How Manny Ramirez won Tarrant nod that hasn’t been open in 36 years — without a runoff
Police labor leader Manny Ramirez has avoided a runoff by a razor-thin margin to win the nomination for a county Commissioners Court seat that hasn’t been open in more than 30 years.
Ramirez, head of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, won the primary election in northwest Tarrant County’s Precinct 4 with 50.3 percent of the votes, a sliver more than needed to escape a runoff.
Constable Joe D. “Jody” Johnson, whose father has occupied the position since 1987, secured 36.3 percent of the votes. Larry Dale Carpenter Jr. snagged just 11 percent.
Ramirez held his election night watch party at the police association headquarters. As his three children played in the background and results trickled in, Ramirez told me, “I’m very proud of the work that the team has put in. Tarrant County is ready for new leadership. I’m very proud of how we ran this race. We ran a very clean campaign. We ran on the future and that future is bright. I look forward to putting our skill set at work.”
Ramirez and Johnson, the front-runners, were vastly different candidates. Unlike many local races, it was not hard to tell the difference between them, including a distinct generational difference. Ramirez exudes a youthful spark without seeming too young for the job. Johnson came across as more gruff but with extensive knowledge of county operations.
The two men also raised different priorities: While Johnson’s main focus was on lowering property taxes, Ramirez cited infrastructure as one of the area’s biggest problems to solve. Johnson argued that major ongoing construction and the resulting traffic wasn’t something a county commissioner could even change.
Given their obvious differences, Ramirez’s remark that he ran a clean campaign — never targeting his opponents by name in ad materials — could have appealed to voters. The fact that on the verge of victory, Ramirez expressed satisfaction in the path toward winning, rather than simply taking an early victory lap and gloating, speaks to character, another thing that voters may have picked up on.
During a January debate, the three candidates repeatedly discussed the clogged Boat Club Road or FM 1220 and how to prevent such construction disarray again. Ramirez said he’d try to secure “a seat at the table” for Precinct 4 at the North Central Texas Council of Governments in order to have a voice on future infrastructure projects.
Ramirez will face Democrat Cedric Kanyinda in the general election Nov. 8. The precinct is overwhelmingly Republican, and Ramirez will be heavily favored.
