Read about Maggie ▾
Ellis was homeless as a child, the only one of eight kids to finish college — it took her 16 years — and she got through Baylor Law raising four teenagers, commuting from Austin to Waco every day. Now she's running to be the first woman ever to lead the Supreme Court of Texas.
She's been a public-school teacher, a foster mother, a prosecutor, an administrative-law judge and a trial lawyer, and is board-certified in juvenile law and child welfare — the cases where the person in front of the judge has the least power. She won the primary with 77 percent. Her opponent, Jimmy Blacklock, was Greg Abbott's own lawyer before Abbott put him on the court in 2018, and Abbott made him Chief Justice in 2025 without an election. Ellis sits on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin — and is a Hays County Bar Association Pro Bono Hero.
