The candidates for Tarrant County Commissioners Court report about $462,000 in cumulative campaign spending so far this year, ahead of the November midterm elections, according to a Fort Worth Report review of public financial disclosures.
The six candidates raised nearly $600,000 in cash from January to mid-July, with County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican seeking his second term, far outpacing the others in both campaign fundraising and spending.
The campaign contributions came from a range of donors, including political action committees, oil and gas firms, investors, real estate developers and local activists, as well as elected officials across the county and state.
Democrat Alisa Simmons, a county commissioner challenging O’Hare for the county judge seat, raised nearly a third of the $315,000 O’Hare saw in contributions. Her campaign reports spending about $75,000 from cash donations — about half of O’Hare’s reported spending.
O’Hare’s campaign war chest holds more than $700,000 in cash as of July 15, per his finance reports. He plans to use those funds to expand his campaign’s voter contact program through “mail, digital and grassroots outreach,” according to a news release from his campaign.
“Tarrant County voters know our record, and the more they hear about it, the more they support us,” O’Hare said in the release. “We’re raising the resources we need to finish strong, and we’re not letting up until every voter has heard our message.”
Simmons, whose campaign did not return a request for comment Friday, has readily acknowledged the race for county judge could be an uphill battle.
“This by no means will be an easy task,” Simmons told the Report after winning the Democratic nomination in the March primaries. “I think it will be a battle royale.”
O’Hare, Simmons head into November after dominating primary elections
Three of the five commissioners court seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot: county judge, who represents the entire county; commissioner of Precinct 2, which includes southeast and southwest Tarrant; and commissioner of Precinct 4, which covers northwest Tarrant.
The midterms mark the first election under the commissioners court map approved last summer. O’Hare and Republican commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez said they wanted to maintain and strengthen the court’s GOP majority by redrawing Simmons’ precinct to favor conservative candidates.
As November approaches, Republican candidates in the two commissioner races maintain significantly more cash than their Democratic opponents.
Political scientists and local analysts have said the midterms mark a pivotal election for Tarrant County, historically a red voting block that shifted closer to purple by supporting Democratic candidates at the top of the ticket in recent elections.
In February, O’Hare urged supporters to mobilize conservatives to vote in the midterms, following the upset election of Democrat Taylor Rehmet to the Texas Senate seat that represents much of Tarrant County.
Who’s funding the county judge candidates?
Last month, O’Hare’s campaign raked in about a quarter million in cash. His top donors included both individual investors and firms investing in oil and gas.
O’Hare’s largest individual donor, who gave $50,000, was Don Woodard, president of Fort Worth-based investment firm Western Commerce Group. Another $30,000 came from Michael Radler, founder and CEO of Tug Hill, an oil and gas investment firm.
Cody Campbell and John Sellers, the co-CEOs of Fort Worth-based energy company Double Eagle Energy Holdings, each gave $12,500 to O’Hare’s campaign.
Since January, O’Hare has accepted contributions from five PACs: Tarrant County Law Enforcement Association; Texas Realtors; Texas Nurse Practitioners; the insurance company Higginbotham; and Accountable Government Fund, a PAC funded by prominent Fort Worth businessman Ed Bass and his wife.
Simmons’ fundraising this year relied mostly on small cash donations from grassroots supporters, with three contributions of $5,000 or more.
Simmons’ largest contributor by far was real estate developer Walter Horton, who gave $18,000 through multiple donations this year in addition to $56,000 last year. Her next largest contribution this year came from Gerald Alley, a commercial construction and real estate developer who gave $5,000.
In February, before the primaries, Simmons received about $37,000 of in-kind support from the Texas Organizing Project, a PAC aimed at building political power in Black and brown communities through grassroots outreach and advocacy.
About $67,000 remains in Simmons’ campaign coffers — roughly 10% of O’Hare’s remaining total.
Donors to commissioner candidates
Of the two commissioners races, Precinct 4 has garnered far more financial support. The candidates are Ramirez, a former Fort Worth police officer seeking his second term, and Nydia Cárdenas, a leadership coach and grassroots activist.
Ramirez, who did not face a primary challenger, raised about twice as much as Cárdenas this year. His largest contribution, $10,000, came from Gary Blake, CEO of Creative Solutions in Healthcare in Fort Worth.
The roughly $42,000 Cárdenas raised this year came primarily from small individual donors, with only two contributions of more than $1,500. Those came from Horton, the real estate developer also funding Simmons’ campaign, and Ann Zadeh, a former Fort Worth City Council member who remains civically active as an advocate at local government meetings.
Cárdenas’ campaign has about $14,000 left as of mid-July, or about 5% of Ramirez’s reported cash on-hand.
Both candidates for the Precinct 2 seat left open by Simmons previously held public office and launched their campaigns last year with funds left over from past campaigns.
Republican Tony Tinderholt, who served 12 years in the Texas House, started his campaign for commissioners court with about $145,000. He raised a little more than $7,000 in cash this year — about 20% of the amount raised by his Democratic opponent Jared Williams, who served on Fort Worth City Council for four years.
Tinderholt won his party’s primary with more than 80% of votes in March, while Williams went to a runoff election in late May after a three-way primary for the Democratic nomination.
Williams received his largest contributions this year during the primary campaign. They included $5,000 from Jeff Postell, president and CEO of the construction firm Post L Group; $3,000 from Nancy Rimmer of the agriculture company RNR Production Land and Cattle; and $2,500 from For The Children, a PAC that supported the rise of charter schools with funding from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, a longtime charter schools advocate.
The largest contribution to Tinderholt’s campaign, $10,000, came last year from Justice for Texas Victims, a PAC advocating for the 7th Amendment right to jury trials. Last month, he received $2,500 from the Tarrant County Law Enforcement Association PAC.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
Disclosure: Higginbotham is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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