Incumbents lead in fiery Willow Park election, early voting results show
Early voting results in Willow Park indicate that three city council incumbents are holding onto their seats despite a fiery fight from a slate of angered challengers.
Nathan Crummel, Buddy Wright and Scott Smith led early voting results, which came in just a bit before 7:30 p.m Saturday. Votes will continue to be counted throughout the evening as they come in from voting centers.
Crummel led against his opponent and former city council member, Marcy Galle, with nearly 61.71% of votes. Wright led against his opponent, Houston Wingard, a retired Lockheed Martin employee, with nearly 59.97% of votes. Smith led against his opponent, Roy Kurban, former karate champion and Justice of the Peace in Tarrant County, with a little over 61.54% of votes. The two sides ran in slates aligned against one another, leading the balance of city council to be up in the air.
The incumbents told the Star-Telegram seeing the early voting results felt like a sigh of relief.
“It’s still settling in,” Crummel said just before 8 p.m. “I just can’t say thank you enough to the people for trusting me for these last six years and looking forward to the next two ... I don’t know if there’s ever been a time where it felt like there was more on the line than this one.”
Willow Park, a growing suburb west of Fort Worth, is at a pivotal point in its development. The city is home to several in-the-works multi-million dollar developments, and is an attractive place to individuals looking to move to Parker County for its spacious land and proximity to successful school districts. Willow Park is also facing a major lawsuit over one of these developments; the neighboring cities of Fort Worth and Aledo filed suit against Willow Park in March, accusing the city of illegally annexing land part of a $500 million development, the Beall-Dean ranch. The lawsuit is not the only thing that has shone a bit of a spotlight on Willow Park; fracas and disagreements at city hall have caught the attention of the rest of Parker County.
“We’re not looking to keep things the same,” Wright previously said of himself and fellow incumbents in an interview with the Star-Telegram. “We see potential ... and their side seems to be afraid of growth. They’re afraid of development. They’re afraid of change.”
Several issues were key to this election including how to handle future developments, solving shoddy infrastructure and trust in city council to communicate with citizens. The incumbents told the Star-Telegram previously they viewed themselves as “local servants” trying to help their city, as opposed to politicians. They viewed growth, like what is planned through Beall-Dean, as a force already in town — and one they believe should be used for sales tax and property tax revenue to fix the city’s dilapidated infrastructure.
The challengers told the Star-Telegram previously that a perceived information gap between council and citizens moved them to run. They also believed the current council mistreated Willow Park’s mayor, Teresa Palmer, who was elected in May 2025 after beating incumbent of eight years, Doyle Moss. Palmer supported the challengers; Moss supported the incumbents. Palmer, as well as the challengers, also support changing the city of Willow Park to a home rule charter.
“It’ll get more citizens involved in managing our city,” Wingard previously told the Star Telegram. “Not just a small group at city hall.”
All three challengers said they believe the current council is too quick to accept new developments. Galle added that her opponents’ philosophy of directing sales tax revenue toward funding capital improvement is “wrong.”
“Sales taxes fluctuate,” she said. “The best way to do capital improvements is through bond issuances that are supported by a portion of the property taxes.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 7:38 PM.
