Republican Tarrant County Commissioner Matt Krause put it plainly at a public hearing in Hurst Wednesday night: He supports redistricting because he wants another Republican on the commissioners court.
In April, Krause and his fellow Republican commissioners made the unusual move to redraw the court’s precinct map in the middle of the decade. Democrats say Republicans are trying to gerrymander the county, or manipulate the maps to make it easier for Republicans to win. All five proposed maps would make Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons’ Precinct 2 in Arlington more Republican-friendly.
Wednesday’s meeting at the Gary Fickes Northeast Courthouse in Hurst was the fourth and final public hearing about redistricting, and about 200 people packed the meeting room.
Krause's opening remarks made his stance on the issue clear.
"My entire goal, my entire purpose, my entire intention, is to allow Tarrant County to go from three Republicans, two Democrats on the commissioners court, to four Republicans, one Democrat,” he said, drawing cheers and boos from the crowd.
Redistricting usually happens after the U.S. Census every 10 years. The process is meant to balance population between political districts, but it's intensely political, and both parties use it to their advantage. Harris County’s Democratic commissioners drew a favorable map for themselves in 2021.
A slim majority of the residents who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting were in favor of redistricting. That contrasted with two previous meetings in Arlington and Fort Worth, where people opposing redistricting seemed to make up the biggest contingent.
Republican commissioners have every right to redraw the maps and grow their majority, supporters argued.
"I hope these maps are gerrymandered,” Republican Tarrant County District Clerk Tom Wilder said.
Tarrant County resident Glenn Davidson pointed out gerrymandering is nothing new. The first gerrymandered district was adopted in 1812, in Massachusetts — “which is today a very blue state,” he said.
“The idea of getting partisan advantage is an integral part of our political system, and I support what we need to do,” Davidson said.
Democrats contend that the maps are racially discriminatory, shoving a disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic voters into a reshaped Precinct 1.
Racial discrimination in mapmaking is illegal under the Voting Rights Act. That could look like packing a racial group into one district to deny them influence in others or spreading them across multiple districts to dilute their voting power.
There is no demographic data for the proposed precincts available on the county’s website. Democratic county commissioners say they haven’t seen any numbers, either.
The proposed maps do appear to shave off areas with high Black populations from Precinct 2 and put them into Precinct 1. That’s based on the proposed maps and a map showing concentrations of Black residents, compiled during the county’s last redistricting process in 2021.
The new maps will weaken the voice of people of color on the commissioners court, defense attorney and former Democratic Tarrant County district attorney candidate Tiffany Burks said.
“When gerrymandering happens, it is us, the people, who lose,” she said. “Rigged maps make elections less competitive and it makes people feel their votes don't matter. That is the dangerous part: voter apathy."
Joe Palmer told the crowd he votes Republican and sees no reason to redraw the maps when Republicans already have a 3-2 majority on the commissioners court.
“This might wake the Democrats up to the extent that they will take other seats. We're in a midterm coming up," he said.
Others said Tarrant County needs to stay conservative to avoid what they see as the pitfalls of living in blue states.
Ruth Ray, chief of staff for County Judge Tim O’Hare, pointed to the people moving from California to Texas, citing "sky-high housing costs, energy bills, regulatory overreach and public safety failures.”
“Why would someone leave a location where you can go to SeaWorld, Disneyland, the beach, and a ski resort in the same week without ever driving more than two and a half hours? The answer is leadership failure," she said.
Texas’ other four biggest counties — Harris, Dallas, Bexar and Travis — tend to vote blue. Not Tarrant County, which political watchers consider a “mini battleground state.”
President Donald Trump won Tarrant County in 2024 but lost it in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden. Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to achieve that since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Colin Allred and Beto O’Rourke won Tarrant County against Republican Ted Cruz in 2024 and 2018.
Republicans hold every countywide office in Tarrant. The Tarrant County Commissioners court has a 3-2 Republican majority, but it was 4-1 until Democrat Devan Allen unseated the incumbent Republican in Precinct 2, Andy Nguyen, in 2018.
A vote on a new map is expected at the commissioners court meeting June 3.
After the meeting, Krause said he could not say anything that would jeopardize any litigation that comes out of the redistricting process. When asked for his response to people’s concerns about gerrymandering, he would not answer directly but said he heard their comments.
“I really appreciate them coming out and sharing those. I appreciated all the feedback. We're going to take that in and use that as our deliberation on, do you go forward with the map, do you not go forward of the map," he said.
Simmons, who could be at risk of losing her seat if her Precinct 2 gets redrawn, has said she is considering a lawsuit if one of the new maps is adopted.
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