Chief, Appellate Division, Harris County District Attorney's Office

Jessica Caird is Chief of the Appellate Division at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, where she has worked as an assistant district attorney since 1998, first as a trial prosecutor and since 2006 in appellate work¹². She has not previously held judicial office. She is the Republican nominee for Place 5 of the Texas First Court of Appeals against incumbent Democrat Amy Guerra³.

• Chief of the Appellate Division, Harris County District Attorney's Office, overseeing criminal and civil appellate matters (current)²
• Appellate attorney at the Harris County District Attorney's Office since 2006; her campaign says she has written more than 440 briefs for the State, including two death penalty cases affirmed on appeal¹
• Trial prosecutor, Harris County District Attorney's Office, from 1998, including almost 3 years as a chief prosecutor in the Juvenile Division¹
• Admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court; has argued 30 times before the local courts of appeals and 4 times before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, according to her campaign¹
• J.D., University of Houston Law Center, 1998; licensed in Texas since November 1998¹⁵
• Caird has not previously held judicial office. She advanced unopposed from the Republican primary on March 3, 2026, and faces incumbent Democrat Amy Guerra in the November 3, 2026 general election for Place 5 of the Texas First Court of Appeals³.
• Bar poll: The Houston Bar Association's Judicial Preference Poll is a non-binding survey of HBA members' preferences, and the HBA states it is not an endorsement. The 2026 poll was open as of September 27, 2026, closes October 2, 2026, and results are due October 9, 2026; no results had been published as of this writing⁴.