Thomas Baker (Texas)
2019 - Present
2024
5
Thomas Baker (Democratic Party) is a judge for Place 5 of the Texas Third District Court of Appeals. He assumed office on January 1, 2019. His current term ends on December 31, 2024.
Baker (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for the Place 5 judge of the Texas Third District Court of Appeals. He lost in the Democratic primary on March 5, 2024.
Baker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Thomas Baker was born in Denison, Texas. Baker served in the United States Navy from 1984 to 1991. He earned a B.A. in government from the University of Texas in 1980 and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1983. Baker’s career experience includes working as an attorney with Baker & Tisdale PLLC. As of 2024, Baker was affiliated with the Calvert Inns of Court.[1][2][3]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5
Karin Crump is running in the general election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
 | Karin Crump (D) | |
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5
Karin Crump defeated incumbent Thomas Baker in the Democratic primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Karin Crump | 56.2 | 78,705 |
 | Thomas Baker | 43.8 | 61,374 | |
| Total votes: 140,079 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
Baker received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
2018
General election
General election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5
Thomas Baker defeated incumbent David Puryear in the general election for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Thomas Baker (D) | 53.9 | 560,790 |
 | David Puryear (R) | 46.1 | 479,517 | |
| Total votes: 1,040,307 | |||
| = 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 Third District Court of Appeals Place 5
Thomas Baker advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Thomas Baker |
| ||||
| = 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 Third District Court of Appeals Place 5
Incumbent David Puryear advanced from the Republican primary for Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | David Puryear |
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Thomas Baker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Baker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am the Democratic incumbent Justice, Place 5, Third Court of Appeals. I love my job. I would like to apply the experience from my first five years at the court in one more term. I will not seek another term beyond this.
I ran with Justices Triana, Kelly and Smith in 2018 as the only Democrats to run, helping to flip the Third Court from all-Republican to Democratic. I defeated the longest-serving Republican incumbent, Justice David Puryear, 54-46.
The Third Court of Appeals is one of 14 Texas intermediate appellate courts. I ranked 5th of those courts' 80 justices the past two years in opinions, totaling 585 civil and criminal opinions. The past five years, I helped judge the Mack Kidd Moot Court for law students and ABOTA mock trial for high school students. I am a 15-year member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, far exceeding continuing judicial education requirements.
I am a Board-certified family law attorney. Before being elected to our court, I had a civil practice in the Central Texas counties of Bell, Coryell, McLennan and Williamson counties, specialized in family law and appeals.
I have resided in Temple the past 30 years, have been married to my wife, Cynthia, for 30 years. and together we have raised two daughters, Sarah and Emily, and now have a son-in-law, Jack. Cynthia has been a certified elementary school teacher in Texas and North Dakota public and Catholic schools for 40 years.
- If I retain my bench, Democrats retain a Travis County civil trial court bench, preventing Governor Abbott from appointing a Republican for up to two years which would be unfair for Travis County residents who voted for my opponent to serve in that office.
- I am the more experienced and knowledgeable appellate choice to keep at the Third Court of Appeals; I ran for this office against a Republican in 2018 when my opponent chose to run for her civil trial bench with no opponent.
- I will treat all parties and counsel with respect and dignity in all aspects of our court. I will judge all appeals fairly, and my opinions likewise will reflect those values.
I am passionate about the dignity of all persons, about equal and fair treatment of all persons and valuing all persons equally. In terms of public policy, I believe government should focus on those missions that serve the needs of all persons, including health care, education, and basic human needs of food and shelter for those less well off than others. I want to see government work towards a fair tax code but stay out of the most personal decisions in its citizens' lives, such as parenting decisions and women's doctor-patient decisions, including the reproduction decisions.
I look up to Pope Francis as a good leader trying to bridge the divide in our damaged world. I would love to follow his example of love and unity.
To Kill A Mockingbird most reflects my philosophy of life and politics.
The most important characteristic or principle for elected officials is humility, never forgetting all citizens who put you there and never letting power or trappings of office go to your head. After that elected officials need to treat all persons with respect and dignity and value. For judges, it is equal treatment of all and reaching the correct legal outcome based on court filings. For me it is applying my Democratic values in my personal life.
