Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has amassed nearly $50,000 in contributions for his reelection campaign, according to a campaign finance report filed Jan. 16.
Waybourn is the sole Republican candidate for the position. Two Democratic candidates — Indya Murray and Patrick Moses — are competing for the party’s nomination in the March primary. The winner of that contest will face Waybourn on the general ballot in November.
Thus far, Waybourn has vastly outraised his Democratic counterparts. From July through December 2023, the incumbent sheriff reported $48,632 in contributions. His top donors were local towing companies JDB Towing, LLC, and A-1 Wrecker Svc, LLC. JDB gave Waybourn $13,000, and A-1 gave him $8,625.
Don Woodard Jr., president of Western Commerce Group, gave Waybourn $5,000. Woodard Jr. has previously contributed to the campaigns of County Judge Tim O’Hare and Fort Worth City Council candidates Pamela Boggess and Italia De La Cruz.
Waybourn also reported accepting $2,000 from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, which became embroiled in a scandal last year after its then-president hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes on Oct. 6, 2023. State Republicans split on whether to reject contributions from the PAC, and locally, most Tarrant candidates who’d previously received funding from the group remained quiet on whether they’d accept future contributions. The PAC made a donation to Waybourn on Oct. 23, 2023, according to its own campaign finance filings.
Moses raised the second-highest amount of the three candidates, at $2,764. His largest donation came from personal injury lawyer Domingo Garcia, who gave $1,000.
Moses also received 12 $100 donations. Among those donors was Katherine Godby, who serves as chairwoman of the local activist group the Justice Network. Members of the group frequently speak at Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings about conditions inside the county’s jail. In August, they traveled to Austin to ask for more state oversight of the jail.
Six donors gave Moses $59 each, in reference to the 59 deaths that had taken place in the Tarrant County Jail from 2019 to when he began his campaign in December. The total number of deaths has now risen to 60, after a man diedinside the jail Jan. 9.
Murray reported $100 in contributions. Gregory Finney, a law enforcement officer at The University of Texas at Arlington, was her highest donor, at $50.
Murray’s average donation was $33, Moses’ was $111 and Waybourn’s was $1,868. Murray had three unique donors, Moses had 22, and Waybourn had 26.
The sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer for the county and earns $217,952 annually. The sheriff’s office is responsible for operating county jails, coordinating with other law enforcement agencies and law enforcement in unincorporated areas.
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. Emily Wolf is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org or @_wolfemily
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