Haslet voted against the ‘pro-mayor’ candidates. Here’s what that means.
Though the mayor’s seat wasn’t on the ballot, the May 2 election was largely dubbed a mayor versus council race — and the council won out. Here’s what that may mean for the quarrel-ridden city of Haslet.
With an estimated population of 6,000, Haslet has more than tripled its population since 2020. The city, like most, doesn’t usually see many people turn out for municipal elections.
In 2021 and 2023, over 600 Haslet voters cast their ballot. The turnout was likely helped by the fact that all three races, which included the mayor’s seat, were contested and the Northwest school district had a bond proposal on the ballot.
This year, three incumbent council members faced challengers, and there was no bond proposal. More than 12% of Haslet’s voting population went to the polls, when Fort Worth saw a 4% turnout. That’s 507 ballots cast in Haslet.
Because each position on the council represents the whole city, citizens were able to vote in each of the three races. They voted for two incumbents of the three running: Tanya Morrow and Doug Horak. Jasmin Wise, a first-time candidate, beat out incumbent James Watkins by 14 votes according to unofficial results.
What does this election mean for Haslet?
Anyone driving through the eight square miles of Haslet could see plainly that the city’s residents cared about this election; candidates’ signs lined neighborhood streets.
Morrow, the council’s longest-consecutively serving member, said the engagement was noticeably different this year than any other election she’s witnessed in Haslet.
In the past year, a split between the City Council and the mayor has not only become noticeable, but blatant at many of the biweekly meetings.
Watkins, who is one of the more argumentative on the council, said he’s gotten a lot of criticism for his outbursts, but it has brought on more citizen engagement. The frustration, he said, comes from the mayor’s behavior behind closed doors.
The biggest topics in the Haslet races were traffic, preparing for the influx of population and which side of the mayor-council line candidates fell on.
Though none of the candidates outwardly said they were pro-council or pro-mayor, many outspoken residents identified the incumbents as pro-council and challengers Chuck Fiedler and Joel Bullard as pro-mayor.
Fiedler and Bullard both said they spoke to Mayor Gary Hulsey about running, but the mayor did not make any official endorsements in the race. Hulsey told the Star-Telegram he had the duo’s shared political sign in his yard.
Both lost by over 100 votes.
Wise, Watkins’s challenger, was the only candidate who made a point to distinguish herself from being pro-council or pro-mayor. She said she thinks it’s the reason she succeeded in her bid.
Though the two so-called pro-mayor candidates lost by a wider margin, Hulsey said the results won’t weigh into his decision to run for re-election. He has not announced a bid for the May 2027 mayoral race.
Wise said the results make it clear the citizens want to bring down the temperature in city hall.
“It shows that the people care how the people representing them act in general,” Wise said. “I mean, whether you be council or mayor, the residents of Haslet have a standard for us, and they’re telling us, we need to rise up to it.”