Join Our Volunteer Elections Team
Help turn values into votes by mobilizing voters and electing reproductive freedom champions up and down the ballot.
Activism 101 Profiles
Angela Colmenero’s Record Against Reproductive Freedom
We strongly oppose Angela Colmenero, Trump's pick to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Key Takeaways
- Reproductive Freedom for All strongly opposes Angela Colmenero, Trump's pick to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
- Reproductive Freedom for All opposes his nomination due to her extensive record of hostility toward reproductive freedom.
- + Read More
- Colmenero has spent most of her legal career advancing extreme policies alongside several politicians leading Texas’s anti-abortion efforts, including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
- Hendershot also has a record of attacking other fundamental rights, including voting rights.
- Trump has a deeply troubling track record of nominating judges who oppose reproductive freedom, reflecting the Trump administration’s vision for courts that are hostile to the basic reproductive rights and freedoms of all Americans.
Who is Angela Colmenero?
Colmenero has spent most of her legal career advancing extreme policies alongside several politicians leading Texas’s anti-abortion efforts, including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In 2023, as the interim Attorney General of Texas, Colmenero led the state’s defense of Texas’s three abortion bans that went into effect following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
She’s also a member of anti-abortion group, the Federalist Society, and has defended some of Texas’s most aggressive voting and redistricting measures against claims that they discriminated against Black and Hispanic voters.
Colmenero’s record also includes attacks on other fundamental rights, including voting rights.
Dive Deeper: Angela Colmenero’s Anti-Repro Record
Defended Texas’ Abortion Bans
- As the interim Attorney General of Texas in 2023, Colmenero led the state’s defense of Texas’s three abortion bans that went into effect following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
- The bans included a statewide total ban on abortion care which criminalized providers with up to 99 years in prison, the state’s pre-Roe total criminal ban, and a bounty-hunter ban on abortion care before people know they are pregnant, enforced through a private right of action that can be brought by any private citizen.
- Several women were denied abortion care during medical crises because of Texas’ bans and two Texas-based obstetrician-gynecologists challenged the bans, arguing that the medical exceptions in the laws were unclear.
- Colmenero and her team appealed a lower court decision that initially sided with the patients and doctors to the Texas Supreme Court. In 2024, the Texas Supreme Court sided with Colmenero and refused to affirm if or when abortion care can be legally provided in medical emergencies under the state’s bans.
Support for Anti-Abortion Judicial Nominee
Colmenero signed letters to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, one of President Trump’s anti-abortion nominees to the Supreme Court.
Affiliations with Anti-Reproductive Freedom Organizations
Colmenero has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2018.
The Federalist Society is a well-funded, conservative legal network that exerts influence through law schools, professional networks, and conferences, and over the judiciary at large. It serves as a talent and influence pipeline for the conservative movement to cultivate young lawyers and then pack the courts with judges who will execute their unpopular agenda, which includes undermining reproductive freedom.
Career
- Bachelor of Arts, The University of Texas at Austin, 2001
- Juris Doctor, Notre Dame Law School, 2004
- Law Clerk to the Hon. A. Joe Fish, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 2004-2005
- Associate, Jones Day, 2005-2007
- Associate, Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox, LLP, 2007-2009
- Office of the Texas Attorney General, 2009-2019
- Assistant Attorney General, General Litigation Division, 2009-2011, 2012-2014
- Assistant Attorney General, Special Litigation Division, 2011-2012
- Deputy Chief, Special Litigation Division, 2014-2015
- Chief, General Litigation Division, 2015-2018
- Office of the Governor of Texas, 2018-2023
- Deputy General Counsel, 2018-2021
- Principal Deputy General Counsel, 2021-2023
- Deputy Chief of Staff, 2023
- Provisional Attorney General of Texas, Office of the Texas Attorney General, 2023
- Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Governor of Texas, 2023-Present
Angela Colmenero's Record Against Democracy and Voting Rights
Across nearly a decade, Colmenero repeatedly defended Texas’s most aggressive voting and redistricting measures against claims that they discriminated against Black and Hispanic voters.
- During her time at the Office of the Texas Attorney General, Colmenero defended Texas’s strict photo-ID law against a legal challenge brought by the NAACP, the Department of Justice, and individual minority voters, who argued it intentionally discriminated against Black and Hispanic voters under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The en banc Fifth Circuit found the law had a discriminatory effect and forced Texas to allow voters who did not meet the strict ID requirements to be able to cast regular ballots by signing a sworn affidavit.
- In long-running Texas redistricting litigation, Colmenero defended Texas’s 2011 and 2013 legislative maps against allegations of racial gerrymandering that diluted Hispanic and Black voting strength. In 2018, the Supreme Court largely ruled in Texas’s favor, holding that the lower court had wrongly presumed discriminatory intent.
The Big Picture
Trump has a deeply troubling track record of nominating judges who oppose reproductive freedom, reflecting the Trump administration’s vision for courts that are hostile to the basic reproductive rights and freedoms of all Americans.
Decisions made by these judges will impact our health, access to care, and daily lives, and we deserve to know whether these nominees are committed to fairness and equality under the law or if they are beholden to an ideology or agenda opposing reproductive freedom.
Citations and Sources
- Angela Colmanero, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
- Zurawski v. Texas, D-1-GN-23-000968 (353rd Dist. Ct., Travis County May 31, 2024); see also Defendants’ Notice of Accelerated Interlocutory Appeal, Zurawski v. Texas, D-1-GN-23-000968 (353rd Dist. Ct., Travis County Aug. 4, 2023).
- + Read More
- See Center for Reproductive Rights, Seeking Clarity on Emergency Exceptions to Texas’s Abortion Bans: Zurawski v. State of Texas (last updated Feb. 11, 2026), available at https://reproductiverights.org/cases/zurawski-v-state-texas/.
- Zurawski v. Texas, D-1-GN-23-000968 (353rd Dist. Ct., Travis County May 31, 2024); see also Defendants’ Notice of Accelerated Interlocutory Appeal, Zurawski v. Texas, D-1-GN-23-000968 (353rd Dist. Ct., Travis County Aug. 4, 2023).
- State v. Zurawski, 690 S.W.3d 644 (Tex. 2024).
- Angela Colmanero, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, P. 11, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
- Angela Colmanero, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, P. 6, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
- Veasey v. Abbott, 830 F.3d 216 (5th Cir. 2016) (en banc).
- Perez v. Perry, No. 5:11-cv-00360 (W.D. Tex.); Texas v. United States, 887 F. Supp. 2d 133 (D.D.C. 2012); Abbott v. Perez, 585 U.S. 579 (2018).
Fight back against anti-abortion extremism with us
Add Your Name: We Need Court Reform!
Sign the petition in support of court reform efforts, including court expansion and investigations into ethics of justices, to restore the legitimacy of our judicial system.
Commit to Being a Repro Freedom Advocate
It's going to take all of us to win back our freedom. Add your name today to commit to fighting for reproductive freedom.
Tell Congress to Protect Our Reproductive Freedom
Send a message now to tell your U.S. Senators and Representative that reproductive freedom is a top priority for you—and that you're part of a nationwide movement that votes.
Further Reading on Anti-Abortion Extremism
Profiles Activism 101
Michael Hendershot’s Record Against Reproductive Freedom
Profiles Activism 101
Benjamin Flowers’ Record Against Reproductive Freedom
Profiles Activism 101