Andrew Van Winkle
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Andrew Van Winkle is a judge-elect of the Spokane County Superior Court in Washington. He assumes office on January 13, 2025.
Van Winkle ran for election for judge of the Spokane County Superior Court in Washington. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Van Winkle completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Andrew Van Winkle was born in Spokane, Washington. He graduated from Shadle Park High School. He earned an associate degree from the Spokane Falls Community College, a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington, and a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law. His career experience includes working as a lawyer.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Spokane County, Washington (2024)
General election
General election for Spokane County Superior Court
Andrew Van Winkle defeated incumbent Tim Fennessy in the general election for Spokane County Superior Court on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Andrew Van Winkle (Nonpartisan)  | 52.5 | 124,312 |
 | Tim Fennessy (Nonpartisan) | 46.7 | 110,457 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 1,799 | ||
| Total votes: 236,568 | |||
| = 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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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Spokane County Superior Court
Incumbent Tim Fennessy and Andrew Van Winkle defeated Jerry Scharosch and F. Dayle Andersen in the primary for Spokane County Superior Court on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Tim Fennessy (Nonpartisan) | 37.5 | 47,720 |
| ✔ | | Andrew Van Winkle (Nonpartisan) | 35.3 | 44,865 |
 | Jerry Scharosch (Nonpartisan) | 19.0 | 24,136 | |
| F. Dayle Andersen (Nonpartisan) | 7.7 | 9,789 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 661 | ||
| Total votes: 127,171 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
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To view Van Winkle's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Van Winkle in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Andrew Van Winkle completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Van Winkle'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 have served most of my legal career in a neutral, nonpartisan capacity working in-house for Washington’s courts. I am currently the senior staff attorney at the Washington State Court of Appeals, where I help the court’s judges decide cases from every superior court east of the Cascades. The Court of Appeals decides cases covering all areas of state law, including criminal, civil (e.g. personal injury, contracts, land use/zoning), and family law (e.g. divorce, child custody, juvenile dependency).
Since 2021, I have also served part-time in Spokane County Superior Court as a pro tem court commissioner, where I have presided over hundreds of cases and numerous bench trials. Prior to my service at the Court of Appeals, I was a deputy prosecutor in Chelan County where, for 5 years, I was in court almost daily. As a prosecutor, I tried dozens of cases, from theft to homicide and everything in between, and argued numerous cases in the Court of Appeals and Washington’s Supreme Court.
I have been rated “well qualified” or higher by several independent bar associations, including Washington Women Lawyers, Q Law of Washington, the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, and the Joint Asian Judicial Evaluation Committee. I am endorsed by judges at all court levels, including on Washington’s Supreme Court, lawyers who I have tried cases against, and lawyers whose cases I have decided while serving as a pro tem.
- I am running to modernize the court. For example, in King County parties can submit evidence (e.g. video documenting domestic violence) and serve the other party through ShareFile, a cloud-based file sharing tool. They can do this from their phone, anywhere in the world. In Spokane, you take time off work, pay for parking at the courthouse, get a special court order allowing submission of electronic evidence, put it on a USB stick, give one to the court, give one to the other party, and come back another day for your hearing. Spokane can do better, but adoption of modern procedures and technologies does not happen on its own. In the courts, it requires a judge to step forward and be a leader for change.
- I am running to end the weaponization of mental illness in our courts. In criminal practice, courts have come a long way over the last 20 years toward understanding that people living with mental illness deserve our compassion, not our scorn, and deserve thoughtful and tailored resolutions to their cases. But, in family and civil cases, a person’s mental illness is still regularly used as a basis for cutting off all contact between an affected parent and their kids or as a way to gain an edge in litigation. Judges are long past due to extend the lessons we have learned from criminal law to other areas of law.
- I am running to unseat Judge Fennessy. In Washington, each party may disqualify (remove) from their case one judge for any reason. Since 2019, Spokane’s lawyers have overwhelmingly disqualified Judge Fennessy due to his poor demeanor. As of June 2024, Judge Fennessy had received more than 1 out of every 3 disqualifications in cases filed since 2019, and more than 2 out of every 3 disqualifications in cases filed in 2024. Spokane has 13 superior court judges who could be disqualified, making Judge Fennessy’s disqualification rate extraordinary. He has been disqualified more than the next 4 most-disqualified judges combined. Three-fourths of Spokane’s current superior court judges and court commissioners have refused to back Judge Fennessy.
I am most passionate about are mental health and making the courts more accessible to people without a lawyer. My mom developed schizophrenia when I was young and it took almost 20 years for the courts to intervene and order treatment. For years, I watched my mom live every day in terror caused by her hallucinations. No person should ever go as long as my mom did without receiving help from the courts, and no family should be left alone to navigate the courts. Increasingly, people are finding it harder to find or afford a lawyer to help them get justice, from obtaining domestic violence protection orders to establishing parenting plans. Only judges can make the courts easier to navigate for people without access to a lawyer.
Honesty, empathy, and an open mind
Summer camp counselor at Camp Cowles, a Boy Scout camp north of Spokane. I worked there every summer throughout high school.
Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” It is a well-crafted mystery and was one of the first books that made me fall in love with reading.
“A taste of honey” Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Ruggero Aldisert (3rd Circuit, 1968–2014); Jerome Frank (2nd Circuit, 1941–1957). Judge Aldisert and Judge Frank are two of the most important American judges of the last century. These judges did much to advance judges’ understanding of what it means to be a judge, what the role of courts should be in the 20th century, and what constitutes a “good judge” in these modern times.
Yes. Most court cases stir strong emotions in parties, their lawyers, witnesses, and jurors. Empathy is critical for understanding these emotions and is also critical to making decisions that parties and the public will view as fair.
I have been rated “well qualified” or higher by several independent bar associations, including Washington Women Lawyers, Q Law Association of Washington, the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, and the Joint Asian Judicial Evaluation Committee of Washington.
Insufficient resources to help people navigate the courts without a lawyer.
Bar ratings accurately reflect a judge’s ability when they: are conducted in a nonpartisan manner, reach deep in the candidate’s employment and professional history, delve into the candidate’s prior cases, survey the candidate’s plans for improving the courts, involve broad consultation with the candidate’s references, and are the product of personal interviews with the candidate. Each of the bar associations that have rated me have followed this process.
Why did the lawyer bring a box of crayons to court? He wanted to draw his own conclusions.
Washington is a “sunshine” state, frequently recognized for its commitment to open records and government transparency. Upholding this commitment requires judges who have also internalized this commitment and who are therefore willing to enforce our government transparency laws. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called sunlight “the best of disinfectants,” when speaking about government transparency. I concur.
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.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 8, 2024
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington
State courts:
Washington Supreme Court • Washington Court of Appeals • Washington Superior Court • Washington District Courts • Washington Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Washington • Washington judicial elections • Judicial selection in Washington
