The two Republican candidates still competing for the Denton County Precinct 4 commissioner nomination filed their campaign reports Monday, showing a heated runoff for the primary runoff on May 26.
It has been a costly race for Valerie Roehrs, who has spent close to a half-million dollars to self-fund her race against David Wylie, as well as the two other candidates who were eliminated in the March 3 primary.
The runoff will decide which GOP candidate will face Democrat Stephanie Draper in the Nov. 3 election. Early voting started Monday and continues through Friday.
On Monday, Roehrs reported $1,800 in total political contributions, $220,985 in political expenditures, no contributions maintained and $338,651 in outstanding loans.
Wylie reported $69,186 in total political contributions, $77,275 in total political expenditures, $10,770 in contributions maintained and $2,200 in outstanding loans, according to his report filed Monday.
“I don’t see why someone should pay for me to do a job that is a paid position. It is a job,” Roehrs said of her campaign funding. “I see it as giving back. … I plan to arrive at this seat owing no one and beholden to no developers or special interest.”
Roehrs’ latest report lists her top campaign donations as $1,000 from IEA Inc., a Dallas engineering firm, and $500 from lawyer Dean Popps of McLean, Virginia.
Wylie’s top monetary contributions in his latest finance report come from donors tied to development: $25,000 from Tommy Cansler, CEO of TCCI Land Development; $25,000 from Terrance Jobe, CEO of ADI Communities; $5,209 from Roy Magno, partner in development consulting firm T. Wilson & Associates and a former Aubrey mayor; and $5,000 from T. Wilson CEO Kirk Wilson, a former Denton County judge.
Roehrs’ neighbor Tina Brewer, who is part of an ongoing civil lawsuit against the Roehrses, also donated $1,042 to Wylie’s campaign. In the suit, which dates to 2021, Brewer and her husband, R. Wright Brewer, claim Roehrs’ husband placed a burnt Tesla vehicle along their property line.
The heated race has also led to questions about both candidates, from the Roehrses’ homestead exemption in Cooke County to Wylie’s 2018 issue with the Texas Ethics Commission over campaign reports — similar to what Roehrs is currently facing.
Campaign finance issue
Three days after the early March 3 Republican primary, Roehrs filed her January and February reports, which were due before the election. She called it “purely an oversight” and pointed out that she is a first-time candidate.
Brewer filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission over Roehrs’ late campaign filings.
In her March 6 campaign reports, Roehrs reported $336,651 in outstanding loans and $181,776 in expenditures and $5,593 in unitemized expenditures between Jan. 1 and Feb. 21.
For comparison, Wylie reported $2,200 in outstanding loans and $18,184 in expenditures between Jan. 1 and Feb. 21, according to his Feb. 28 campaign report.
“At that time, I was balancing early voting, had a very active campaign,” Roehrs said. “We had a serious family emergency in Seattle and a subsequent death.”
Wylie said it’s important for candidates to file their reports on time “so the voters know what is going on.” He called filing campaign finance reports “the nature and definition of transparency.”
But he is no stranger to filing late campaign finance reports.
In February 2018, the 53rd District Court in Travis County ruled against Wylie in regards to $2,500 in civil penalties from the Texas Ethics Commission for not filing semiannual reports and a 30-day pre-election report, according to a 2018 court document.
Reached Monday, Wylie said he was never notified about the case involving his 2016 race for chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party. He lost the race and added that he didn’t learn about the issue until two years later, when he became an officer for the state Republican Party.
“All fines were paid and court costs and lawyer fees by me in full as soon as I was notified,” Wylie said. “I was unaware that you needed to file a campaign closing report. Once notified, I resolved the issue.”
Campaign woes
The question about the Roehrses’ homestead exemption is related to Valerie Roehrs’ husband, Michael Roehrs, and his homestead exemption on property in Cooke County.
In Texas, a homestead exemption generally includes the house and land used as the owner’s principal residence on Jan. 1 of the tax year, according to the state comptroller’s office.
Texas Election Code requires that a county commissioner simply be a U.S. citizen, a Texas resident for 12 months and a district (or precinct) resident for six months.
In a text message over the weekend, Valerie Roehrs pointed out that her family has lived in the Argyle area for 20 years. Her children attended Argyle ISD schools.
“We cannot homestead Argyle ranch. ... We own multiple properties with homes,” Roehrs wrote. During the season, she wrote, “Michael stays at his Muenster farm” because of the very “long drive to Argyle.”
Roehrs also has an ongoing civil lawsuit that involves her neighbor Tina Brewer, although there has been no activity on the case since a hearing in May 2025.
Brewer said she and her husband filed a lawsuit against the Roehrses in January 2021 after Michael Roehrs allegedly placed junk, such as a burnt Tesla vehicle, along the Brewers’ property line, which led to a nuisance dispute.
In a message Monday, Brewer said the lawsuit arose “after they alerted the county that the Roehrses were dumping hundreds of trucks of material without a permit. In response, they piled junk on the property line.”
Valerie Roehrs said they used the Right to Farm Act as part of their defense. Such laws protect qualifying farmers and ranchers from nuisance lawsuits.
The judge hasn’t issued a written final judgment yet, but Roehrs told the Record-Chronicle that the jury “found us innocent” and that the Brewers would have to pay her attorney fees.
