Fort Worth council candidates take center stage to offer differing visions for city’s future

While voter turnout in Fort Worth city elections remains historically low, more than 250 people filled a university ballroom Wednesday to hear from candidates casting themselves as the faces best suited to represent residents on City Council.

The Fort Worth Report hosted the April 16 forum at Texas Wesleyan University in collaboration with KERA, SteerFW, Arcpoint Studios and the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County. Candidates for Fort Worth mayor and City Council Districts 5, 6 and 9 answered a series of questions about their priorities, visions for the city, and how they would approach the role of council member in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities.

From homelessness and infrastructure improvements to partisanship and public transit, candidates laid out their platforms for taking on some of the greatest challenges facing Fort Worth.

Five candidates for District 5’s open seat were present: Marvin Jose Diaz, a financial controller; Mary Kelleher, an assistant court coordinator for Tarrant County and a Tarrant Regional Water District board member; Michael Moore, a pastor at New Bethel Complete in Christ Church in Fort Worth; Deborah Peoples, a business strategist and former chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party; and Bob Willoughby, a frequent speaker at Fort Worth City Council meetings and a sharp critic of the council.

Kenneth “Ken” Bowens Jr., owner and managing partner for Cowtown Enterprises, was absent because of a last-minute emergency.

Candidates differed on what they see as the biggest issues for District 5, pointing fingers to a decline in childhood literacy, a lack of grocery stores, declining infrastructure and the current council’s alleged lack of accountability. The district covers a large section of east Fort Worth, including the historic Stop Six neighborhood.

A common theme through the forum was District 5’s need for development — both in economic and infrastructure terms, although candidates varied in priorities. Some prioritized bringing businesses to the area, while others called for replacements to aging roads and pipes.

Peoples and Moore both emphasized a “boots on the ground” approach to their candidacy. Peoples said her campaign has employed frequent door knocking and community conversations, while Moore said that he’s most in tune with what residents want because of his current work on the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Advisory Board and for his neighborhood association.

Kelleher pointed to her experience pushing for transparency within the water district, which earned headlines in 2021 for a leadership scandal involving its outgoing leader. Willoughby was critical of Bivens’ decade-plus tenure on the council, saying she shut out opposing voices like his own.

All agreed the district is increasingly diverse, with Kelleher saying each neighborhood needs to be worked with individually to meet their needs. In 2023, the district was 38.5% Black, 26.1% Hispanic or Latino, and 24.8% white.

Diaz said he has learned a lot about the district over his month campaigning. He’s heard residents’ concerns about human trafficking, homelessness and streets, and he sees those as top issues to “peel away” at.

Three candidates for District 6’s open seat attended the forum: Daryl Davis II, executive pastor of Inspiring Temple of Praise Church in Fort Worth and Crowley ISD school board president; Mia Hall, executive director of strategic recruitment for Fort Worth ISD and a school board member for Crowley ISD; and Adrian Smith, a lifelong Fort Worth resident and frequent speaker at Fort Worth City Council meetings. Marshall Hobbs, a Como resident and government professor at Arlington Baptist College and Tarrant County College, was absent.

Davis and Hall both applauded incumbent Jared Williams’ efforts to prioritize neighborhood voices in the southwest Fort Worth district. They stressed that listening would be a cornerstone of their time on council. Davis said he wants to be “present” for all residents, and he pointed to his campaign’s listening sessions as examples for how he already has been.

Hall said she wanted to take community engagement “a step further,” and direct conversations with residents toward finding solutions.

Smith spent the forum advocating for a need for a change in the current City Council establishment, which he believes has shunned community voices and encouraged unwanted development.

Candidates shared mixed feelings toward Williams’ controversial support of a data center development, which the incumbent approved last year amid vocal community disapproval. WIlliams cited the tax value it brought to the city, ringing in at $750 million.

Davis said he knows he needs to have an eye on items with high taxable values, as they help fund good schools in districts like Crowley ISD. But at the same time, the community needs to have a place at the table so consensus can be built, he said.

