Victories in these races give Democrats hope that Arlington area may be shifting blue
While the 2020 election in Tarrant County isn’t turning out as Democratic Party leaders had hoped, its leaders are cheering the handful of county and city candidates who appear to have won their Arlington-area races.
Latest election results show that Democrats Sandra Lee and Robert McGinty won their constable races in Precincts 7 and 2, which both cover Arlington and surrounding cities.
At the city level, Ruby Faye Woolridge defeated opponent John Hibbs for the at-large City Council District 6 seat. Although Council seats are nonpartisan, Woolridge was former Rep. Joe Barton’s Democratic challenger for the U.S. House in 2016 and a contender for the party’s 2018 nomination.
In heavily targeted state and U.S. House races, Democrats did not have the same luck. While Stephen Daniel received more votes than Rep. Ron Wright in Tarrant County, he lost the overall House election. Incumbent Tony Tinderholt won back his Texas House seat representing District 94, defeating Democratic rival Alisa Simmons.
Still, the seats picked up in Arlington by Democrats indicate a shift in city and county voting habits, said UT Arlington political science professor Brent Boyea.
“You’re certainly in an area or time period where Democrats are competitive and in the ascendance,” he said. “They’re not dominant, they’re not winning all the races as yesterday’s races showed us, but they’re competitive.”
Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Rick Barnes said while the election was an indicator they will need to fight harder in 2022, Democrats still failed to flip the county, just like in 2018.
“This is two cycles in a row where the Democrats spent money like crazy in the county and we remain a red county,” Barnes said. “The only way I can define that is Tarrant County is not for sale.”
Deborah Peoples, who chairs the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said her group will improve their voter education efforts next election cycle and vigorously reach out to voters.
“We made the right decision for the health of our supporters, but the wrong decision for the people on the ballot,” she said.
Arlington City Council
The morning after Election Day, Woolridge reflexively put on her “uniform.”
During the campaign for District 6, she wore her U.S. Army mom hat, campaign T-shirt, slacks and black tennis shoes to head out into the community multiple times a week.
Her and her campaign team’s efforts were part of a meticulous plan she set well before the council elections were pushed from May to November due to coronavirus. Woolridge led with 50.95% of the vote compared to Hibbs’ 49.05% as ballots were still being counted Wednesday in Tarrant County.
“I think with the exception of maybe two things, we followed it and it worked,” Woolridge said.
Hibbs, a former Arlington school board trustee active in multiple community service organizations, would have likely fared better if council elections were held in May, Boyea said.
“He certainly would be more of the establishment type of candidate,” he said.
Hibbs was not immediately available for comment.
Large elections in November, Boyea said, draw in more voters who are less attuned to municipal races. Woolridge, who most recently ran against Jeff Williams for Arlington mayor in 2019, may have had more name recognition than Hibbs, Boyea said.
“You have a mixture of people who are uncertain about the candidates as well as the folks who went into the polling place knowing that she was going to be the candidate that they support,” he said.
Woolridge said she told voters her party affiliation when they asked and said previous supporters may have shown up. However, she and her campaign connected with people on issues that do not inherently have party lines.
“When we connected on those levels about our concerns about our city, just neighborhood quality of life issues and safety, they were fine,” Woolridge said. “I had many who came back and said, ‘OK, you were one of the few Democrats I voted for.’”
Parties plan to keep attention on Arlington, county
As they plan for the next round of elections, both parties in Tarrant County are planning to make their case to voters, especially on issues and candidates further down the ballot.
Although Peoples said she’s encouraged by the close race in the county between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, she’s frustrated with the amount of people who skipped state and local races. More than 33,000 voters did not vote in the District 6 Council race.
“We knew we were going to have a challenge,” People said. “Obviously we didn’t do the job that we needed to do to get people to vote all the way down the ballot. Every time I look at the undervote, I get sick about it.”
Barnes said Republicans will target more local and state races.
“We’re going to continue to work hard in that area,” Barnes said. “It may be an indicator to us that we’re going to need to put a little more effort into it in 2022.”
That effort, he said, may include nonpartisan municipal races as partisan politics seep into campaigns.
“We will begin to even further target these down-ballot races pretty headstrong because we know that the things that (Democrats are) wanting to bring into our schools and the things they want to bring into our municipalities is not going to be good to either one,” Barnes said.
