9 candidates are on the ballot. One ballot can carry several appellate seats, and the note below sets out which contest is which. For each judge: the record, any official performance evaluation, and the arguments published for and against them.
Kansas does not hold contested elections for appellate judges. They are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face voters only in yes-or-no retention questions with no party label — which is why no party is listed below. A majority of yes votes keeps a judge on; a majority of no votes creates a vacancy filled the same way. Nine appellate retention questions are on the November 3, 2026 ballot and every Kansas voter votes on all of them. In ballot order: Kansas Supreme Court — Chief Justice Eric S. Rosen and Justice Larkin Walsh. Kansas Court of Appeals — Lori Bolton Fleming, Thomas E. Malone, Kim R. Schroeder, Amy Fellows Cline, Lesley Ann Isherwood, Jacy J. Hurst and Stephen D. Hill. The system itself was on the ballot earlier in 2026: in August, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment backed by Republican legislators that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The Kansas Bar Association, with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers about each of these judges and said it would publish results in September 2026; those results had not appeared when this was researched. Roster from the Kansas Bar Association’s Your Kansas Judges project.
9 candidates · ballot order · Eric S. Rosen currently holds this seat
Low confidenceLow confidenceOnly one weak source, dated material, or indirect evidence. Treat specifics with caution.What would raise it: An official filing record and at least one independent report about this candidate would raise this.
What they say they stand for
Their own words. Claims, not verified facts.
Nothing documented in the sources reviewed.
What they’ve actually done
Documented record from official sources.
Justice, Kansas Supreme Court.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Kansas appellate judges are nominated by a commission and appointed by the governor, then face yes-or-no retention votes; Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms between votes and Court of Appeals judges four.
The Kansas Bar Association, working with the American Bar Association Center for Bar Leadership, surveyed Kansas lawyers who have first-hand professional experience of each appellate judge on qualifications, professional conduct and job performance, and said it would publish the results in September 2026. This is a bar association’s survey of its members, not an official state rating — Kansas has no statutory judicial performance commission.
In August 2026 Kansas voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Republican legislators, that would have replaced merit selection with direct partisan election of Supreme Court justices. The retention system below is the one that survived that vote.
Arguments in favor
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
Arguments against
We found none published about this candidate in the sources reviewed.
What we couldn’t verify
The Kansas Bar Association’s 2026 survey results had not been published at the time of research, so no rating of this judge for this election is available to report.
No organised campaign either for or against this judge’s retention was found. Searched: the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas Reflector, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Wichita Eagle, KCUR and the Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
No analysis of this judge’s published opinions was found.
Positions and criticism are quoted from the named sources, not our assessments. This is built to help you start getting informed — confirm the official candidate list with your election authority before you vote.
This is one contest on a longer ballot
A Kansas ballot also carries state legislative districts, county offices, judicial seats and often local questions — and which of them you vote on is decided by your street address, not your city or ZIP code.