The race to represent northeast Tarrant County in the Texas House sees three Republicans and two Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in the March 3 primaries.
The Republican ballot includes Keller Mayor Armin Mizani; Fred Tate, a financial services business owner; and Zee Wilcox, a health and beauty business owner.
On the Democratic side, Cate Brennan, a retired business executive, faces Aaron Hendley, who works at a fast food restaurant.
Texas House District 98 covers Keller, Colleyville and parts of Southlake, Grapevine, Euless and Westlake. Since 2013, the seat has been held by Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who is not seeking reelection.
Voters can find out who represents them and who will be on their ballots at vote411.org. Check your registration status on the Texas Secretary of State’s website.
What are the March 3 primaries?
Voters can cast ballots in either the Democratic primary or the Republican primary.
Candidates campaign against those within their own political camps to be their party’s nominee for the Nov. 3 general election.
Whoever wins over 50% of the vote in their party’s primary gets the nomination. If no candidate receives over half the votes, a runoff election will be triggered between the top two vote-getters. A runoff, if needed, will be May 26.
On the Republican side
Mizani and Tate are focusing most of their campaigns against each other. Meanwhile, Wilcox had to go to court against the chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party to stay on the ballot.
The three candidates’ priorities range from public education reform to public safety. All three emphasize lowering or abolishing property taxes as central to their campaigns. However, they differ on how to best make housing more affordable.
Mizani and Tate have each raised more than half a million dollars mostly funded by political action committees, or PACs, pushing for and against tort reform in Texas.
Tort reform broadly refers to efforts that would make it harder to file lawsuits against corporate entities and would limit compensation for injured parties. In 2025, state lawmakers failed to pass such reforms.
Armin Mizani
The 38-year-old Keller attorney touts his track record of conservative policies over nearly 10 years on the Keller City Council, six of which he’s served as mayor.
In a survey response to the Report, Mizani noted that he led infrastructure improvements, tax-rate cuts and public safety improvements.
“As Keller’s mayor, I’ve shown what’s possible when you put conservative principles into action, and I’m ready to take that same commitment to the Texas House,” Mizani wrote in the survey.
One of Mizani’s top legislative priorities is “combating illegal immigration,” he said. He wants to support current federal deportation operations and secure the border to “be prepared for a post-Donald Trump presidency,” he wrote.
About a month after Mizani announced he would seek election to the state House, Keller City Council voted unanimously for police to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Another top priority is lowering property taxes by increasing the homestead expansion, compressing local rates and encouraging home ownership, he said.
Mizani proposed increasing public school funding by using Texas’ $29 billion surplus to help fund districts. Lawmakers approved about $100.3 billion in spending for public education over 2026 and 2027. He said this would work to lower local property tax rates.
He also wants to abolish the state’s “Robin Hood” system for schools. Essentially, the complex recapture system takes property tax revenue from districts considered property wealthy — such as Grapevine-Colleyville and Southlake — and disperses the funds elsewhere.
Read Mizani’s full survey responses here.
Mizani raised $930,779 for his campaign and took out an additional $200,000 loan, according to campaign finance reports covering July 1 through Jan. 22.
He received $312,500 from Texans for Truth and Liberty, an anti-tort reform PAC. That PAC is entirely funded by Arnold & Itkin LLP, a Dallas-based personal injury law firm that has given to the George Soros-backed First Tuesday PAC, a Democratic-aligned committee.
He received funds from many health care-related businesses, CEOs and PACs. He saw an average donation check of $3,830. Contributions from PACs or political campaigns made up about 54% of his funds raised.
Fred Tate
The 49-year-old Colleyville resident and founder of CFO Shield, which provides payroll and bookkeeping services for businesses and nonprofits, said in an email that he’s the “only candidate with a consistent conservative record, real public service experience, and a clear focus on results.”
“Tarrant County families, regardless of party, want lower costs, property tax cuts, improved public safety, and a government that is accountable to taxpayers,” Tate said.
Emphasizing his endorsement from Gov. Greg Abbott, Tate said he wants to keep government small, encourage economic growth and protect family values. He highlighted his time on the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the State Commission on Judicial Compensation and the Trinity River Authority.
Tate said he wants to push for “permanent property tax relief” by restraining how local governments spend tax dollars, eliminating a large portion of school property taxes on homes, and capping appraisals.
He considers affordability as District 98’s greatest challenge. Tate said he wants to tackle that by limiting state spending growth and cutting red tape that he says drives up housing and energy prices as well as by opposing corporate welfare.
He also wants to make Abbott’s multibillion dollar border-security initiative, Operation Lone Star, permanent, crack down on lobbying and push for greater government transparency.
Read Tate’s full survey responses here.
Tate has raised $639,327 for his campaign, about $336,203 of which came in the form of nonmonetary contributions such as for events and campaign ads, according to campaign finance reports from Aug. 13 to Jan. 22. He also took out a $30,100 loan to fund his campaign.
