Velia Meza

Velia Meza

Democratic Party

Texas 226th District Court

Tenure

2019 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

5

Report an officeholder change

Recent elections

Office

Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2

Date Elected

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Barnard College of Columbia University, 1996

Law

St. Mary's University

Personal

Religion

Christian

Profession

Judge

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

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Personal Facebook

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Velia Meza (Democratic Party) is a judge of the Texas 226th District Court. She assumed office on January 1, 2019. Her current term ends on December 31, 2026.

Meza (Democratic Party) ran for election for the Place 2 judge of the Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Meza completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Velia Meza earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Columbia University in 1995 and a J.D. degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in 2000. Her career experience includes working as an attorney, judge, and adjunct professor. Meza has practiced in federal courts in the Western District of Texas, Southern District of Texas, and in the Southern District of Illinois.

Elections

2024

See also: Texas intermediate appellate court elections, 2024

General election

General election for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2

Velia Meza won election in the general election for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Velia Meza (D)	100.0	729,825

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. Source	Total votes: 729,825
= 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 Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2

Velia Meza defeated incumbent Beth Watkins in the Democratic primary for Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Velia Meza	52.2	61,117
		Beth Watkins	47.8	55,856

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 116,973
= 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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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Meza in this election.

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Bexar County, Texas (2022)

General election

The general election was canceled. Incumbent Velia Meza won election in the general election for Texas 226th District Court.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas 226th District Court

Incumbent Velia Meza defeated Demetrio Duarte Jr. in the Democratic primary for Texas 226th District Court on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Velia Meza	75.2	64,451
		Demetrio Duarte Jr.	24.8	21,247

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 85,698
= 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.

2018

General election

General election for Texas 226th District Court

Velia Meza defeated Todd McCray in the general election for Texas 226th District Court on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Velia Meza (D)	57.3	305,545
		Todd McCray (R)	42.7	227,963

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 533,508
= 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 runoff election

Republican primary runoff for Texas 226th District Court

Todd McCray defeated Libby Wiedermann in the Republican primary runoff for Texas 226th District Court on May 22, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Todd McCray	50.5	12,417
		Libby Wiedermann	49.5	12,178

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,595
= 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 226th District Court

Velia Meza defeated Joel Perez in the Democratic primary for Texas 226th District Court on March 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Velia Meza	65.9	49,552
		Joel Perez	34.1	25,688

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 75,240
= 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 226th District Court

Libby Wiedermann and Todd McCray advanced to a runoff. They defeated Kristen Mulliner and David P. Martin in the Republican primary for Texas 226th District Court on March 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Libby Wiedermann	27.6	15,339
✔		Todd McCray	26.7	14,828
		Kristen Mulliner	23.7	13,195
		David P. Martin	22.0	12,209

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 55,571
= 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.

2014

See also: Texas judicial elections, 2014
Meza ran for election to the 187th District Court.
Primary: She was defeated in the Democratic primary on March 4, 2014, receiving 49.7 percent of the vote. She competed against Stephanie R. Boyd.

Selection method

See also: Partisan election of judges

Judges of the county courts are elected in partisan elections by the county they serve and serve four-year terms, with vacancies filled by a vote of the county commissioners.

Qualifications
To serve on a county court, a judge must:

• be at least 25 years old;
• be a resident of his or her respective county for at least two years; and
• have practiced law or served as a judge for at least four years preceding the election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Velia Meza completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Meza's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have effectively served as a Criminal District Court Judge for Bexar County over the last five years, diligently applying the law to complex legal and factual issues, relying on established legal precedents. Furthermore, my rulings have undergone scrutiny by Texas Courts of Appeals and have been consistently upheld. I ask for your vote in the Texas Democratic Primary for Justice of the 4th Court of Appeals, Place 2, as the future of South Texas requires a Justice with extensive experience in criminal matters.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Prior to being a Judge I was an Attorney in private practice and I represented citizens throughout South Texas.
• As both a Criminal District Court Judge and an Attorney, I have successfully presided over and participated in over 100 jury trials.
• I am dedicated to upholding the Rule of Law.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

N/A

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My mother is my greatest source of inspiration, and I greatly admire her.

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

As judges, we play a crucial role on the front lines alongside law enforcement, responsible for authorizing the issuance of search warrants

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.

2022

Velia Meza did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 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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Velia Meza campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals Place 2	Won general	$53,900	$82,712
Grand total			$53,900	$82,712
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

See also

2024 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

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