Campaign website: votealisa.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Social media: Instagram: team_alisa_simmons Facebook: CommALSimmons X: @alisafortarrant Tik Tok: alisa.simmons<\/p>\n Early voting for the November elections is Oct. 19-30. Election Day is Nov. 3. To check your voter registration, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n To find out where you can vote, or who will be on your ballot, click here<\/a>. For information on the races across the county, check out our Election Central<\/a> page or our nonpartisan voter guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Education: Undergraduate: Texas Woman’s University\u00a0<\/p>\n Occupation and workplace: Tarrant County Precinct 2 Commissioner, Tarrant County Commissioners Court<\/p>\n Previous elected office(s) sought or held: How long have you lived in Texas and in your district? What are your qualifications to serve in this office? What are your top three priorities, if elected? Briefly describe how you would approach each. Health care and family stability. My focus is protecting access to JPS and preventive care and helping families avoid homelessness. Working with colleagues across the Court, health care providers, and social service agencies, we can close service gaps and get residents help sooner. County-funded agreements should set clear expectations for timely assistance and track whether families stay housed and connected to care.<\/p>\n Open, responsible government. I will work with the Budget Director to involve every commissioner early in budget planning, provide equal access to financial information, and use five-year forecasts to guide spending and tax decisions. I will also advocate for constituents’ participation in the public forum by seeking to restore twice-monthly public court meetings – one business meeting and one work session. To protect voting access, I expect the Elections Administrator to manage elections following clear, nonpartisan criteria.<\/p>\n What is the single biggest issue your constituents face? How would you address it? Why are you seeking this office? Who are your top five campaign donors? Have you ever filed for bankruptcy? If so, when? Have you ever been convicted of a crime, in Texas or another state? If so, what crime and when? What are your budget priorities, and why?\u00a0 I will also cooperate with the County Administrator to ensure funded programs are accountable to the public they serve. Ongoing services need stable funding and clear metrics to measure success.<\/p>\n What do you see as the county\u2019s role in managing infrastructure, such as streets and water quality, across the county amid rapid growth? Before approving a project, we should understand its short- and long-term effects on residents. We should also know how it will be funded, who will maintain it, and what the maintenance will cost over time.<\/p>\n With a reduction of public meetings, some residents are concerned about opportunities to engage with their elected officials. How do you plan to engage with constituents?\u00a0 How would you approach bipartisan collaboration on the Commissioners Court?\u00a0 I will make sure my commissioner colleagues have the same information, time to review, and an opportunity to ask questions before voting. We won\u2019t agree on everything, and we don\u2019t have to. But disagreement should never be a reason to withhold information or shut a colleague out of the discussion.<\/p>\n How would you address concerns about deaths in the Tarrant County jail? The Sheriff manages the jail, but I will continue to remind the public and my colleagues that the Commissioners Court has budget and contract oversight responsibilities over the Sheriff\u2019s Department and the Tarrant County Jail. I will work with colleagues to fund adequate jail and medical staffing and address gaps in access to prescribed treatment. In partnership with the Sheriff, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, and the medical providers, we must strengthen policies and streamline officer training for inmate medical emergencies, pregnancy care, and chronic conditions, including seizure disorders.\u00a0<\/p>\n If and when inmate emergencies arise, families should receive prompt notification and have a designated contact for timely, accurate information. They should not have to struggle to find out what happened to someone in the County\u2019s custody.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/10\/04\/alisa-simmons-democratic-nominee-for-tarrant-county-judge\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=799337&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/10\/04\/alisa-simmons-democratic-nominee-for-tarrant-county-judge\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by The FWR Staff, Fort Worth Report October 4, 2026 Candidate name: Alisa Simmons Age: 63 Public email…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-456631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456631","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=456631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Frame-3-3-1024x602.png\")
<\/p>\n
Held: 2022 – Present: Tarrant County Precinct 2 Commissioner
Sought: 2020: House District 94, 2010: Arlington School Board<\/p>\n
Lived in Texas all of my life, lived in Tarrant County for more than 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since taking office in 2023, I\u2019ve helped oversee county operating budgets of up to $905 million. I also have experience in public management for 9-1-1 public safety, business ownership, and leading the Arlington NAACP. I understand how Tarrant County financial decisions affect our diverse communities. I am also familiar with sound county government operations and will question figures or explanations that do not align with good fiscal management.<\/p>\n
Public safety. I will work with commissioners, the Sheriff, and health providers to improve staffing, training, and jail medical care, as well as expand treatment-based jail diversion. We will begin with a joint assessment to identify areas for improvement, set funding priorities, and assign clear responsibilities. I will also support regular public reviews to ensure the Court addresses issues proactively.<\/p>\n
Affordability remains a concern, particularly regarding housing and health care. Many residents struggle to manage these costs alongside daily expenses. I will work with fellow commissioners to safeguard homeowner exemptions and ensure continued access to JPS and preventive care. Families at risk of eviction or utility shutoffs require coordination between Justice of the Peace courts and County-funded assistance providers. I will propose a plan to the Commissioners Court to make this process more efficient. Assistance should be provided before families lose their homes, not afterward. Additionally, County-funded providers should track how quickly residents receive help and whether it effectively helps them remain housed long-term, not merely whether County funds were distributed to families within a 2-hour timeframe per month.<\/p>\n
I am undertaking this effort to bring steady, accountable leadership back to Tarrant County. Residents deserve a county government that listens, stewards their tax dollars responsibly, and plans for the future. I want to bring commissioners together to address the problems facing many of our communities and ensure Tarrant County employees have the resources to deliver dependable services. As presiding officer, I will treat every commissioner with respect and make certain each has a voice on the dais. We won\u2019t always agree, but our constituents should be able to count on us to work through our differences and get the County\u2019s business done on their behalf.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Walter Horton
Mar Look-Jameson
Monica Bailey Jackson
Adrian Garcia
David Gunn<\/p>\n
No.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I prioritize public safety, health care, maintaining roads and county facilities, and retaining qualified employees. I intend to work with the Budget Director and my colleagues on the Court to develop a sustainable five-year forecast that will guide our spending and tax choices without compromising the County’s cash reserves. I support financially sustainable tax relief. Putting off repairs to the County or passing the costs on to County employees does not mean that these expenses disappear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The County must maintain roads and bridges we are responsible for, particularly in unincorporated areas, and collaborate with cities on projects that cross jurisdictional boundaries. As County Judge, I will bring cities, TxDOT, the Tarrant Regional Water District, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and other partners together to plan for transportation, drainage, and water quality needs in both growing communities and older neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I voted against reducing Court meetings and will work with my colleagues to restore two public Commissioner Court meetings each month. I will also host evening town halls across the County, with online participation. Constituents who contact my office will know who is handling their concern and receive timely updates. As presiding officer, I will ensure constituents have a fair opportunity to speak and are treated with respect, including when they criticize us.<\/p>\n
I welcome bipartisan collaboration. We are elected to serve all constituents no matter their political affiliation. I have continuously exemplified this fact. I\u2019ve voted with my Republican colleagues to increase the county\u2019s homestead exemption and have supported tax rates below the no new revenue rate in prior years. I\u2019ve also worked across party lines to expand mental and behavioral health treatment as an alternative for those who can safely receive care outside of the Tarrant County Jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I will continue to advocate for independent reviews of jail deaths and public reports showing whether identified problems have been corrected. Each corrective action should have someone responsible for carrying it out, a deadline, and a follow-up.<\/p>\n