Think Tarrant County is Republican now? Just wait until O’Hare and Sorrells take over
Republicans took over Tarrant County nearly 40 years ago, and retook it Tuesday night.
This time, the party’s die-hard campaigners and culture warriors seized county command, replacing low-profile establishment Republicans and sweeping statewide and countywide races in the name of their No. 1 priority: to “keep Tarrant County red.”
Brushed aside even in their own party for most of those 40 years, movement conservatives now have their strongest role in county leadership since the era of President Ronald Reagan, holding a solid 5- or 6-point edge in the largest reliably Republican county in Texas.
County Judge-elect Tim O’Hare, a former state and county Republican Party officer, told the conservative political website The Texan during the campaign that his goal is “taking back our country.”
Sounding more like a Fox News commentator than a Texas county official, O’Hare said his primary goal is to “fight this anti-American, hate-our-country teaching.”
Fort Worth Police Officers Association President Manny Ramirez will leave that job to become a new county leader alongside O’Hare, representing northwest Tarrant County and becoming a powerful vote on a much younger Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court.
O’Hare and Ramirez replace retiring Judge Glen Whitley of Hurst and Commissioner J.D. Johnson of northwest Tarrant County, who were on the court for a combined 60 years.
Republicans will keep at least a 3-2 edge on the court with Arlington Democrat Alisa Simmons holding a thin lead over Republican Andy Nguyen in that open Democratic precinct. But the new commissioners could redraw that precinct to make it more Republican..
In the words of TCU political science professor James Riddlesperger, who’s analyzed Texas politics for 40 years, “the whole atmosphere for decision-making in the commissioners court is about to change.
“The rhetoric for running even for local office these days seems to deal with national partisan talking points ... But, and this is especially true in local politics, governing is about bringing people together,” he added.
O’Hare’s campaign included both faith-and-values campaigners and green-eyeshade fiscal conservatives such as Fort Worth financial professional Don Woodard Jr.
Woodard alone gave O’Hare $486,000.
“I know Tim is very serious about restraint of county spending,” said District Clerk Tom Wilder, 79, of Bedford, re-elected Tuesday for his eighth term. “You are going to see a real difference and a Republican agenda on the court. What’s so radical about cost-effective government?”
As expected, O’Hare had no trouble defeating Democrat Deborah Peoples. She’s a staunch partisan campaigner but was underfunded and ill-positioned to run from her Fort Worth political base in a countywide election dominated by the 1 million-plus residents north of Loop 820.
County Democrats imagined that because Beto O’Rourke beat U.S. Ted Cruz in Tarrant County in 2018 and Joe Biden beat Donald Trump here in 2020, they might have a chance at a countywide win.
No.
Look at it this way: Since 1994, only two Republicans out of hundreds were so incredibly awful that they lost the independent vote and wound up losing Tarrant County. They were Cruz and Trump.
There was nobody on this Republican ballot who drove independent voters away.
Note that both O’Hare and District Attorney-elect Phil Sorrells of North Richland Hills, an old-guard courthouse misdemeanor judge, downplayed their Trump endorsements in recent weeks after highlighting them in their contested GOP primaries.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a winner in Tarrant County with 57% of the vote in 2014 and 54% in 2018, outpaced a weaker O’Rourke this go-round with about 51% of the county vote.
State Sen.-elect Phil King of Weatherford was unopposed and had already been named the winner in a redrawn south Tarrant County district spreading across eight counties. Sen. Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills held strong to the Republican seat in north Tarrant County.
The only shakeup in the Texas Legislature came in east Tarrant County and Arlington, where former Euless Mayor Pro Tem Salman Bhojani flipped a Texas House seat that was basically surrendered in redistricting to protect other Republicans.
Otherwise, Republicans’ 5% margin was so comfortable that Republicans like Wilder weren’t talking about 2022 on Tuesday. They were already looking to 2024.
“Ten years ago, we were winning with 57, 58 percent of the vote,” he said. “If we can get back up to 55 or 56%, that’s going to put a damper on the money Democrats pump in here, as well as deter candidates.”
It didn’t happen. Republicans won countywide seats by 53%, about 6 points.
It wasn’t a red wave. Just another red win.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 10:42 PM.
