The Contested and Uncontested Races for Beaumont's Ninth Court of Appeals

Chief Justice of Beaumont's Ninth Supreme Judicial District Steve McKeithen did not draw an opponent for this upcoming term.
New justice Leanne Johnson did, though. 88th District Court Judge Earl B. Stover III who holds court in Hardin and Tyler Counties in Kountze and Woodville, respectively, is running. Law licensed since 1978, Judge Stover was the son of a prior judge of the district court. Little information is conveniently available about him on the internet.
I met Justice Johnson at a continuing legal education in Conroe. She turned out to be smart, really hard-working-- McKeithen said that one of the first things Johnson asked him was about building protocols related to being in the middle of the night working-- and really pleasant though with the possibility of an edge. She told a similar story about being in the courthouse at 3 AM working. It sounded like that she was doing a pile of work like Justice Gaultney used to.
Justice Johnson is originally from Joaquin, Texas-- like you, I had to look it up to find it. She was the daughter, the youngest in the family, of a teacher and military officer who died on duty in Vietnam. Educated in southern Arkansas, she graduated in the top 5% of her law school class. She was on law review and did moot court, then got a job as a law clerk for a federal trial judge in Louisiana. She made her career at the Beaumont white-shoe law firm Orgain, Bell, and Tucker. She's board certified in personal injury law. She is active in Beaumont civil affairs.
A link to our prior post about Justice Johnson with more details is here.