Education
Meyers (place of birth missing) graduated in 1970 from Southern Methodist University in University Park.
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Lawrence Meyers
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Because he switched parties in December 2013, he is the only Democrat holding a statewide elected office in Texas through December 2016. He obtained a Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of Kansas School of Law in Lawrence, Kansas. Years thereafter, he received a Master of Laws degree in 1998 from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia.
After obtaining his law degree, Meyers was briefly an assistant district attorney in Montgomery County, Kansas.
Between 1975 and 1988, he practiced civil, criminal, and appellate law in Fort Worth, where he was also a substitute municipal judge for three years. He has also been an instructor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
From 1989 to 1992, Meyers was an associate justice on the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, an intermediate appeals court. In 1992, Meyers ran for the Court of Criminal Appeals, the court of last resort in criminal cases in Texas.
In the Republican primary election, he polled 282,640 statewide votes (545 percent) to his intra-party challenger, Editor Gray, who received 236,249 (455 percent).
In the November general election Meyers narrowly unseated the Democratic incumbent, Pete Benavides, 2,732,689 votes (505 percent) to 2,677,996 (495 percent). Meyers was subsequently handily reelected in the general elections of 1998, 2004, and 2010. After his party switch, while remaining on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Meyers sought the Place 6 seat on the Texas Supreme Court, a civil judicial body.
He was handily defeated by Republican Jeff Brown, a temporary appointee of Governor Rick Perry.
Brown polled 2,772,056 votes (603 percent) to Meyers"s 1,677,341 (365 percent). Another 146,511 votes (32 percent) went to the Libertarian Party nominee, Mark Ash.
Meyers has been a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals since 1993. He has been the only Democrat in a statewide office in Texas since December 2013, when he switched parties.
Columnist Ken Herman attributed Meyers"s defeat for the Supreme Court largely to his party switch and voter tendency to vote a straight Republican ticket in Texas and the view by some Republicans that Meyers had not sided sufficiently with the prosecution in criminal cases.
Meyers said that his party bolt was motivated by the influence of the Tea Party movement on the Texas Grand Old Party. Two Republicans will meet in a runoff election on May 24, 2016, for the nomination to oppose Meyers in the November 8 general election. Mary Lou Keel of Austin led the primary with 784,414 votes (394 percent) and will face Ray Wheless of Allen in Collin County, the second-placed candidate with 704,772 votes (354 percent). Eliminated in the primary was Chris Oldner, who drew 500,510 votes (252 percent).
Meyers polled 970,066 votes while running unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Achievements
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Born
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Nationality
United States -
Political Party
Republican (before 2013) Democrat (2013-present) Libertarian Party