The race for county judge continues in Tarrant County in an election that will have a huge impact on the region’s political future.
Tarrant County currently stands as the last large county in Texas under Republican leadership.
Republican Tim O’Hare is challenged by Democrat Deborah Peoples for the county’s highest office — a position akin to the mayor of a county.
Tim O’Hare served Texas as City Councilman in Farmer’s Branch for three years before serving as mayor from 2008 to 2011. He also served as the Chairman of the Tarrant County Civil Service Commission in 2018.
O’Hare’s campaign promises to cut property taxes, fund law enforcement, eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, as well as develop a stronger ethics policy.
Deborah Peoples is a retired executive of AT&T, having worked there for 30 years. Later, Peoples served as the chairwoman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party and has run for the position of mayor of Fort Worth twice.
Her campaign promises to bring high-quality jobs, invest in education, provide affordable housing and healthcare, and bring skilled trades and apprenticeship training.
WFAA sat down with both candidates to discuss their positions on apparent issues.
O’Hare explained that his motives for running are for the sake of improving the county, and not for money, noting that the $212,000 salary would be a pay cut.
“Regardless of what it will do for my reelection chances, regardless of what the media is going to say, regardless of what the cancel culture mob will say, I’m going to do what I think is right,” O’Hare said to WFAA.
Peoples highlighted that her focus is to create high-skilled jobs, as well as to improve education and healthcare.
“My mission is to create an environment where every resident in Tarrant County is allowed to thrive,” Peoples said to WFAA.
A large point of contention in the race has been over the topic of election integrity. O’Hare has centered part of his campaign around alleged widespread voter fraud and has promised to hire an election integrity officer to oversee the election and pursue any instances of fraud, according to the Dallas Observer.
Peoples responded with disappointment to the notion of needing an integrity officer, saying, “They know there’s no fraud. But that doesn’t fit their narrative.”
The Dallas Express has previously reported on an alleged voter fraud ring orchestrated by Peoples and her then-campaign manager, Stuart Clegg. County Sheriff Bill Waybourn had announced that his office would not be opening an investigation into the allegations, noting that investigation at that time would be “inappropriate.”
USAFacts, a non-profit organization specializing in government data, has created an interactive map for users to find local midterm election information for any county in the United States.
“People are hearing two different versions of reality and don’t have the information they need to make a choice,” said Poppy MacDonald, CEO of USAFacts, to the Dallas Observer. “There’s one source of truth, and that’s to go look at the data,” she continued.
The Tarrant County General Election for County Judge will take place on November 8. Early voting began on October 24 and ends on November 4.
