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Court[edit]

District 126 is a civil district court in Travis County, Texas.

Judges[edit]

• Aurora Martinez Jones

Former judges[edit]

• Darlene Byrne^[1]

Travis County[edit]

Travis County contains one county court and the following 20 district courts: District 53, District 98, District 126, District 147, District 167, District 200, District 201, District 250, District 261, District 299, District 331, District 345, District 353, District 390, District 403, District 419, District 427, District 450, District 455, and District 459.

See also[edit]

• Texas District Courts

Elections[edit]

See also: Texas judicial elections

Texas is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in Texas, click here.

• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2025
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2024
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2023
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2022
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2021
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2020
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2019
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2018
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2017
• Texas local trial court judicial elections, 2016
• Texas judicial elections, 2014
• Texas judicial elections, 2012
• Texas judicial elections, 2010

Selection method[edit]

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.^[2]

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."^[3]

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;*^[4]
• 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.^[2]

*While no judge older than 74 may run for office, sitting judges who turn 75 are permitted to continue serving until their term expires.^[2]

Election rules[edit]

Primary election[edit]

Partisan primaries are held if even one candidate has filed for a position. To advance to the general election, a candidate must win a majority (over 50 percent) of the vote. If no candidate in a race wins the majority—as in cases where more than two candidates are competing for a seat—a runoff election is held between the top two candidates.^[5][6]

Though Texas officially has closed primaries (requiring that voters declare party affiliation in advance in order to participate), the state's primaries are functionally open: registered voters may vote in any single party's primary if they have not voted in the primary of another party. The elections are closed, however, in that voters may not participate in the proceedings (a runoff primary or a convention) of another party thereafter.^[5]

General election[edit]

The winning candidates from each major party's primary, as well as any additional minor party candidates, compete in a general election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. If a candidate was unopposed in the general election, his or her name will still appear on the general election ballot.^[5][7]

Footnotes[edit]