Charles Holcomb

Judge Charles Holcomb, born 1933, attended Lee College in Baytown and Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas for his undergraduate education. He served in the Air Force Reserves 1951-1953, and was graduated from South Texas College of Law in 1958.

From 1959 to 1966, he was the City Attorney, first for Deer Park and then for Orange, Texas. In 1967 he was elected to the County Court at Law of Orange County and served until 1972. During the school term of 1970-1971, he was also Adjunct Professor of Government at Lamar University Extension in Orange. From 1972 to 1981, he was in private practice with Cox, Holcomb & Sinclair, contemporaneously serving Cherokee County as County Attorney from 1974 until 1981, when elected District Attorney for the same county and served until 1991.

In 1992, he was elected Justice of the Twelfth Court of Appeals and served until 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he sat by assignment in trial and appellate courts as a Senior Judge. Judge Holcomb was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000. His term on the Court began in 2001. Holcomb, then 71, was be required by law not to serve as an active judge after he turned 75 in September 2008.

He faced two challengers for re-election in 2006, Judge Robert Francis of Dallas, and then representative Terry Keel of Austin. Keel challenged both Holcombe and Francis for technical flaws in their applications to be on the ballot. Holcomb's candidacy was affirmed by the Texas Supreme Court and he won re-election. After his re-election the Texas Constitution was amended to allow allow judges who turn 75 during their term to serve-out a four-year term, meaning Holcomb could serve four years of his six-year term. Holcomb retired from the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2010 and decided to run for the Senate election in 2012.