Hecht, Meachum, Ash/Photos by Campaigns
We have asked candidates running for various offices to answer questions for our Voter Guide. While full responses are available here, we are offering you an excerpt in “Candidate Comparisons” ahead of the November 3, 2020 general election. Each response below came directly from the candidate’s questionnaire and is unedited.
Nathan Hecht, Republican (Incumbent)
Candidate did not respond to questionnaire by deadline.
Amy Clark Meachum, Democrat
Occupation: Presiding Judge, 201st Judicial District
Why are you the best candidate for voters to support for this position in 2020?
My trial court experience and my long record of standing up for the values of equality, fairness, and justice under the law make me the best candidate in this race. In 2010, I won an election to become one of the youngest district court judges in the state. For the past decade, I have presided over thousands of hearings, trials and proceedings in all the types of cases that the Texas Supreme Court could conceivably take up: personal injury, commercial law, family law, probate, administrative appeals, juvenile justice, CPS, etc.
I have served as a guest lecturer with the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, a board member on the Administrative and Public Law Council with the State Bar, and a board member with Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas.
Before joining the bench, I was one of the youngest partners at McGinnis Lochridge, and represented clients on both sides of the docket. I made partner at the firm at the age of 31 – the year after I successfully represented women suing Johnson & Johnson for and unsafe birth control product. Thanks in large part to the work I did with my law partner, Ray Chester, this product was removed from the market.
When you investigate my judicial record, it will show a decade of standing up for the values of fairness, equality and justice under the law. After winning a contested Democratic primary in Travis County in 2010, I ran for reelection unopposed in 2014 and 2018. Not a single Democrat nor a single Republican ran against me in 2014 or 2018. That speaks to the quality of my work and the fairness of my rulings.
Finally, I am very respectful for the Chief Justice’s long service to our state. However, I believe my vision of a more inclusive justice system and one that recognizes its failings and tries to better our system of justice with a renewed commitment to equal justice under the law is a better vision for Texas in 2020. Finally, I can serve my full term under the Texas Constitution, where the current chief justice will have to retire at age 75 in the middle of his term.
Mark Ash, Libertarian
Candidate did not respond to questionnaire by deadline.