Though the tides have changed for Tarrant County’s leadership, it will remain a Republican majority under the new commissioners court.

Voters elected three new commissioners to the commissioners court Tuesday evening.

As current county judge Glen Whitley makes his way out of office, voters chose a new county judge for the first time in 16 years. The position went to Republican Tim O’Hare after Democrat Deborah Peoples conceded the race late Tuesday evening. O’Hare led the race with 53% of the vote.

In a tight race for Precinct 2, which represents Arlington and Mansfield, the victory ultimately went to Alisa Simmons, Arlington’s NAACP president who secured 52% of the vote. She beat out Republican Andy Nguyen, who was vying for his seat back on commissioners after losing to Democrat Devan Allen in 2018. Allen decided against running for re-election.

Manny Ramirez, a Republican, is expected to win the race for Precinct 4 to represent west Fort Worth and Northwest Tarrant County. As of late Tuesday, Ramirez led his race against Democrat Cedric Kanyinda with 59% of the vote and 292 of 316 vote centers reporting.

Current commissioners Roy Charles Brooks, a Democrat, and Gary Fickes, a Republican, were not up for re-election and will remain on the court. Fickes will not seek re-election in 2024.

What does a new court mean for Tarrant County? Here’s what to expect.

Republican majority

Though no one commissioner has control of the court, the majority party often holds the power. Even with the new faces, the commissioners will still have a 3-2 Republican majority.

The Republicans on the new court are O’Hare, Ramirez and Fickes. Brooks and Simmons are Democrats.

For more than 30 years, the county saw middle-right leadership from leaders like Tom Vandergriff, who was a Democrat in Congress but a Republican as county judge, and outgoing judge Glen Whitley, who is a Republican but endorsed Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate Mike Collier.

Throughout the course of the campaign, both Peoples and O’Hare hit on issues that have no relevance to county governance. And at the end of the day, the county judge’s position is minimally partisan, Jim Riddlesperger, political science professor at TCU, said before results started to came in Tuesday evening.

Exactly how the county will look under new leadership is something Riddlesperger said only time will be able to tell. Beyond O’Hare’s plan to slice the property tax rate, Riddlesperger couldn’t think of any major initiative coming out of the race.

Then comes the issue of moderating and whether O’Hare will be able to adequately govern for all. It’s a challenge everyone running for public office faces, Riddlesperger said.

“Elections are about dividing people into two groups, right?” Riddlesperger said. “We try to differentiate ourselves if we’re running for office, we try to differentiate ourselves from our political opponent. Because you have to give people a reason to vote for you. And that means that you have to define yourself as different from your opponent. The challenge of being county judge is going into a room of five people and trying to get them all to work together to accomplish a goal.”

Riddlesperger believes the learning curve will be there for all three new members of the commissioners court. Vandergriff and Whitley both had strong personalities but could work across party lines to get the job done.

“The question is, are they going to be able to bridge that gap?” Riddlesperger said. “Or are we going to see Tarrant County turn into a divided partisan county where we’re going to have kind of an uglier politics than we were used to having?”

Law enforcement support

O’Hare and Ramirez all ran their campaigns with focuses on supporting local law enforcement. Ramirez serves as the Fort Worth Police Oversight Authority president.

Despite all the incoming commissioners’ promises to stand by local law enforcement, Tarrant County commissioners are not in charge of local police departments. Tarrant County controls the the sheriff’s office budget, and the department only provides patrols to unincorporated parts of the county, plus Haslet and Edgecliff Village.

Simmons, too, has hit on law enforcement support. The former 20-year 911 district employee said she would use her expertise in public safety to make sure both the sheriff’s and criminal district attorney’s office focuses on violent crime.

Increased infrastructure

Across the board, most commissioner candidates made promises to increase the county’s infrastructure.

O’Hare said he’s going to focus on projects within the $400 million transportation bond passed in 2021 that put the most stress on the county. He plans to work with Fickes, who was one of the bond package’s biggest champions, to help fill the leadership and road expertise void that will be left behind when Fickes leaves office in 2024.

Ramirez has said his goal with Precinct 4 specifically is to bring its growth and development into the 21st century. Ramirez also wants to create a strategic plan that addresses growth and development across Tarrant County.

Simmons said the county should look for extra cash to help fund infrastructure projects and other funding methods like grants.

Election integrity

O’Hare hit on election integrity throughout his campaign.

He wants to create an election integrity officer position that would report to the sheriff, district attorney and a commissioner that would be voted on by the rest of the court. That person’s job would operate in two functions.

The county judge-elect initially wants the election integrity officer to observe elections and to go over local, state and nationwide practices and recommend what the county can do to improve its elections. The position would later morph into one that looks into voter fraud.

Tarrant County’s audits into its elections have come back with few anomalies. But O’Hare is convinced the person in the position will find instances of fraud.

Expanded health care

One of the county commissioners’ biggest responsibilities is overseeing the JPS Hospital Network and the $800 million bond to expand it, which has seen little progress since its passage in 2018.

O’Hare said he would look to optimize the county’s partnerships with organizations that provide mental health resources, including JPS.

Ramirez said he would support the county’s mental health diversion center that opened earlier this year and encourage partnerships with private providers to make sure mental health resources are available.

Simmons is adamant about the full-funding of the Tarrant County Hospital District and resources under JPS.

Lower property taxes

Lowering property taxes has been a huge campaign promise for the red side of the ballot.

O’Hare wants to cut the county’s property tax rate by 20%. This year, that would have saved the owner of a $350,000 home $183.

O’Hare wants to cut the rate by staff cuts through attrition, contracting out county services to nonprofit organizations and lowering county contract expenditures by 1% to 2%.

Simmons said she would focus her efforts on lowering property taxes toward the legislature. She also said she would focus on increasing the county’s revenue so budget cuts won’t be necessary.

This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 6:00 AM.

Abby Church

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Abby Church covered Tarrant County government at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from 2021 to 2023.