Tarrant County Republicans fight to keep control of Texas’ largest GOP county

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FORT WORTH — Eight years after voting for Gov. Greg Abbott, Angela Martinez discovered herself ready in line Tuesday to snap a photograph with Beto O’Rourke, his challenger on this yr’s nail-biting gubernatorial contest.

Martinez, a 33-year-old marketer for a pediatric house well being company, has by no means recognized as strictly liberal or conservative, she mentioned, and typically looks like “a strolling contradiction.” If there’s a spot for her on the standard political spectrum, she hasn’t discovered it. When she voted for Abbott in 2014, Martinez recognized with what she noticed because the then-attorney basic’s Christian household values.

However since then, Martinez has soured on Abbott. She feels Abbott didn’t do sufficient within the wake of the lethal winter freeze in February 2021 to forestall the state’s electrical grid from collapsing ought to a equally catastrophic climate occasion hit Texas sooner or later. As somebody who values “the sanctity of life,” Martinez is uneasy concerning the state’s blanket ban on abortions that took impact after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this yr.

“My mom had the liberty (to hunt an abortion), my aunts had the liberty,” Martinez mentioned whereas ready to satisfy O’Rourke on the College of North Texas Well being Science Heart in Fort Value. “Why shouldn’t we?”

Voters in Tarrant County, the state’s final main city county dominated by Republicans, simply barely broke for Democrats on the prime of the ticket within the final two elections — O’Rourke gained there throughout his 2018 Senate bid and so did President Joe Biden two years in the past — stoking Democrats’ hopes that the trail to the governor’s mansion, and the tip of their decadeslong exile from statewide workplace, goes via Tarrant. Boosting these hopes is infighting this yr amongst Tarrant County Republicans — who insist the occasion is united.

The yr that O’Rourke carried Tarrant throughout his near-miss bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Abbott gained the county by greater than 66,000 votes and practically 11 proportion factors — outperforming each different statewide Republican on the ticket.

4 years later, Abbott’s crew is “assured” the governor will win Tarrant County as soon as extra, Abbott’s chief strategist Dave Carney told reporters last week whereas acknowledging the county is aggressive. “It’s going to be a battle,” Carney mentioned.

At his marketing campaign cease on the UNT Well being Science Heart, O’Rourke expressed optimism that 125,000 individuals who have been added to the county’s voter rolls since he ran in 2018, mixed with discontent over the ability grid failure throughout final yr’s winter storm, the state’s abortion ban and Abbott’s response to high school shootings would assist ship him the county.

“Abbott has given us an enormous, enormous opening” in Tarrant County, O’Rourke mentioned. “So many individuals are on the lookout for the widespread floor and the widespread sense that’s been lacking from our state authorities.”

However as Democrats categorical optimism due to O’Rourke and Biden’s victories, Republicans proceed to dominate down-ballot races in Tarrant County — an indication of the GOP’s enduring dominance right here.

“They’ve now slightly little bit of historical past that means that Democrats would possibly have the ability to win in Tarrant County,” mentioned James Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian College. “Alternatively, there has not been a countywide Democrat elected for county workplace in Tarrant County on this century.”

Earlier within the yr, Democrats appeared primed to beat expectations {that a} president’s occasion will get pummeled throughout the midterm elections — bouyed by surprisingly excessive ballot numbers within the wake of the Supreme Courtroom ruling on abortion rights earlier this yr. However that lead evaporated amid excessive inflation and Biden’s persistently low approval rankings.

That bodes effectively for Republicans’ probabilities to carry onto Tarrant, mentioned Rick Barnes, Tarrant County Republican Celebration chair.

“It’s not a great time to be a Democratic candidate, due to this fact not a great time for Beto in Texas,” Barnes mentioned.

“My financial savings simply retains getting smaller and smaller”

Jaynell Sharum, a 73-year-old retiree who final labored for a Fort Value regulation agency, mentioned she and her husband have needed to make sacrifices as the price of gasoline and meals have gone up — for which she blames Democrats. Sharum and her husband don’t exit to eat as a lot as they used to, she mentioned, and at house have in the reduction of on how a lot meat they purchase from the grocery retailer.

Although the USA isn’t the one nation experiencing speedy inflation, economists have laid among the blame on federal stimulus funds that helped overheat the financial system.

Sharum plans to vote Republican up and down the poll, although she fears a “exhausting touchdown subsequent yr” for the financial system even when Republicans meet projections and retake the U.S. Home.

“I feel what they (Democrats) are doing is simply making it worse,” Sharum mentioned at a Republican Girls of Arlington assembly final week. “We’re going to have to chop again, the federal government’s going to have to chop again on their spending and it’s gonna be exhausting on everyone. But when we don’t chew the bullet now, I don’t know what it’s gonna be like in one other yr — besides that my financial savings simply retains getting smaller and smaller.”

