Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Tim Davis filed formal administrative challenges on Wednesday against the ballot applications of seven different Democratic judicial candidates.
Davis alleges that the candidates failed to meet multiple requirements set by the Texas Election Code, which, if upheld, could disqualify them from the upcoming primary ballot.
In documents emailed directly to The Dallas Express and not yet made public, Davis outlined what he described as extensive statutory defects in petitions and applications submitted to Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo, demanding that the candidates be declared ineligible.
“If these candidates can’t complete basic legal paperwork, they cannot be trusted with a courtroom,” Davis wrote in the filing.
The challenges call out everything from missing mandatory disclosures to “defective” petition pages, incomplete affidavits, invalid signatures, and “significant shortfalls” to meet required signature thresholds.
Under Texas law, judicial candidates must submit petitions with at least 250 valid signatures (or 750 if filing in lieu of a fee) and complete a set of applications with strict disclosure requirements.
The seven challenged Democratic candidates and the deficiencies alleged in the filings include:
- Rodney Lee (Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4): “Defective” petition pages and incomplete affidavits allegedly reduce valid signatures to just 44 — far below the 250 required.
- Katherine Kim (236th District Court): Application allegedly lacks the mandatory statement of professional courtroom experience over the past five years, making it legally “insufficient.”
- Brian Willett (323rd District Court): Petition in lieu of fee, after invalidating defective pages, unregistered voters, duplicates, and out-of-county signers, yields at most 723 valid signatures — short of 750.
- Courtney Miller (432nd District Court): Multiple defects, including “hundreds” of signatures on pages without proper oaths or affidavits, allegedly leaving as few as 543 valid signatures — well under 750.
- Andrew Griffin (325th District Court): Missing courtroom experience disclosure and additional affidavit errors allegedly result in only 63 valid signatures.
- Julya Billhymer (County Criminal Court No. 5): Numerous pages missing required headers invalidate 280 signatures, leaving 127 valid.
- Lesa Pamplin (County Criminal Court No. 9): Defective pages disqualify 278 signatures, resulting in 221 valid, below the 250 minimum.
Davis noted that Texas courts have long held these types of noncompliant filings as invalid and that the Democratic Party chair has a clear and direct duty under the state’s Election Codes to reject any defective applications.
Davis contrasted the alleged filing deficiencies with what he described as the record of Tarrant County’s Republican judges, whom he said have demonstrated meticulous adherence to election law and judicial duties.
“Our Republican judges have modeled competence, diligence, and fidelity to the rules through years of steady, distinguished service, while Democrat candidates keep cutting corners,” Davis added.
With the upcoming primary election approaching, any declarations of ineligibility in the race could dramatically reshape these Democratic judicial standings.
The administrative challenges have not yet been adjudicated, and the filings had not been made public at the time of publication.
