Thomas J. Baker, a Democrat and former Texas Third Court of Appeals justice, is running for Place 2 on the Texas 15th Court of Appeals in the Nov. 3 general election. He faces Republican Scott Field.
Baker's campaign website describes the 15th Court of Appeals as a statewide court created to hear cases against the state. The race appears on Allen voters' ballots.
Baker said a court hearing cases against the state should not be staffed by the state's appointees. He said Texans deserve judges whose only loyalty is to the law and the people who elected them.
Candidate information
- Party: Democratic
- Birthplace: Denison, Texas
- Residence: Temple, Texas, where Baker said he has lived since 1994, according to his campaign website
- Education: Bachelor's degree in journalism, University of Texas at Austin (1980); juris doctor, University of Houston (1983)
- Endorsements (claimed by endorsers): AFL-CIO; Howdy Politics; Liberal Austin Democrats
Experience and public service
Baker served as a justice on the Texas Third Court of Appeals, Place 5, from 2019 to 2024. During that tenure, Baker said he ranked fifth among the 80 justices on Texas's 14 intermediate appellate courts over two years in opinions, totaling 585 civil and criminal opinions, according to Ballotpedia.
Baker said he is a board-certified family law attorney who has specialized in family law and appellate work across Central Texas counties including Bell, Coryell, McLennan and Williamson.
He served in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1984 to 1991. BallotReady data also lists his private law practice, Thomas J. Baker, Attorney at Law, as beginning in 1984, overlapping with his Navy service, and running through 2019. He worked as an assistant county attorney in Bee County from 1992 to 1994. He was also an attorney and partner at Baker & Tisdale PLLC.
Baker is an associate attorney at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard, a position he has held since 2025.
He has been affiliated with the Calvert Inns of Court, according to Ballotpedia. Baker said he is a 15-year member of the College of the State Bar of Texas.
Baker said he has volunteered as a pro bono attorney at Lone Star Legal Aid, according to his campaign website. He has also served as a judge and evaluator at the Mack Kidd Moot Court and ABOTA Mock Trial, according to Ballotpedia.
On the issues
Judicial philosophy: Baker said party affiliation and political philosophy should never decide a ruling. He said litigants should never be able to predict a ruling by checking who appointed the judge, according to his campaign website.
Judicial elections and accountability: Baker said no statewide court can claim true impartiality if it is insulated from accountability, according to his campaign website.
The Allen Record candidate questionnaire was sent to Tom Oxford's campaign. No response was received as of Oct. 9, 2026. The policy positions above are drawn from his public campaign website and public records.
