As the November midterm elections near, Republican candidates for Tarrant County office continue to outperform many of their Democratic opponents’ campaign fundraising, with County Judge Tim O’Hare leading the way in cash raised and spent.
Among the candidates for county government, Republican incumbents far outraised and outspent their Democratic challengers in the races for county judge, county commissioner and district attorney. Further down the ballot, Democratic fundraising outpaced the Republicans in the races for district clerk and county clerk.
Campaign finance reports published Oct. 5 detail candidates’ financial activity from July 1 to Sept. 24. Candidates for the county commissioners court, district attorney, district clerk and county raked in more than $1 million, cumulatively, from a range of contributors that includes political action committees, investors, real estate developers, local elected officials and other candidates on the ballot.
O’Hare, who is seeking his second term, has more than $836,000 in available campaign cash as of Sept. 24. He reported raising about $415,000 over the tracking period and spent about $290,000, primarily on consulting services and canvassing.
Alisa Simmons, the Precinct 2 county commissioner challenging O’Hare for the countywide judge seat, maintains a campaign war chest of about $247,000. Over the reporting period, she raised about $286,000 and spent nearly $75,000, largely on consulting, phone-banking and campaign signage.
The latest campaign finance reports detail an uptick in fundraising over the last two months for both Simmons and O’Hare. In the first six months of the year, O’Hare raised about $314,000 and Simmons raised about $111,000.
From July to late September, O’Hare’s largest cash donation, $100,000, came from Texans United for a Conservative Majority, a political action committee led by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. Other PAC contributions include $10,000 from the National Cutting Horse Association’s Texas Events PAC, $1,500 from the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County and $750 from Responsible Government.
Simmons’ PAC contributions included $4,000 from the Tarrant County Democratic Woman’s Club and $5,000 from the Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, a PAC formed in 2024 to flip Texas blue by building up campaign infrastructure.
The majority of Simmons’ donors gave $100 or less. Her largest contribution over the two-month period came from real estate developer Walter Horton, who gave roughly $98,000 through three installments. Simmons’ next largest cash donations included $10,000 from David Gunn of GM Financial, about $6,600 from animal welfare advocate Mar Look-Jameson and $5,000 from the campaign of James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat on the ballot.
Over the last two months, O’Hare garnered financial support from several mayors in Tarrant County, including Mattie Parker of Fort Worth, who contributed $1,000 with husband David Parker; Jack McCarty of North Richland Hills, who gave $5,000; Ross McMullin of Keller, who gave $500; and Shawn McCaskill of Southlake, who gave $250. Mansfield Mayor Michael Evans contributed $1,000 to Simmons’ campaign.
O’Hare received cash donations from the campaigns of various other Republicans running for county office, plus more than $5,000 from Mayes Middleton, the Republican nominee for Texas attorney general on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Among the rest of the commissioners court, incumbent Commissioner Manny Ramirez was the next highest fundraiser with more than $180,000 raised over the two months. His challenger for the northwest portion of the county, Nydia Cardenas, raised less than half of that, about $71,000. Ramirez reported spending about $96,000 — more than triple the amount spent by Cardenas.
For the Precinct 2 seat left open by Simmons, Democrat Jared Williams reported raising about $12,000 and spending about $5,000. Republican Tony Tinderholt raised nearly $7,000 and spent almost $26,000. The former state legislator maintains about $65,000 in his war chest, which carried over funds from his past state campaigns. Williams has about $6,000 in remaining cash, plus about $18,000 in outstanding loans.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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