Tate’s biggest donor listed was the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, a committee pushing for tort reform that advertises itself as being devoted to cutting wasteful spending in the legal system and politics. It donated a reported $378,000 to Tate, about $153,000 of which was in the form of nonmonetary contributions.
The committee is largely bankrolled by billionaires, including real estate tycoon Dick Weekley and Hillwood founder Ross Perot Jr.
Tate also received about $152,959 from Matthew Brennan, a Dallas-based consultant.
Zdenka “Zee” Wilcox
Wilcox, a 48-year-old health and wellness business owner, has run a campaign criticizing the GOP establishment — and her opponents — as being corrupt and bought by special interest PACs.
Her top priority is increasing transparency in the judicial system by allowing cameras in all court proceedings and putting new requirements on judges to ensure they are accountable for their decisions, she said.
“You’re gonna have to change the law. You’re gonna have to join the swamp to make, hopefully, a difference,” Wilcox said. “Otherwise, no one pays attention.”
Her passion for judicial reform is driven by her own experiences in Tarrant County family courts, during which she said she ran into corrupt judges who were bought by attorneys, she told the Report.
Another priority is revamping school performance ratings and raising academic standards to better help students who are falling behind, she said.
Wilcox also wants property tax reform.
Specifically, she wants to see school districts significantly reduce tax rates by eliminating the portion of taxes that fund schools’ maintenance and operations. She proposes replacing these with “more transparent, voter-controlled funding mechanisms.”
Read Wilcox’s full survey responses here.
Wilcox has relied entirely on individual donors for her $2,442.46 in contributions. Her top donor is Southlake resident Jessica Patterson, who is retired and donated about $1,000.
Wilcox spent about $1,237, according to campaign finance reports from Dec. 8, when she filed, to Jan. 22.
On the Democratic side
The Democratic primary has a less crowded candidate pool. Both Brennan and Hendley each reported contributions of a couple thousand dollars.
The candidates listed affordability, health care and public education as their top priorities.
They both hope that Taylor Rehmet’s Texas Senate win on Jan. 31 is a boon for Democratic success in November, even in ruby red areas like northeast Tarrant County. Rehmet securing the District 9 seat long held by the GOP made national headlines for the wide swing.
Cate Brennan
At 67, Grapevine resident Brennan said her life of advocating for Democratic policies at the federal level has prepared her for the Texas House, she told the Report.
“I’m a bit of a policy wonk,” she said, referencing her career advocating for the Affordable Care Act and other health care-related policies. She was an executive for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and Association for Vascular Access.
“Peoples’ pocketbooks, their schools and kids — that’s what matters,” she said. “I really think people are just fed up. They’ve just had enough,” she said, referencing the current GOP’s control of state and federal government.
Brennan listed her first priority as funding and improving public schools. Access to high-quality education sets the foundation for a successful life, she said. Pushing to repeal a private school voucher law would be one of her first to-dos if elected, she said, arguing the program will siphon money from public schools.
She said she wants to address the state’s affordability concerns primarily by raising the Texas minimum wage from $7.25 to $20 per hour.
Making health care more affordable is another priority, Brennan said, specifically through expanding Medicaid and fighting to lower drug costs.
Read Brennan’s full survey responses here.
Brennan has so far raised $5,418, according to campaign finance reports from Oct. 30 to Feb. 2. Her biggest donation was from Andrew Sternke, executive director of the Texas Public Education Defense Fund. She also received $375 from the Texas Majority PAC, a committee dedicated to getting Democrats elected.
Aaron Hendley
The 24-year-old Keller resident said he is in tune with the wants of his district as he knows what it’s like to suffer and financially struggle. He said he was inspired to run for office after the 2024 election when he witnessed the Texas GOP hold onto power “despite continuously selling out to corporations and betraying their constituents.”
“I couldn’t handle standing on the sidelines anymore while my neighbors and millions of other Texans continued to suffer despite doing everything right,” Hendley said.
Hendley lists “health care for all” as a top priority. His own experience with depression, autism and ADHD inspires him to push for a statewide health care coverage system that is paid for by automatic, small deductions from Texans’ paychecks, according to his website.
Regarding housing, Hendley will push to increase homestead exemptions and to increase regulation on both landlords and the home insurance industry so that price hikes and rent increases are justified, he said.
His website also mentions fully funding public schools as a priority.
Read Hendley’s full survey responses here.
Hendley did not report receiving any donations in his campaign finance reports. He reported spending $1,058 of his own money on his bid for the nomination.
What is the makeup of the Texas House?
The 150-member Texas House has 88 Republican seats and 62 Democratic seats.
In November, all seats are on the ballot.
Republicans have held control of the House since 2002. State representatives serve two-year terms and have no term limits.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
