Precinct 3 Constable Henry Curry<\/a> argued that Montgomery should be removed from the ballot because he does not hold a required peace officer\u2019s license.<\/p>\n\u201cWe need someone in place who is going to uphold the law, who is going to abide by the law \u2013 and who can actually hold this office,\u201d Curry told NBC 5.<\/p>\n
The Dallas County Democratic Party says it has received nearly 60 challenges to candidate eligibility this election cycle, with ballots set to be finalized for the Texas Secretary of State by Jan. 12.<\/p>\n
In Montgomery\u2019s case, party officials said he meets the eligibility to run: he is over 21, holds an associate\u2019s degree and has no felony convictions. An attorney for the party, which was also named in the legal filing, told the court it would abide by the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Curry, who defeated Montgomery by fewer than 100 votes in 2022, argued that Montgomery\u2019s lack of a peace officer\u2019s license should disqualify him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is at stake is just the integrity of the office,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n
Montgomery told NBC 5 he filed a federal lawsuit in Smith County after being charged in 2021 with impersonating a public servant while employed with a constable\u2019s office in East Texas. A jury acquitted him in 2024.<\/p>\n
In a separate case, he received a misdemeanor deferred adjudication in Ellis County in October 2025 after applying for constable license plates, according to court records.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not a certified police officer; he can\u2019t obtain that certification within the mandated 270 days,\u201d Curry said following the hearing.<\/p>\n
Montgomery said he is being transparent with voters and would work to become a certified peace officer if he remains on the ballot and is elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went through the case in Smith County, it took over four years for to get an acquittal, so it\u2019s nothing that happens overnight, but it will be worth it at the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Judge Charles Stokes, presiding in the 101st District Court, did not make an immediate ruling but indicated his decision would be limited to whether Montgomery meets the basic eligibility criteria to appear on the ballot, not whether he currently meets job-specific statutory qualifications.<\/p>\n
The Democratic primary election is on March 3. Early voting begins Feb. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dallas County constable candidate is fighting to stay on the March primary ballot as a legal challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,581,104,103,3269,2133,8817,287],"class_list":{"0":"post-113591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-county","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-democratic-party","13":"tag-democrats","14":"tag-lone-star-politics","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}