Conservative ideology, not experience, carried the day in Tarrant County GOP primaries
With early voting results showing him with a commanding lead, Tarrant County judge candidate Tim O’Hare took the stage Tuesday night to address a sizable crowd clustered at tables in the ballroom of Southlake’s Delta Marriott.
O’Hare, 52, a lawyer from Southlake, boasted about his grassroots campaign. He gave a nod to the endorsement he received from former President Donald Trump. He doted on Southlake, where he was the main character in the Southlake Families PAC’s efforts to stop the Carroll school district’s diversity action plan.
He acknowledged his opponent, former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, and stressed unity.
“At the end of the day, Republicans have to come together, have to unite, because the most important thing before us is to put it on the Democrats in November,” O’Hare told the crowd, drawing cheers and applause.
Republicans in Tarrant County and across Texas tried to establish themselves as the most conservative, often times pushing issues like border security and critical race theory in their efforts to secure red voters.
In Tarrant County, the tactics worked in the judge’s race as O’Hare easily passed Price to claim the Republican nomination with nearly 57% of the vote.
The results were the similar in other races, as well.
In House District 93, political newcomer Nate Schatzline is in a runoff against former Southlake Mayor Laura Hill. Schatzline credited his church, Mercy Culture, and had advocated for getting rid of what he called “leftist indoctrination” in schools.
The Republican runoff for Tarrant County district attorney features state Rep. Matt Krause, who made headlines in October when he launched an investigation into Texas school districts over 850 books related to race or sexuality. He faces longtime judge Phil Sorrells, a Trump-endorsed candidate whose campaign issues included prosecuting criminal conduct by undocumented immigrants.
In House District 91, Rep. Stephanie Klick faced a slate of Republicans who hit her on issues like gender-affirming health care for transgender children — drawing more opponents than any Republican incumbent in Texas. She was pushed into a runoff by David Lowe, a 38-year-old stay at home dad with no political experience. He listed banning “child gender modification” and vaccine mandates among his top priorities in a Star-Telegram candidate questionnaire, along with providing immediate property tax relief.
O’Hare will face Deborah Peoples, a two-time candidate for Fort Worth mayor and former chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, in the Nov. 8 election. She defeated former Arlington city council member Marvin Sutton with 82.64% of the vote.
TCU political science professor James Riddlesperger said the results showed primary voters were more interested in candidate ideologies than experience, which he said was ironic because many candidates’ positions that are popular with voters in the Republican races don’t have anything to do with county government functions.
O’Hare was the one who was able to appeal to conservative ideals in a race that had become more about ideologies, he said. The results aren’t representative of all Tarrant County Republicans, Riddlesperger said, but the “hot-blooded” ones.
On Tuesday, a reporter in the press pool asked O’Hare how he would respond to voters who may believe his platform (CRT and cancel culture) doesn’t line up with the job requirements of county judge. For example, the judge has no authority over the area’s school districts though O’Hare, as well as other Republican candidates, have run platforms on keeping critical race theory out of schools.
O’Hare replied the county’s leader needed to be the leader of conservative movements, and that everything that affects children and families was under the scope of the judge’s job.
He had overwhelming support in the suburbs of northern Tarrant County, where there have been fights in the school districts over critical race theory, diversity plans and library books.
Price’s support came from west and southwest Fort Worth. Price, the longest-serving mayor in Fort Worth history, left office in 2021 after 10 years. During her time, the city grew to the 12th-largest in the nation, and racial equity and social justice issues emerged as top issues facing the city.
In June 2020, amid protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Price told a crowd gathered outside City Hall: “I want to tell you all who are here today and everyone that’s protesting we see you and we hear you and we are listening and changes are being done.”
O’Hare consistently attacked Price throughout his campaign, most notably claiming Price supported Black Lives Matter protesters. Price responded with a video she posted on Twitter saying she stood up to extremists who wanted to defund the police.
Late Tuesday, outgoing judge Glen Whitley, who had endorsed Price, expressed his disappointment with the results. He had concerns over the rhetoric he’d seen over the course of the campaign and said he thought the race would be more about the issues.
