Who is running for Second District Court of Appeal, Retention: Andrea Teves Smith in 2026?

Judge, Florida Second District Court of Appeal

Andrea Teves Smith was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal by Governor Rick Scott on January 7, 2019 and began serving February 1, 2019, after five years as a circuit judge in the Tenth Judicial Circuit³¹¹. Before the bench she spent nineteen years at Peterson and Myers in Lakeland, where she became a shareholder handling commercial litigation and appeals³. This is a nonpartisan merit retention vote: voters decide yes or no on whether she keeps her seat for another six-year term¹⁴.

• Judge, Second District Court of Appeal, since February 1, 2019; member of the District Court of Appeal Performance and Accountability Commission and the Supreme Court Standard Jury Instructions Committee (Civil)³
• Circuit Judge, Tenth Judicial Circuit, appointed 2013 and retained by election in 2014; served in civil, family and felony divisions and as administrative judge for the civil division³
• Shareholder, Peterson and Myers, P.A., Lakeland, commercial litigation and appeals, nineteen years³
• Past chair and vice chair, Florida Supreme Court Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity³
• B.S. in Business Administration, University of Florida; J.D., Stetson University College of Law³
• Appointed to the Tenth Judicial Circuit in 2013 and retained by election in 2014; appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal by Governor Rick Scott on January 7, 2019, filling the seat of Judge Marva Crenshaw, and began serving February 1, 2019³¹¹. Retained by voters in November 2020 with 74.98 percent voting yes⁵. Florida law places appeals court judges on the ballot every six years for a yes or no retention vote⁴. She is on the November 3, 2026 ballot for merit retention¹².