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Earlier this year, Republicans slashed 92 polling locations in one Texas county. It’s pretty obvious why…
Tarrant County has been an incubator for the far right and might be the state’s bellwether. Now Democrats hope it can power a blue wave.
While James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa have captured most of the headlines (guilty), the stakes are high in Tarrant County’s local races, where Republicans have held power for decades. Alisa Simmons, a Democratic county commissioner, is in a tight race against the incumbent county judge Tim O’Hare—a conservative Bo French ally who pushed the reduction in polling locations.
“He’s a really interesting person—I’m not sure why he even wanted to serve because he’s not serving,” Simmons said before a fundraiser at a private home in Colleyville, Texas.
In 2025, even before Republicans in the state legislature redrew the state’s congressional maps, O’Hare embarked on an unusual attempt to gerrymander the county commissioner districts, in order to secure what Republicans hope will be a 4–1 majority. The commission has cut its meeting schedule in half, all guest speakers are limited to one minute, and attendees have been hauled out by sheriffs deputies for clapping.
Democrats in Tarrant believe the county is there for the taking this year—that the apathy and resignation that have kept turnout lower than other large urban counties is changing, and that the Republicans on the ballot aren’t cut out for swing-state realities.
Reyne Telles, the Tarrant County Democratic Party’s executive director, thinks that more rural parts of the state might follow Fort Worth’s lead if the county swings blue.
“If Fort Worth, with its Western heritage, is able to vote for Democrats, and things still are okay, it’s going to be okay for them as well,” says Telles.
You can read more about the fight for Tarrant county at MotherJones.com
Reporting by Tim Murphy
Video by Peter Berger