Fact check: Is this nonpartisan Fort Worth city council candidate a Republican?
He has voted in every Republican primary since 2016, but Fort Worth city council candidate Rick Herring said he’s not hyper-partisan.
A campaign mailer attacking him for voting in Republican primaries placed his picture next to photos of former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in a bid to tie Herring to the more conservative elements of the Republican party.
“Republicans like Rick Herring are pushing to win local office in Fort Worth,” the mailer said.
He is running for the Fort Worth City Council District 11 seat, which was one of the two seats added after a 2016 charter election that expanded the council.
The back of the flier features a photocopy of Herring’s voting record from Tarrant County showing he voted in Republican primaries in the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 election cycles.
State Rep. Ramon Romero’s campaign paid for the filer. It was sent to Democrats in a bid to boost turnout at a time when Republicans are looking to use low turnout to their advantage, Romero said.
“The flier is 100% factual and I stand by it,” he said.
Herring acknowledged his voting history, but insisted he’s much more middle-of-the-road politically than that record would imply.
He pointed to his history of bipartisanship. He said held fundraisers and hosted meet-and-greets for former Fort Worth City Council member Ann Zadeh, former Fort Worth school board member Ashley Paz, and even Rep. Romero during his 2014 campaign for the legislature. Zadeh and Paz were running for nonpartisan positions, but both have been supporters of the Democratic Party.
He posted a picture Saturday on Instagram featuring fliers of those events.
“I was always happy to support all these candidates because I believed then and now that they would represent our community well,” Herring said in the Instagram post.
He received the endorsement of the True Texas Project, which began as the NE Tarrant Tea Part before it was re-branded in 2019. He did not publicize the endorsement on his social media.
Herring said he was unaware of the endorsement, in an email to the Star-Telegram Monday.
“I have NEVER received a questionnaire or responded to any questionnaire from this group. I have had NO contact with this group or anyone representing this group. I have received NO letter or announcement of any endorsement by this group,” he said, adding that he would be reaching out to the group to demand he be removed from its list.
Texas law ties your party affiliation to the last party affiliated primary election you voted in. However, that party affiliation expires at the end of the calendar year.
This means that even though Herring voted in Republican primaries every election cycle since 2016, he’s technically unaffiliated.
However, the fact that he consistently voted in Republican primaries shows a pattern of practice that shouldn’t be ignored, Romero said.
District 11, sometimes referred to as the horseshoe district, includes neighborhoods just east and northeast of downtown Fort Worth along with predominantly Hispanic south side neighborhoods of Rosemont and Hemphill Heights.
It was drawn to give Fort Worth’s Hispanic population the opportunity to have more representation on council.
Roughly a third of Fort Worth residents are Hispanic, but only one council member, Carlos Flores, is of Hispanic heritage.
Herring is running against Tara Maldonado-Wilson, Jeanette Martinez, Ricardo Avitia, and Christopher Johnson. Maldonado-Wilson, Martinez, and Avitia are all of Hispanic heritage.
Early voting continues until May 2 with election day coming on May 6.
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 3:02 PM.
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