{"id":454979,"date":"2026-10-03T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454979\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T05:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:14:17","slug":"arlington-area-voters-to-decide-open-texas-house-district-96-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454979\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington-area voters to decide open Texas House District 96 race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"&quot;byline&quot;\">by Chris Moss, Arlington Report <br \/>October 1, 2026<\/p>\n<p>The open race for an Arlington-area Texas House seat will see voters decide between a Republican newcomer and a Democrat in her second campaign for the office.<\/p>\n<p>Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebforhd96.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ebony Turner<\/a> and Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ellen4texas.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ellen Fleischmann<\/a> are vying to represent House District 96, which encompasses parts of Arlington, Mansfield, Fort Worth and Kennedale, in the Nov. 3 election. Both candidates are lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>The current officeholder is Rep. David Cook, a Mansfield Republican who has represented the district since 2020 and is running for a seat in the Texas Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Turner previously ran for the seat in 2024 and lost with roughly 42% of the vote. Before that race, she ran for a Tarrant County criminal court judge seat.<\/p>\n<p>She said her top policy priorities include public school funding, affordable healthcare access and raising the minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>Turner said Cook\u2019s vote for a voucherlike program providing parents with state funds for private school was the catalyst for her 2024 campaign office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a son with special needs, and I know that vouchers effectively defund public schools, so that\u2019s why I decided to run,\u201d Turner said. \u201cNow that vouchers have become law, that\u2019s why I decided to run again because I\u2019m fully invested in funding public education and repealing the voucher law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Turner said she supports a universal healthcare system, but would push for an expansion of Medicaid if that system doesn\u2019t materialize.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are now ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/09\/22\/health-uninsured-rates-remain-high-in-tarrant-county-heres-why-it-matters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 1<\/a> in uninsured residents, and we\u2019ve seen hospitals close,\u201d Turner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen insurance companies pull out of the state, all because we haven\u2019t expanded Medicaid. If we can do that, it will ensure more access and equitable access to healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Frame-3-3-1024x602.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-412267\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7010520055016543;width:368px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color\">Early voting for the November elections is Oct. 19-30. Election Day is Nov. 3. To check your voter registration, <a href=\"https:\/\/goelect.txelections.civixapps.com\/ivis-mvp-ui\/#\/login\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color\">To find out where you can vote, or who will be on your ballot, <a href=\"https:\/\/gisit.tarrantcounty.com\/TCVL\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a>. For information on the races across the county, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/election-central\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Election Central<\/a> page or our nonpartisan <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/fort-worth-tarrant-county-voter-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">voter guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The race is Fleischmann\u2019s first campaign. She said the experience of watching her father, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells, work in public office gave her an appreciation for service.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann said she first felt drawn to run after Cook sought a Senate seat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI talked to my husband about it, we prayed together, we felt like this was where the Lord was steering us for our next stage of life,\u201d Fleischmann said.<\/p>\n<p>Her top priorities include increasing public safety, deregulating the small business sector and lowering the costs of insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann said she saw how government-mandated overhead costs affected her own businesses\u2019 bottom lines. Fleischmann owns a law practice in Mansfield and a yoga studio in Lubbock, where she attended Texas Tech University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the government starts placing businesses that increase their overhead, that makes the price of those services and the price of those products skyrocket in a time when families are already struggling with affordability,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cI really want to cut regulations, and I do not want to add additional overhead and burdens on small businesses that are going to cause the price of things to skyrocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Educating children is one of the most important roles of government, Fleischmann said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to make sure that the resources are there to do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann wants to examine the education savings account program during the next legislative session. She did not say whether she supported the law or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know we\u2019re going to be looking at a lot of numbers and looking at how that program has impacted education across the board, and probably playing a little cleanup,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to look at that data and see how this has impacted education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both candidates understood the need for property tax relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Turner pointed to school finance as one way to bring relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m for fully funded public education; that means the state\u2019s got to pay their fair share, and hopefully, that would then alleviate some of the burden on property owners for property taxes,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann said she is focused on long-lasting and impactful relief for property owners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know there are some people who saved their whole lives and paid off their home, and now they are being taxed out of their home,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cWe have to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen, and we don\u2019t just say we are passing property tax relief, but we actually make sure that we pass property tax relief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked why voters should choose them, Turner and Fleischmann both leaned into their backgrounds.<\/p>\n<p>Turner said her roughly 30 years of collective experience working with the Texas Legislative Council and as a criminal defense attorney will be brought to Austin if she is elected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEither I taught the law, wrote the law, practiced the law and tried the law,\u201d Turner said. \u201cI\u2019m going to bring that wealth of knowledge and experience back to Austin, and I\u2019m extremely passionate about my issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann said she wants voters to look at her stances and policies before looking at a party affiliation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m running as a Republican, my opponent is running as the Democratic candidate, but I hope that people will take a look at me and the policies I stand for,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cI stand for public safety, and I stand for supporting small businesses and cutting regulations so that we can have a more affordable state, and we can make sure that we don\u2019t end up having skyrocketing prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fleischmann has outraised and outspent Turner, according to campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n<p>As of July, Fleischmann had spent roughly $41,000, raised $118,000 and had roughly $200,000 in cash on hand.Turner has spent roughly $20,000, spent roughly $7,000 and has roughly $14,000 in cash on hand.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/10\/01\/arlington-area-voters-to-decide-open-texas-house-district-96-race\/mailto:chris.moss@fortworthreport.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/about\/fort-worth-report-editorial-independence-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/10\/01\/arlington-area-voters-to-decide-open-texas-house-district-96-race\/&#8221;&gt;article&lt;\/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;https:\/\/fortworthreport.org&#8221;&gt;Arlington Report&lt;\/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/&#8221;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;\/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&#8221;https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&#8243; style=&#8221;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&#8221;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>&lt;img id=&#8221;republication-tracker-tool-source&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=811060&amp;amp;ga4=2820184429&#8243; style=&#8221;width:1px;height:1px;&#8221;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &#8220;https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/10\/01\/arlington-area-voters-to-decide-open-texas-house-district-96-race\/&#8221;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;\/script&gt; &lt;script id=&#8221;parsely-cfg&#8221; src=&#8221;\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js&#8221;&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Chris Moss, Arlington Report October 1, 2026 The open race for an Arlington-area Texas House seat will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1854,150,152,151],"class_list":["post-454979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlingtonreport","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454979","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=454979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}