“It’s important to understand that we cannot lose sight of neighborhood voices,” he said. “There is a way in always finding consensus. We have to always keep the ‘main thing’ the ‘main thing,’ but we have to allow everyone to have a seat at the table.”

Similarly, Hall said, she’d never ignore residents’ concerns, and she’d try to cooperate with voters on controversial issues.

“We have to listen to the will of our citizens and the people who inhabit those neighborhoods,” she said. “If you’re going to have to blatantly disregard what the will of the citizens are — you don’t have to do that, because you can ask for a continuance, and we can continue those requests until we can find some type of consensus.”

Smith said Williams broke with voters in approving the data center and other unwanted development in the district.

“I don’t want a repeat of the incumbent, which I feel we would get with either the individuals to my right,” Smith said, looking toward his two opponents.

All three candidates for District 9, which covers downtown, the West 7th district and the Near Southside, attended the forum: Elizabeth Beck, an attorney who has represented District 9 since 2021; Jenny Stewart, a State Farm insurance agent with background in business organizations; and Michael Raulerson, a construction worker.

Throughout the forum, Beck pointed to reduced crime in the West 7th entertainment district and a focus on bringing new attractions to the district as reasons why she should be reelected.

“Downtown is an entertainment district, it’s our central business district, but it’s also a neighborhood, which makes it incredibly complicated to navigate,” Beck said. “There’s been a lot of discussion about what’s left downtown, but what I like to focus on is what we’re adding to downtown, and that’s almost a billion dollars worth of investment in the southeast corner alone.”

Stewart said she would bring a business-centered approach to the role, advocating for a need to make commercial development easier and partner with private entities to address issues like crime and housing affordability. She was critical of partisan division on the council.

“I want to make City Council more collaborative and less contentious,” Stewart said. “We have gotten away from our spirit of cooperation, and I want to bring that spirit of cooperation back to the City Council.”

All candidates support Panther Island, the economic development effort enabled by the $1.16 billion Central City federal flood control project set to reroute the Trinity River and create hundreds of acres of waterfront development near downtown. They cited the opportunities it brings the city’s economy and tourism. Beck said the city should be “intimately involved” in the project and seek out the right developers.

Raulerson said he wants to invest more in long-term solutions to issues like homelessness and crime. He wants to encourage a “soft on crime approach” and expand public transportation.

“It’s much more expensive to put homeless people in prisons than it is to actually build publicly owned housing to help members of the working class community that are on the verge of losing their homes,” he said.

Six mayoral candidates were present at the forum: Alyson Kennedy, a member of the Socialist Workers Party; Josh Lucas, community ministries coordinator at Broadway Baptist Church; Jeremy Labelle, a Fort Worth native who works in landscaping; Lawrence Walker, an entrepreneur who founded consulting company PCU; Chris Wood, a student with multiple master’s degrees; and Millennium Anton C. Woods Jr., a consultant who said he was running to “audit” the local government.

Incumbent Mayor Mattie Parker, a Republican who has held the position since 2021, and candidate Donnell Ballard were absent.

Candidates differed widely in political beliefs and reasons for running. Some, like Walker and Kennedy, said they looked beyond political parties, and they believe the majority of residents aren’t represented by either side of the aisle. The political parties of council candidates do not appear on the ballot.

Others, like Wood and Labelle, said City Council needs a unifier who can bridge between party lines, and they believe they’re the best equipped to do so.

Lucas, a Democrat, said the current council was right-leaning, despite his view that most Fort Worth residents were Democrats. He said the alleged dissonance is a result of too much money being involved in council races, along with too little voter participation.

‘Parker is widely expected to win reelection thanks to multiple incumbent advantages, a key one being fundraising. Parker secured $301,654 between Jan. 1 and March 24, adding to her war chest of $546,970.

In contrast, Lucas, the next highest-fundraiser, raised a reported $3,152 since January and has spent $2,418 on campaign events and advertising.

All candidates supported expanding public transportation, though Kennedy and Woods said transportation is linked to broader issues like affordable housing, which they felt federal and state governments should be more involved in.

Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. 

Disclosure: 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.