Some conservatives who’ve chafed at a few of Abbott’s strikes mentioned they nonetheless plan to vote for him. Kaye Moreno, a member of Fort Value Republican Girls, mentioned she disagreed with how lengthy Abbott saved in place measures like masks mandates and occupancy restrictions for companies supposed to gradual the unfold of COVID-19 — guidelines that had been deeply unpopular among the many Republican base.

“There could also be some issues that I’ve disagreed with Abbott on right here and there, however not sufficient to say that I might by no means vote for him,” Moreno mentioned. “I’m fairly pleased with him.”

Democrats, in the meantime, are betting they will peel off sufficient average Republicans disaffected by the occasion’s rightward shift within the final 4 years to interrupt their decadeslong exile from statewide workplace — and maybe countywide workplace in Tarrant as effectively.

Scott White, a 55-year-old former managing director for Accenture who lives in Grapevine, mentioned previously he persistently voted Republican with few exceptions: He voted for the Libertarian Celebration candidate slightly than former President Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton and for Biden in 2020.

However this yr, White mentioned he voted straight Democratic — a reversal sparked partially by his opposition to the state’s whole abortion ban, which he known as “past appalling.” And he thinks Abbott, who he has voted for twice, has grown too obsessive about “pulling stunts” slightly than working to handle points head-on — referring to Abbott’s busing of migrants to so-called sanctuary cities like New York Metropolis and Chicago.

“They (Republicans) was once a celebration of average conservatives that had a radical proper that was just about underneath management,” White mentioned. “That’s just about flipped now and the moderates not have any energy and it’s simply this radical proper crowd and the propaganda machine. That’s what they’re left with.”

GOP civil struggle?

A part of Democrats’ hopes relaxation on a perceived rift between the county’s conventional class of extra average, business-friendly Republicans and the occasion’s proper wing.

Voters in a contentious GOP major for county choose, the county’s prime elected place, handed over Betsy Value — who served as Fort Value mayor for 10 years and is taken into account extra of a centrist — for Tim O’Hare, the previous Farmers Department mayor who in 2008 ushered in an ordinance forbidding landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants, which a federal courtroom later dominated unconstitutional. O’Hare, who drew the backing of Trump, additionally co-founded Southlake Households PAC, which efficiently opposed a plan to handle racial discrimination at a college district in northeast Tarrant County.

However the county’s prime Republicans haven’t solidified behind O’Hare. Tarrant County Choose Glen Whitley, a Republican who shouldn’t be in search of reelection, shouldn’t be backing O’Hare as his would-be successor — and Value has implored fellow Republicans to not simply vote for candidates as a result of they’ve an “R” subsequent to their identify on the poll. Nonetheless, Whitley and Value haven’t endorsed O’Hare’s Democratic opponent — Deborah Peoples, a retired AT&T govt and former chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Celebration.

“I actually imagine that Republicans, independents and even average Democrats are extra targeted on the problems that impression them on a day-to-day foundation,” mentioned Whitley, who has backed Democrat Mike Collier in his bid to unseat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “That’s property taxes, that is schooling, that’s the financial system. They’re not as involved about (essential race concept) and the assorted points that the extremes need to concentrate on.”

For O’Hare, speak of stark GOP divisions in Tarrant County are overblown.

“Yeah, there was a contentious major and other people picked their sides,” O’Hare mentioned. “However we got here out on prime and we gained Fort Value outright. We gained the remainder of the county outright. The concept there’s some civil struggle, I feel, is simply not correct.”

That hasn’t stopped Peoples from attempting to select off Republicans probably turned off by O’Hare.

Peoples gained the backing of Steve Murrin, a widely known Republican and businessman generally known as the “mayor of the Stockyards.” She’s sought to solid herself as a business-friendly Democrat who can shepherd the county’s progress by way of expanded public transit and infrastructure — and painting O’Hare’s involvement with the Southlake Households PAC as a possible hindrance for attracting new companies to Tarrant.

“Corporations worth variety,” Peoples mentioned. “So when you’ve gotten any person who’s saying ‘I don’t worth variety,’ that form of smacks within the face of what many of those corporations try to do.”

O’Hare, who additionally has campaigned on slicing property taxes and boosting public security, dismissed Peoples’ assertion as “a false narrative, which is just about her specialty” and touted endorsements from Fort Value actual property developer Mike Berry and outstanding lawyer Dee Kelly Jr.

O’Hare has trounced Peoples, who twice ran unsuccessfully for Fort Value mayor, in fundraising — gathering practically $602,000 from July 1 to Sept. 29, in accordance with his newest marketing campaign finance report. That’s practically six occasions the $102,000 Peoples raised in the identical interval.

“The Fort Value enterprise group — the ‘downtown crowd,’ typically they’re known as — they’ve gotten behind me huge,” O’Hare mentioned. “We’re very assured that Republicans are behind me in vital numbers.”

Disclosure: Accenture, AT&T, Texas Christian College, College of North Texas and UNT Well being Science Heart have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.