Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Texas Attorney General

Thomas Smith is an assistant attorney general in the Texas Attorney General's Office⁴⁵. He won the Republican nomination for Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 in a May 26, 2026 runoff against Alison Fox, according to The Associated Press as reported by The Texas Tribune⁵. He faces Democrat Okey Anyiam and Libertarian Mark Ash for the seat held by Judge Bert Richardson, who did not seek reelection¹⁵.

• Assistant Attorney General, Texas Attorney General's Office, since 2015³⁴
• Counsel and policy analyst to then-State Senator Ken Paxton, 2013 to 2015²³⁴
• Private practice and in-house counsel: General Counsel, Davaco Inc. (2006 to 2011); Associate General Counsel, Fossil Group (2001 to 2005); associate, Jones Day (1998 to 2001)³⁴
• Law clerk to Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, 1996 to 1998; JD, The Ohio State University College of Law, 1996²³
• Not a sitting judge; seeking an open seat after winning the May 26, 2026 Republican runoff⁵.
• Bar poll: State Bar of Texas 2026 Judicial Poll, final vote summary dated February 10, 2026. This was a non-binding straw poll of State Bar members on contested races, taken before the March 3 primary; the Bar describes it as a preference poll only, not an endorsement. Results: Okey Anyiam 1,034 votes, Alison Fox 592, Lesli Fitzpatrick 463, Thomas Smith 391, Brent Coffee 345, Mark Ash 337 (Fox, Fitzpatrick and Coffee did not win the Republican nomination)⁶⁷.

Record

• On the day before the May 26, 2026 Republican runoff, criminal defense attorney James Luster filed a judicial conduct complaint alleging that Smith's campaign statements about his runoff opponent violated the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct; Smith called the complaint politically motivated⁵. No outcome of the complaint was found in public reporting or in the State Commission on Judicial Conduct public sanctions lists as of 2026-09-26⁸.