Who's on the appellate court ballot in Louisiana

What is on this ballot

Louisiana elects its appellate judges, but not statewide and not all on one schedule, and 2026 is the first year under a new system. Supreme Court justices are elected from seven districts and now run in closed party primaries — held May 16, 2026, with a runoff on June 27 — before a general election on November 3. The five Courts of Appeal are elected by circuit and still use Louisiana’s older majority-vote system, in which November 3 is the first round and any race without a majority goes to a second round on December 12. So which appellate races a Louisiana voter sees, and whether November settles them, depends entirely on where they live. Two Supreme Court seats are on the November 3 general election ballot: the 3rd District, held by Justice Cade Cole, and the 4th District, held by Justice Jay B. McCallum. Both advanced through the Republican primary. A third seat, the 1st District, was vacant after Justice Will Crain was appointed to a federal judgeship; Judge Billy Burris of the 22nd Judicial District Court won the Republican primary on May 16 with 58% over Judge Blair Downing Edwards, and because no Democrat entered the race the November general election for that seat was cancelled and Burris won the seat outright. That race was also the most expensive: Edwards raised about $1.2 million to Burris’s $450,000, and one outside group, the First Principles Political Action Committee, spent about $2.8 million supporting Burris — more than both campaigns combined. The Louisiana Illuminator reported that the new closed-primary rule shut Democratic and independent voters out of choosing the state’s newest justice. Three Court of Appeal seats also have their first round on November 3, but the candidate lists for those races could not be established and are named as an unknown.