The Tarrant County precinct significantly redrawn to favor GOP candidates during last year’s high-profile redistricting of the commissioners court is one of the most packed races on the March 3 primary ballot.
Two Republicans and three Democrats are seeking their parties’ nominations to represent the Precinct 2 seat left open by Commissioner Alisa Simmons, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for the countywide judge seat on the commissioners court.
The Democratic candidates are Amanda Arizola, co-founder of the nonprofit CoACT North Texas; Gabe Rivas, a county staffer in Simmons’ precinct office; and Jared Williams, who served two terms on Fort Worth City Council representing the southwest part of the city and the historically Black neighborhood of Como.
In the Republican primary is Lucila Seri, a party precinct chair, and Tony Tinderholt, who served 12 years in the Texas House representing much of Arlington and part of Fort Worth.
The March 3 primaries will determine which Republican and Democrat face off in the November general election to represent Precinct 2.
Last summer, Precinct 2 was the focus of a mid-decade redistricting. The GOP majority of the court pushed the effort forward saying it was aimed at ensuring more Republican wins.
The effort was widely criticized as an attempt to racially gerrymander the county and dilute the voting power of Black and Latino communities.
The newly shaped precinct covers southeastern and southwestern Tarrant County, including parts of Arlington, Benbrook, Burleson, Crowley, Dalworthington Gardens, Edgecliff Village, Everman, Forest Hill, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Kennedale, Mansfield and Pantego.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court is made up of four commissioners, who each represent a portion of the county, and the judge, who represents Tarrant overall. Voters may look up which county precinct they live in here.
As the county’s governing body, commissioners set Tarrant’s annual budget and property tax rates, manage local elections, and maintain county infrastructure such as roads, bridges and facilities.
The Fort Worth Report asked all candidates to respond to a questionnaire intended to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box. Candidate responses are available here:
- Amanda Arizola
- Gabe Rivas
- Lucila Seri
- Tony Tinderholt (did not respond)
- Jared Williams
Who are the Republican candidates?
Less than 24 hours after the precinct map was adopted last summer, Tinderholt, 55, launched his campaign for Precinct 2 after announcing that he would step down from his seat in the Texas House at the end of his term in January.
Tinderholt publicly supported the redistricting, arguing the court’s precinct map needed to change to reflect Republican voting power. President Donald Trump won Tarrant County with 52% of votes during his reelection bid in 2024 after voters narrowly supported President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
“Trump won this county, and he won it overwhelmingly, and I think that the county should be represented that way,” Tinderholt said last summer.
Tinderholt — who touts a slate of endorsements from elected GOP officials at the county, state and federal levels — is known as a staunch conservative unafraid of confronting GOP colleagues to further conservative legislation. He did not return a request for comment or participate in the Fort Worth Report’s GOP candidate forum earlier this month.
Seri, a 42-year-old immigrant from Argentina, notes she was one of few local Republicans to publicly speak against the redistricting effort, arguing that maps created with “outdated” census data may not result in GOP wins at the ballot box.
She calls herself a “constitutional conservative,” adding that she doesn’t agree with what she called Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare’s strict management of the commissioners court. If elected, she would support increasing the number of times commissioners meet per month and increase opportunities for residents to participate, she said.
As Tarrant County’s political makeup shifts, the outcome of the Precinct 2 race could “stop the pendulum” of politics and shift the commissioners court’s focus back to governing, Seri said.
“This pendulum is going too much to the right now, and this election could take it too much to the left,” Seri said.
The nearly $3,000 she’s raised for her campaign pales in comparison to Tinderholt’s, but she’s proud of that. Seri knows she’s the underdog, but said she’ll be worth the gamble to voters.
“There’s a difference between paying somebody and somebody that does it because of the passion,” Seri said. “You’re gonna get a lot more from the passionate person.”
Tinderholt entered the race with more than $150,000 in hand and brought his war chest funds to nearly $170,000 as of late January, according to campaign finance reports.
In total, Tinderholt’s campaign donations more than quadruple all other candidates’ — Republican and Democrat — combined. He also has spent more than twice as much as the other four combined. He maintains about $120,000 in cash as of late January heading into the primaries.
Who are the Democratic candidates?
Although many political observers note the race seems stacked in Tinderholt’s favor, the upset in last month’s runoff election for the Texas Senate District 9 election gives Democratic candidates hope, they said.
The north Fort Worth district, held by Republicans for the last 30-plus years, elected Democrat Taylor Rehmet with a 13-point lead.
Tarrant County Republicans at the state and local level hailed the loss as a “wake up call” as Democrats seek to capitalize on the monument and flip the county blue in November.
The Precinct 2 seat has been Democratic-held since 2018.
Arizola, Rivas and Williams each emphasized the importance of maintaining Precinct 2 as a Democratic seat but also believe it’s important to elect a person of color. All three denounced the redistricting effort as disenfranchising voters of color. Both state and federal courts sided with the county on now-dismissed lawsuits seeking to bar the map’s implementation on the basis that they were racially motivated.
Williams, 36, entered the Precinct 2 race as Simmons’ choice for successor after resigning from Fort Worth City Council last year to focus on his family, faith ministry and hunger reduction advocacy. While on the council, he advocated for raising the minimum wage for city employees to $18 per hour and supported expanding green space in his district.
It wasn’t his intention to seek the county seat when he resigned from council, Williams said, but he felt called to the race after watching redistricting play out last summer. He’s running to “preserve our representation” in Precinct 2, after hundreds of residents unsuccessfully advocated against the adopted map.
“What we have seen locally and across the country is politicians in power whose leadership style centers on authoritarianism instead of on a representative democracy,” Williams said.
Rivas, 37, has worked for Simmons since her term began. It’s disappointing not to have her endorsement, he said, adding that he believes Simmons is “doing what’s best for her campaign” for county judge.
A lifelong Arlington resident, Rivas aims to better represent the city, particularly the east portion that he said isn’t prioritized in the precinct. Although Williams secured more endorsements, Rivas argues that Precinct 2 would be better represented by someone embedded in Arlington, rather than the southwest Fort Worth area added to the precinct during redistricting.
“A very emerging problem with Tarrant County is that there’s a disconnect between the county and the people it serves,” Rivas said. “That requires not only more transparency in what the county is doing and how its budget works and what its services are but also requires some proactive outreach.”
Meanwhile, Arizola, 45, said Precinct 2 should remain a woman-held seat. She touts her six years of experience on the JPS Health Network board of managers as evidence that she understands “big budgets” and can fight for communities while delivering results.
If elected, she plans to bring a no-nonsense but compassionate approach to the commissioners court, while focusing on issues within her jurisdiction and authority as a commissioner.
“Right now, people really just want civility,” Arizola said. “They don’t like the theatrics. They don’t like feeling unheard. They want their voices heard, and it’s their right.”
Of the three Democrats on the ballot, Arizola has raised the most cash and accepted the most nonmonetary contributions, including consulting for her campaign, according to campaign finance reports. She reported spending about $7,000 and accepting more than $28,000 of in-kind contributions.
Williams is the only candidate in the race to have taken out personal loans, with a little less than $4,000 outstanding as of late January. He has raised almost $13,000.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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