Whitley couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday, but posted a tweet saying he was disappointed a “disingenuous attack campaign” saw success in Tarrant County.
“As we look now to the November election, I hope the race for my successor will shift from mudslinging to focus on serious issues and qualifications so that citizens better understand what’s at stake for the future of our county,” Whitley wrote in his Twitter thread.
Price said Wednesday that she believed she ran a positive campaign. She said it was hard to say if the results reflected the Republican Party she knew in Tarrant County.
Peoples, 69, a retired AT&T vice president, said Democratic voters realized she was the right mix of corporate and community. Peoples said she believed the issues are the same on both sides of party lines.
“The judge of Tarrant County has to be a good leader who can blend their commitment to community with their commitment to businesses and building a strong economy in Tarrant County so that we can give our residents access to thrive,” Peoples said. “And so anyone that is not committed to that is not the right leader for Tarrant County.”
O’Hare said his greatest challenge in his race against Peoples is how she comes out with “race-based politics.”
“People in Tarrant County are sick of race-based politics,” he said. “We need to be talking about things that bring people together, talking about things that make good sense, good government for all people. And I think people in general, Tarrant County and across the state and the country, are sick of all this racial division.”
As mayor and city council member in Farmers Branch, O’Hare pushed ordinances that kept landlords from renting to illegal immigrants and made English the town’s official language. They were ruled unconstitutional.
Peoples finds her advantage over O’Hare in her dedication to inclusion.
“This is about bringing everyone into the tent,” she said. “You cannot just try to govern for a one segment of the population, you have to be ready to govern for every community in Tarrant County and I’m the person to do that.”
While Democratic victories have happened in the county with President Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke, Democratic victories in county offices have been far less common. But with a mine of Democratic votes to be had in Tarrant, anything could happen.
“Strange things can happen in politics,” Riddlesperger said.
County commissioners race
In Precinct 4, Republican Manny Ramirez will face Democrat Cedric Kanyinda in November.
Ramirez had 50.29% of the vote. Jody Johnson, son of nearly 40-year county commissioner veteran J.D. Johnson, finished his race with 36.36%. Kanyinda ran unopposed.
Ramirez, Fort Worth Police Officer Association president, will keep a focus on public safety, efficiency and protecting conservative values.
Ramirez told the Star-Telegram Wednesday he thought voters connected with his vision for county growth and efficient government.
“I think the voters of Tarrant County are really hungry for someone who can come in and provide a different perspective and really operate an efficient government and prioritize public safety at the same time,” he said.
In Precinct 2, Democrat Alisa Simmons, Arlington NAACP president, defeated Ruby Faye Woolridge, an Arlington city council member, to face Republican candidate Andy Nguyen, a former commissioner who ran unopposed.
Simmons received 52.68% of the vote. Nguyen held the Precinct 2 seat on the commissioners court for eight years before losing reelection to Devan Allen in 2018.
“We have a tough fight ahead, against radical conservatives who believe in every man for himself, except for their pals,” Simmons said in email Wednesday afternoon.
Nguyen, who attended O’Hare’s watch party Tuesday evening, told the Star-Telegram before official results came in that he thought he stood a good chance against either Woolridge or Simmons due to his track record.
“The voters and taxpayers of Precinct 2 can really count on me, and I think they have experienced in the past few years the lack, or the void, of representation and leadership,” Nguyen said. “They can tell the difference now, I think.”
Precinct 2 has proven — much like the county overall — that it can flip the switch on its support for Democratic or Republican candidates.
Nguyen said that the wave that came with O’Rourke’s run for state senate in 2018 combined with a wave against Trump that ultimately gave Allen an advantage was reversed in this year’s race.
“If the voter asks themselves that one question, who has the track record, the passion, the knowledge, the experience, the ability to work with others, to represent them effectively as a county commissioner, the answer is obvious,” Nguyen said.
Staff writers Jess Hardin and Eleanor Dearman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 4:40 PM.
