Harris County’s 164th District Court, a civil court, is on the ballot as a Democratic Party primary contest between incumbent Cheryl Elliott Thornton and challenger Joy Dawson Thomas.

Thomas has been a full-time magistrate judge in Harris County for more than three years. Before that, Thomas ran a boutique law firm, The Dawson Thomas Law Group, for almost eight years. She is a 2012 graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.