My qualities are my conscientiousness and compassion for others. I care about all persons and their lives.
The core responsibilities are attempting to get results handed down as timely as possible and getting the right holding from what the trial record and law require.
I would like to leave a legacy of having done my best and some good for those who had cases before our court. I would like to be remembered as a justice who took his oath seriously every day.
I was 7 when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. We were residing in Denison, Texas, not far from where that event occurred. I was in second grade which let out at around lunchtime for the rest of that day.
My first jobs were working on the local daily newspaper and working on school newspapers as a reporter and editor..
To Kill a Mockingbird or Billy Budd are examples of favorite novels because of the struggles of the central characters against adversity and how they dealt with adversity.
Perhaps Atticus Finch would be a fictional character I would like to embody.
I cannot answer this queston presently.
The struggles of my life have been the losses of my big sister, our oldest sibling, my parents and now a brother. I have wrestled with those losses and getting through them. Professionally my greatest struggle was transitioning from the Navy to civilian law practice.
The entire world of courts, especially appellate courts, is obscure to the public. I hope that the public will take as much time as possible to learn as much as possible before voting for their judicial incumbents or opponents because it is an important branch of government. Texas elects judges, and the public too often does not know who we are before it is time to vote.
My legal philosophy is to attempt to reach a just and fair result within the trial record and the law, and insofar as those limitations permit apply my sense of justice and fairness to the case before us. If I believe strongly regarding some aspect of a case, I try to persuade my colleagues to win their vote(s). My philosophy is to always remember that the papers we are reading are not sterile facts but involve persons' lives. I approach each case with the utmost seriousness and solemnity.
One justice I admired greatly is the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginzburg. Going back in time, we have had several great Supreme Court justices whose reputations will withstand the test of time.
Of course, empathy absolutely is needed and important in looking at every case. We should put ourselves in the place of the party or parties and walk around in their shoes when we are deciding matters that are of the utmost gravity in their lives.
I am not aware of any rating by any Bar Association. I was rated by clients in public opinions posted on social media, but those were subjective judgments.
I am running for a second term because I believe I have the knowledge and experience to serve the court and carry out my office better than my opponent can. I am Board-certified in an important area of law with which our court deals with in family law and parental termination reviews.
It is not necessarily beneficial or detrimental for a judge to have experience in government or politics. It is more beneficial to have experience in the courts, representing parties, or being part of the legal system interacting with the public.
My primary concern is that our highest courts are entirely from one political party in part because the Democratic Party has not won a statewide office in about 30 years. This is not good for the citizens of Texas. Our highest courts should reflect views from both major political parties. This is missing now. Judges should not decide cases based on political parties or political views, but they should represent a cross-section of the state's population. The highest courts do not do this. I have concern that in at least one case or more justice at the highest level was "purchased" through political donations. This troubles me greatly. Our present highest courts and every branch of government in our State is in the hands of one political party, the legislature, governor, all statewide executive offices, and the courts are not acting as the checks and balances which they should be but more as rubber stamps sometimes.
The greatest opportunity for the legal system is to be more of a check on the excesses of our state government Legislature and Governor.
I will not seek another term in office beyond this present election, barring some extraordinary circumstances.
I cannot answer this question fairly as I am not sure how Bar Association ratings work or how much they reflect a judge's objective ability or work.
I cannot answer this question presently.
Austin Chronicle, Texas State Democrats, AFSCME
My only thoughts here as this applies to judicial office is never allow any campaign donations affect me in any way in what I think or do at our court. I must recognize any biases that get in the way of coherent, logical decision-making processes. If I cannot be fair to everyone, then I need to recognize whether I must recuse myself from a case.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 |
Officeholder Texas Third District Court of Appeals Place 5 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Tom (Thomas John) Baker," accessed February 7, 2018
- ↑ Baker & Tisdale PLLC, "Thomas J. Baker," accessed February 7, 2018
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 29, 2024
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