Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons and Republican incumbent Tim O\u2019Hare are opponents in the race for Tarrant County judge. Election Day is Nov. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives<\/p>\n
Republican County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare and Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons face off Nov. 3 for the top office in Tarrant County after years of clashes on the Commissioners Court. The race could signal whether the largest red urban county in Texas is shifting blue.<\/p>\n
Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hare won the Republican primary with 87.6% of 133,273 votes while Simmons captured 61.4% of her Democratic primary, setting up the November matchup for county judge<\/a>.The two have traded jabs for four years on the Commissioners Court<\/a>, with Simmons once giving O\u2019Hare the middle finger after he interrupted her to call a closed session.The Nov. 3 ballot in Tarrant County features contested races from U.S. Senate down to county commissioner<\/a>, with early voting running Oct. 19-30.Through July, O\u2019Hare held a cash advantage of $707,000 to Simmons\u2019s $67,000, with his campaign pulling $135,000 from oil and gas companies alone<\/a>.U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz headlined O\u2019Hare\u2019s fall campaign kickoff in Grapevine, warning that threats to Texas have never been greater<\/a> and urging straight-ticket Republican voting.The Commissioners Court approved a plan leaving 93 fewer polling sites than the 2022 midterm<\/a>, with O\u2019Hare saying each Election Day location costs about $4,500 and Simmons opposing any reduction.A Quorum Report poll of 600 likely Senate District 9 voters showed Democrats leading key races including Tarrant County judge<\/a>, prompting both candidates to issue urgent fundraising pleas.Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo said O\u2019Hare \u201chas driven so many people into the arms of the Democratic Party, I should send him a gift basket.\u201d<\/a>October finance reports showed O\u2019Hare received $100,000 from Texans United for a Conservative Majority, a PAC backed by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks<\/a>, while Simmons drew donations from 38 states led by California and New York.Simmons announced her bid in December 2025<\/a>, pointing to her record opposing mid-decade redistricting and the shuttering of the county\u2019s Human Services department.U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth briefly entered the Democratic primary before withdrawing a week later to stay focused on Congressional District 33<\/a>.<\/p>\n Click to resize<\/p>\n The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons and Republican incumbent Tim O\u2019Hare are opponents in the race for Tarrant County judge.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-468887","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\/468887","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=468887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}