2017 - Present
2030
8
Wesley Brent Powell is a judge of the Missouri Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2017. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Powell ran for re-election for judge of the Missouri Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 6, 2018.
Powell first became a member of the Missouri Supreme Court through a gubernatorial appointment. He was first appointed to the court on April 25, 2017, by Gov. Eric Greitens (R).[1] To read more about judicial selection in Missouri, 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.[2] Powell received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Powell began serving as chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court on July 1, 2025.[4]
Before joining the court, Powell served on the Missouri 16th Judicial Circuit Court from 2008 to 2017.[5][6]
Biography
Powell received his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College and his J.D. from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1996.[7][6] Before becoming a judge, Powell worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in Kansas City and an Assistant Prosecutor in the Platte County Prosecutor’s office.[6]
Elections
2018
- See also: Missouri Supreme Court elections, 2018
Missouri Supreme Court
Wesley Brent Powell was retained to the Missouri Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 71.4% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.4
|
1,470,265 | ||
No |
28.6
|
588,894 | |||
Total Votes |
2,059,159 | ||||
|
|
2016
Missouri held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. A primary election took place on August 2, 2016. The filing deadline for those wishing to run in the primary was March 29, 2016. Judges running in a retention election on November 8 had to file by August 23.[8] Wesley Brent Powell was retained in the Missouri 16th Circuit, Division 11 election with 67.35 percent of the vote. [9]
| Missouri 16th Circuit, Division 11, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes | |
 Wesley Brent Powell | 67.35% | |
| Source: Missouri Secretary of State, "2016 Unofficial General Election Results," accessed November 9, 2016 | ||
2010
- See also: Missouri judicial elections, 2010
Powell stood for retention and was retained on November 2, 2010, receiving 65.4 percent of the vote.[10]
Performance evaluation
Judge Powell was recommended for retention by the Appellate Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee.
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.
Wesley Brent
Powell
Missouri
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Republican
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Powell served in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri from 2001-2008 under a Republican administration. He donated $400 to Republican candidates and organizations. Powell was appointed by Gov. Eric Greitens (R). At the time of his appointment, Missouri was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Missouri
- See also: Judicial selection in Missouri
The seven justices of the Missouri Supreme Court are chosen through assisted appointment in which the governor selects a nominee from a list provided by a nominating commission. When a vacancy occurs, a list of potential candidates is compiled by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission and narrowed to three choices. From those three candidates, the governor appoints a new judge. After the newly appointed judge serves for at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, they serve twelve-year terms.[13]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen for at least 15 years;
- a qualified state voter for at least nine years;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- over the age of 30; and
- under the age of 70 (retirement at 70 is mandatory).[13]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court serves a two-year term and is elected by a peer vote.[13]
Vacancies
When a vacancy occurs, a list of potential candidates is compiled by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission and narrowed to three choices. From those three candidates, the governor appoints a new judge. After the newly appointed judge serves for at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, they serve twelve-year terms.[13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Missouri Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ St. Louis Business Journal, "Greitens appoints Judge W. Brent Powell to Missouri Supreme Court," April 25, 2017
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The Missouri BAR, “Meet Missouri’s new chief justice: Q&A with Hon. W. Brent Powell" accessed August 11, 2025
- ↑ courts.mo.gov, "16th Circuit," accessed September 2, 2013
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 16thcircuit.org, "Biography: W. Brent Powell," accessed September 2, 2013
- ↑ Missouri Secretary of State Website, "Missouri Circuit Court Judges," accessed September 2, 2013
- ↑ Missouri Secretary of State, "2016 Missouri Election Calendar," accessed December 7, 2015
- ↑ Emailed candidate list from Missouri Secretary of State's Office on September 20, 2016
- ↑ Missouri Secretary of State, "2010 General Election results," accessed August 6, 2021
- ↑ 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 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 7, 2021
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri
State courts:
Missouri Supreme Court • Missouri Court of Appeals • Missouri Circuit Courts • Missouri Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Missouri • Missouri judicial elections • Judicial selection in Missouri
