Fort Worth, Texas: Alisa Simmons Beats Tim O'Hare to Become Tarrant County Judge

FORT WORTH (Orbit Post) Alisa Simmons beat incumbent County Judge Tim O'Hare on Tuesday night, giving Democrats the top job in Tarrant County for the first time in 40 years and leading a sweep of countywide races in the largest Republican held urban county in Texas.

FOX 4 reported that at 9:20 p.m. Simmons had 58 percent of the counted votes, with 327,684 votes to 240,266 for O'Hare. The Texas Observer put her final margin at about 16 points. O'Hare conceded before 9 p.m. and called Simmons to congratulate her, FOX 4 and NBC 5 reported.

"This victory is yours," Simmons told supporters at her watch party, according to FOX 4. "It would not have been possible without each and every one of you." Bolts reported her fuller pledge to the county: "You can expect us to manage this county with heart, compassion, personal responsibility, justice and ethics."

A seat Democrats had not won since 1986

No Democrat has served as Tarrant County judge since 1986, the Texas Observer reported. Simmons, the longtime president of the Arlington NAACP, won a seat on the Commissioners Court in 2022 in the most competitive precinct in the county. On the court she became O'Hare's chief opponent, clashing with him over the county jail, voting access and the county budget.

Last year the Republican majority on the court redrew the precinct lines in a mid decade redistricting that redrew Simmons' own seat to make it far harder for a Democrat to hold, Bolts and the Texas Observer reported. Simmons answered by running countywide against O'Hare instead of seeking reelection in the redrawn precinct.

O'Hare has served as county judge since 2023 and was previously mayor of Farmers Branch, FOX 4 reported. In September the Commissioners Court voted 3 to 2, along party lines, to eliminate nearly 100 polling sites in the county. Simmons voted against the cut. The Texas Observer reported the court cut 92 Election Day polling locations, about a third of all sites, and that Tarrant still recorded the highest turnout in its history for a midterm cycle.

The sweep reached the district attorney

The change did not stop at the judge race. Republican District Attorney Phil Sorrells lost his reelection race to Democrat Tiffany Burks, the Texas Observer and Bolts reported. Burks, a former prosecutor in the office from 1999 to 2021, had lost to Sorrells by about 6 points in 2022. She campaigned on closer investigation of deaths in the Tarrant County jail, which the Observer put at 80 since 2017, and on a new diversion unit for people struggling with addiction and homelessness.

Statewide Democrats also carried the county. The Texas Observer reported that Senate winner James Talarico pulled just shy of 60 percent in Tarrant, about a 22 point margin over Ken Paxton. "The results are a total repudiation of the Republican extremism that has taken hold of Tarrant County Republican leadership recently," Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told the Observer.

Simmons' win also gives Democrats a new majority on the five member Commissioners Court, Bolts reported. The court sets the county budget and tax rate and oversees the jail, county roads and public health. Results are unofficial until the county canvasses them.