‘We just eat our own.’ Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker distances herself from Republican Party
Republican Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker distanced herself from the party in a discussion Wednesday with the Texas Tribune.
Speaking of the number of uninsured people in Fort Worth, Parker said she supported the expansion of Medicaid. She added she understood it was a “difficult policy area” and that it might be “unpopular with some people of the party of which I used to identify with.”
Toward the end of the discussion, Tribune CEO Evan Smith asked Parker if she no longer considered herself a Republican. She acknowledged that she still self-identified as a Republican, but she was “confused” by the party.
“We just eat our own,” Parker said, before saying she couldn’t run in a Republican primary right now, and that she was OK with that. “Because I just couldn’t look myself in the mirror and do it, because it’s gotten so partisan.”
The comments come after Betsy Price, former Fort Worth mayor and Parker’s predecessor, lost the Republican primary for Tarrant County Judge to Southlake attorney Tim O’Hare, who ran a grassroots campaign that hit on hot-button conservative issues and attacks on Price, drawing most of his support from the suburbs.
Parker, who was one of a handful of prominent Republicans who endorsed Price in the race, told how a photo of Price meeting former President Barack Obama on a Dallas tarmac ended up on a campaign mailer. Parker said Price was called to meet the president after former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings couldn’t make it.
“Tell the whole story,” Parker said. “Don’t take snapshots of someone’s tenure and public service. I can’t tell you how disappointing that is. And it happens all the time to people on both sides of the aisle way too much.”
Parker told the Star-Telegram Thursday afternoon that feedback after the interview has been positive. She said she’s a Republican who votes Republican, and that it wasn’t a secret that she was close to Price. Watching the primary unfold was frustrating, she said.
Republican and Democratic candidates alike have sometimes been forced to say things in primary they don’t want to in order to win, she said.
Parker said she’s been coached to not lead with being a Republican because she doesn’t want it to affect her constituents’ views on her ideas or ability to lead.
“Do I get frustrated with my own party? Absolutely,” she said. “And do I feel like we have some housecleaning to do within our own party to work better together? Yes, absolutely.”
Parker said solutions to attacks from the right can come from people in positions like hers to stand up and ask what the future may hold. Right now, she said, there’s a lack of compromise in other levels of government and that encourages her to demonstrate teamwork as mayor regardless of party.
Parker said she appreciated the support she received from the Tarrant County Republican Party during her campaign for mayor last year.
“They worked really hard in my election to recognize I was the right candidate for mayor and I saw them then absolutely as an organized, thoughtful party,” she said. “And I think that still exists. I just think this primary season was a really difficult one.”
The comments from Parker add to the division in the Republican Party seen countywide following Price’s loss. Outgoing Judge Glen Whitley, who also supported Price, was frustrated with the campaign.
Parker said she had not yet thought about who she would support in the race for county judge, but said she looked forward to the partnership with whoever is elected to the position come November.
O’Hare faces Democrat Deborah Peoples in November.
In the discussion, Parker also tackled issues such as the city’s crime rate, policing, education and public concern with newly passed election laws.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 11:51 AM.