Roehrs made the same claim to Current Revolt in a report on Sunday. The Texas political news outlet, which describes itself as “right-leaning,” reported Roehrs is attempting to collect $400,000 in attorney fees from her neighbors.
However, according to an August 2024 court document, the jury actually found that both the Brewers and the Roehrses’ company, MVR Ranch, had trespassed each other and didn’t award any damages.
Brewer said she and her husband were trespassed over an easement that she claimed Roehrs had initially granted them when they were friends, while MVR Ranch was trespassed over the junk coming onto the Brewers’ property.
On Monday, Leslie Sanderson, an attorney who’s a partner with the Brewers’ attorney, Mark Hill, confirmed that the judge held a hearing in May 2025 and denied the Roehrses’ request for attorney fees and that the jury had found both parties had trespassed each other.
On Tuesday morning, Roehrs responded to questions from the Record-Chronicle. She said that because the Brewers are neighboring landowners, they can see directly into their “machine shed whenever the large doors are opening — which is often.”
“They’ve been making the same allegation to DCAD for years, trying to negate our ag operations. They could easily provide photos which they don’t, and almost every year I do — tractors, hay, loads of machinery and crap,” Roehrs said in her statement Tuesday morning, calling R. Wright Brewer “a constant bully.”
The Roehrses said the Right to Farm Act question was included on the jury charge, only for that question to not be included in the jury’s responses to questions in the August 2024 court document.
The jury found that neither MVR Ranch nor the Brewers had intentionally nor negligently caused a nuisance.
Valerie Roehrs called the trespass a technical one “based solely on a single piece of insulation that had blown onto the Brewers’ property — and then awarded zero damages.”
“We prevailed on the Right to Farm Act statutory defense,” Roehrs restated in her statement Tuesday morning. “By statute, an award of attorney’s fees to the prevailing agricultural operator is mandatory, not discretionary. Despite this, the court (#481) later ruled that the Roehrs were not entitled to attorney’s fees on the ground of ‘surprise,’ asserting that the plaintiffs had not been given advance notice that attorney’s fees would be sought. Final judgment has not yet been entered.”
In a prepared statement, Tina Brewer said Roehrs showed “troubling inconsistencies” as a fiscal conservative running for county commissioner.
“She campaigns from their 40 acres she calls a ranch in the Bartonville area, while her husband maintains a homestead in Muenster, Texas,” Brewer wrote. “She did not declare their actual residence — built in a metal building — thus avoiding property taxes on it."
The Roehrses have two barns and a mobile home on the 40-acre property in Argyle, according to Denton County Central Appraisal District records.
Roehrs said Tuesday morning that they’ve been living in the mobile home since they sold a nearby house about 10 years ago.
The appraisal district recently assessed the 1,332-square-foot mobile home at $10,953 improvement value, a 1,440-square-foot barn at $3,084 improvement value and the 9,250-square-foot barn at average condition for $146,272 improvement value.
The land’s market value is $3.4 million while the homesite is only $36,085, according to the appraisal district.
They received $3.365 million in a special use exclusion for agriculture and a net appraisal at $155,059 in 2026.
Denton Central Appraisal Chief Appraiser Don Spencer said that in general, appraisers will do their best to assess a property if improvements have been made but rely on aerial footage to determine if square footage has changed from an addition, for example, or if any other noticeable improvements were made.
They don’t typically get out of their vehicles to check private property unless they are invited, Spencer said.
Spencer said the appraisers will never force entry on a property and won’t go on private property unless invited because of safety reasons. Instead, they will utilize other resources to determine a property’s value for tax purposes.
“Everybody wants everyone to pay their fair share,” Spencer said.
Brewer is apparently one of those people.
“Roehrs has misrepresented the case, claiming victory and entitlement to substantial attorney’s fees — when neither party received monetary damages and the judge ruled she is not entitled to legal fees,” Brewer said in her statement on Monday. “We believe she is running to curry favor with civil appellate courts, as she has indicated.”
Endorsements
Since the March 3 primary, Wylie has been posting endorsement after endorsement from current and former Republican leaders, including Denton County Judge Andy Eads and Brent Hagenbuch and Tan Parker, both Republican state senators. Hagenbuch is the former chair of the Denton County Republican Party.
Several current and former nonpartisan elected officials have also endorsed Wylie for Precinct 4 commissioner, including Steve Dixon and Larry Lipscomb, both former mayors of Flower Mound, and Mike Gwartney, a council member from Double Oak, Tomas Mendoza, a council member from Justin and Alexandra Holmes, a council member from Northlake.
The Denton County Conservative Coalition, a political action committee in Argyle, also endorsed Wylie, calling him “the best candidate” for the job over the weekend while also claiming interference from what the PAC called “out-of-state dark money.”
“A dirty trick from out-of-state dark money removed DAVID WYLIE’s name and replaced it with Valerie Roehr’s on a look alike website (created last week) and in texts by a super PAC created 5/11,” the PAC wrote in a social media post.
On Friday, Roehrs said she hasn’t been seeking endorsements.
“It’s in the same bucket as being beholden to special interests,” Roehrs said.
CHRISTIAN McPHATE can be reached at 940-220-4299 and cmcphate@dentonrc.com.
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