Ceola James

Ceola James

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2 Position 2

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Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Law

Mississippi College School of Law

Personal

Profession

Judge

Contact

Campaign website

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Ceola James was a judge for Position 2 of the Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2.

James ran for election for the District 1-Place 3 judge of the Mississippi Supreme Court. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Education

James is a graduate of the Mississippi College School of Law. She was admitted to practice law in 1977.

Career

James worked as a special master judge for the Chancery Courts of Warren County from 1992 to 1994. In 1997, she was appointed an interim judge for the Warren County Justice Court. She then served as a Chancery Judge for the 9th District from January of 1999 through December of 2002. James was appointed twice by the Mississippi Supreme Court to serve as a special chancery judge in Scott County and Rankin County. She was also the city judge of Port Gibson that year. Prior to her election as a judge, James was a solo practitioner, representing clients in civil and criminal matters.

Elections

2024

See also: Mississippi Supreme Court elections, 2024

General runoff election

General runoff election for Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3

Incumbent Jim Kitchens and Jenifer Branning ran in the general runoff election for Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3 on November 26, 2024.

		Candidate
		Jim Kitchens (Nonpartisan)
		Jenifer Branning (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The outcome of this election has not been called yet.
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General election

General election for Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3

Jenifer Branning and incumbent Jim Kitchens advanced to a runoff. They defeated Ceola James, Byron Carter, and Abby Robinson in the general election for Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jenifer Branning (Nonpartisan)	41.7	124,331
✔		Jim Kitchens (Nonpartisan)	35.5	105,904
		Ceola James (Nonpartisan)	10.4	31,117
		Byron Carter (Nonpartisan)	7.1	21,158
		Abby Robinson (Nonpartisan)	5.2	15,626

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source	Total votes: 298,136
= 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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Endorsements

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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for James in this election.

2018

See also: Mississippi intermediate appellate court elections, 2018

General runoff election

General runoff election for Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1

Deborah McDonald defeated Eric Hawkins in the general runoff election for Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1 on November 27, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Deborah McDonald (Nonpartisan)	65.2	87,245
		Eric Hawkins (Nonpartisan)	34.8	46,618

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 133,863
= 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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General election

General election for Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1

Deborah McDonald and Eric Hawkins advanced to a runoff. They defeated Ceola James in the general election for Mississippi Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Deborah McDonald (Nonpartisan)	48.3	63,793
✔		Eric Hawkins (Nonpartisan)	28.2	37,256
		Ceola James (Nonpartisan)	23.5	31,068

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 132,117
= 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.

2016

See also: Mississippi judicial elections, 2016

Judge James ran for re-election in 2016. Her opponent was Latrice Westbrooks.

Election results

November 8 general election

Latrice Westbrooks defeated incumbent Ceola James in the election for the Mississippi Court of Appeals, District 2, Place 2.

Mississippi Court of Appeals, District 2, Place 2, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Latrice Westbrooks	57.40%	84,762
Ceola James Incumbent	42.60%	62,914
Total Votes (360 of 360 precincts reporting: 100%)		147,676
Source: The New York Times

2012

See also: Mississippi judicial elections, 2012

James ran for election on November 6, 2012. She competed against Latrice Westbrooks and incumbent Judge Ermea Russell. She defeated Russell in the general election with 63 percent of the vote. Westbrooks was previously disqualified from running due to being from the wrong district.

2010

See also: Mississippi judicial elections, 2010

James was defeated by incumbent Tyree Irving in the general election.

2008

James ran for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Candidate	Incumbent	Seat	Election %
Jim Kitchens A	No	District 1, Position 3	53.4%
James W. Smith	Yes	District 1, Position 3	36%
Ceola James	No	District 1, Position 3	10.4%

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ceola James did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

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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.

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Ceola James campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3	Lost general	$0	$0
Grand total			$0	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Reprimand on record

The Mississippi Supreme Court ordered a public reprimand for James in 2007 for violating court rules of conduct that bar former judges from representing a party in a case over which she previously presided. In the case for which she was reprimanded, James presided over a hearing regarding a mother's petition for child protection, ultimately barring the father from unsupervised visits. Later, after leaving the bench and after the parties divorced, James tried to represent the mother when she sought a modification of the divorce decree.

Federal appeal

In 2003, James appealed a United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (USDC No. 3:02-CV-1447-BNJ) decision in which she failed to successfully sue Amy Tuck, President and Agent of the Mississippi Senate, and other figures of the Mississippi Legislature. She argued that the district court erred in determining that her Voting Rights Act claim was frivolous without convening a three-judge panel.

The issue at hand was whether or not "[a] change in the election law denied Mississippi voters due process and that the approval of the election ballots required preclearance by the United States Attorney General...

However, "James failed to brief the retroactivity, vagueness, personal due process, ex post facto , and equal protection claims she raised below, and they are deemed abandoned on appeal."

• The Supreme Court of Mississippi, Ceola James v. The Mississippi Bar

See also

2024 Elections

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Candidate

Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 Position 3

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