Protesters call Tarrant County’s redistricting effort ‘racial gerrymandering’

More than 80 protesters gathered Tuesday morning in front of the Tarrant County Administration Building in downtown Fort Worth ahead of the Commissioners Court’s vote to approve new precinct maps.

Protesters expressed concern and frustration about the seven new proposed maps, saying that they fear it will racially gerrymander in favor of the Republican Party.

The crowd of was made up of Tarrant County residents and organizers who chanted to the beat of a drum.

Justice Network of Tarrant County, Indivisible 12 and the Progressive Women of Arlington organized the event.

Many of the speakers were public officials, including Mansfield Mayor Michael Evans, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross and Fort Worth District 6 council member Jared Williams, who called this redistricting plan racial gerrymandering. The proposed maps redraw the two precincts in southern Tarrant County, moving more Republican voters into Precinct 2, represented by Democrat Alisa Simmons of Arlington.

“We feel that redistricting the way it’s been done is morally wrong that the Black voters are being silenced in Tarrant County,” said Katherine Godby with the Justice Network of Tarrant County.

Multiple attendees said that the continued scheduling of these votes during the workday is part of County Judge Tim O’Hare’s plan to keep the community out of the decision-making process.

“I’m not in one of the areas that’s impacted, but it impacts me, because these people are my neighbors,” Fort Worth resident Lori Mclaughlin said.

Evans and Ross both signed a letter opposing the maps, which were put together by Public Interest Legal Foundation. They each spoke to the crowd and expressed the need for accountability and transparency in any new redistricting.

Ross said that you have to rely upon legal advice other than the people who drew the maps.

“That’s what troublesome to me,” Ross said. “If you’re going to gerrymander because of political reasons, which the Supreme Court has said you can do. You still have to abide the rest of the laws of the land, and that’s what’s important to us, is that residents of Arlington, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie and Mansfield and all the mayors that signed that letter are concerned about is that there’s true transparency and adherence to the law.”

Simmons has been holding town halls and and posting on social media about the proposed maps.

“Let’s be clear the distraction is not race, the distraction is racism,” Simmons said. “The court should be focused on the growing crisis of homelessness in our County. We should be expressing the urgent lack of mental health, failure in that county jail custody deaths in just eight years, costing you guys and taxpayers millions in settlements.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 1:02 PM.