Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare and Precinct 2 Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons dominated their respective parties' primaries Tuesday.
O’Hare, the Republican county judge running for reelection, received almost 88% of the votes (116,746) with all voting centers reporting in unofficial results. Robert Buker garnered 12% of the votes (16,527).
Democratic candidate Simmons received almost 62% of the votes (105,177) while Millenium Anton Woods, Jr., with 12% (21,453). The democratic primary ballot also showed U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey receiving 26% (44,809) of the votes, although he dropped out of the race in December.
The results point to an O’Hare-Simmons election in November for the county judge seat that could be one of the most crucial races in Tarrant County.
“Whoever wins this race is going to have even more power because the size of the city is growing,” said Brent Boyea, political professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“But also, just the degree of polarization in the area in Tarrant County probably means that whether it's Simmons or O’Hare… they really have a lot of policy authority.”
O’Hare said Tuesday night all Simmons does is “engage in political theater.”
“She doesn’t ever offer solutions to issues. And I think Tarrant County is going to reject her racist politics and her political theater. They want somebody who can actually manage the dollars, manage an organization, and that will keep people safe. She’s always on the side of the criminal. Never on the side of law enforcement,” he said.
O’Hare wants to focus on adding more jobs in Tarrant County for his second term.
"I’d like to see more high-quality jobs come into Tarrant County. We’ve worked on that. We have seen companies come in. We’ve seen companies expand, but I think we can do more,” he said.
Simmons attended the Tarrant County Democratic Party’s watch party at the Stagecoach Ballroom in Fort Worth, where she arrived at about 9 p.m.
After thanking supporters, she told reporters, “the real work, the hard work, the tough work begins now.”
Heading toward the November election against O’Hare, Simmons said her strategy is to compare their voting records, leadership styles and community engagement while on the commissioners court.
She knows she’s “definitely the underdog” in the county judge race, particularly as a Black woman and a Democrat in historically GOP-held Tarrant County.
“This by no means will be an easy task,” Simmons told the Fort Worth Report. “I think it will be a battle royale.”
She hopes to bring “normalcy and respect” to the commissioners court, describing its current management under O’Hare as “embarrassing.”
“Happen to be Black, happen to be human — I’m just a human who is concerned and passionate about having county governance that works for all people,” Simmons said.
‘Far away factions of their parties’
O’Hare and Simmons were elected together to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court in 2022. But the two have had several jarring disputes throughout the years and different views on multiple issues.
Simmons has called O’Hare an “extremist county leader,” while O’Hare said Simmons has turned the commissioners court into “a stage for petulant tantrums and ideological extremism.”
Those stark differences will set up a clear ideological distinction between the two, said Matthew Wilson, political professor at Southern Methodist University.
“O'Hare very much has risen to political prominence as a champion of a conservative ideological agenda in local governments,” Wilson said. “Alisa Simmons will definitely be the standard bearer of the left in the race.”
One of Tarrant County’s most hardline conservative elected leaders, O’Hare set a new tone for commissioners court meetings through strict meeting decorum rules, new policies for commissioners limiting topics they can ask for briefings on and cutting meeting from twice a month to just once – all things Simmons disagrees with.
He proposed an unusual mid-decade redistricting map of the county precincts meant to be more GOP-friendly. Despite backlash from residents and two lawsuits, the map was passed last year. Simmons said the map discriminates against Black and Latino voters.
Simmons previously said the court is too focused on partisan fighting and her priorities as county judge would include fiscal stability, mental and behavioral health, and accountability over jail operations and deaths from the sheriff’s office.
She’s called for briefings from the sheriff’s office over multiple in-custody deaths, to which Sheriff Bill Waybourn said he would stop attending last September.
Meanwhile, O'Hare emphasizes his “clear record of delivering conservative results” during his term through lowering property taxes, raising the homestead exemption and assuring pay raises for law enforcement officers, and "restoring limited government."
Additionally, part of O’Hare’s new policy for commissioners limiting certain topics from being added to the meeting agendas included jail death briefings.
“They are coming from not just different parties, but they're coming from far away factions of their parties,” Boyea said. “There are strong disagreements. Whether we're talking about redistricting, whether we're talking about aspects of redistricting that might get involved with race and not just that. It's personal interactions.”
Political standoff
Tarrant County is Texas’ biggest battleground when it comes to politics.
With a population of more than 2 million people, it’s been a big swing county between voting for Republican or Democratic candidates in other major elections.
The county voted for Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate in 2018 and Joe Biden for president in 2020 but has historically voted for Republican leaders – including its current sheriff, district clerk, district attorney and county judge.
“Republicans will want to continue their narrative of holding on to power in Tarrant County, saying that, despite its urban character, is a bulwark for conservative values,” Wilson said. “Democrats will want point to gains there to say that they are eroding that last bastion of urban Republican strength in Texas.”
Taylor Rehmet’s recent Democratic win of the Texas Senate District 9 seat, which represents a portion of northeast Tarrant County, has once again brought a sign of a pushback against the rightward move of Tarrant County, Wilson said.
O'Hare previously lamented Rehmet's win for the seat long held by the GOP.
Tuesday night, he noted that Republicans can sometimes get complacent, especially when the party controls the White House and Congress.
“So we’re going to raise more money than we’ve ever raised in Tarrant County, and we’re going to have a more robust ground game than we’ve ever had in Tarrant County. And I’m confident — when all it’s said and done — November, Tarrant County will still be a bright red flag.”
And if Democrats are considered the minority compared to how many other county leaders are Republican, that doesn't mean the county judge position wouldn’t be any less powerful if Simmons were to win, Boyea said.
“There’s enthusiasm because they're the out party,” Boyea said. “They have the chance to make a change.”
“Democrats are going to have some wind behind their sails. Whether that's enough to get Simmons elected over here, that's possible.”
Election day is Nov. 3.
This story has been updated to reflect unofficial results from all voting centers.
Additional reporting by Fort Worth Report reporting fellow
Nicole Williams Quezada.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
Penelope Rivera is KERA's Tarrant County Accountability Reporter. Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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