Tarrant County Commissioners voted to hire a consulting firm that one commissioner said would result in a redistricting change that would disenfranchise her constituents.
The commissioners voted 3-2 at their April 2 meeting to hire the Public Interest Legal Foundation for $30,000 to provide consulting services regarding redistricting in Precincts 1 and 2. This comes as two commissioners’ seats are up for grabs in the 2026 election.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons said this was a power grab by Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare, and he wanted to remove her from her precinct.
“It is appalling that Judge Tim O’Hare, Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voted to retain legal counsel of a foundation with a well-documented history of overt hostility to minority voting rights,” Simmons said. “This is a clear act of intentional discrimination.”
Precinct 1 snakes through Tarrant County and touches all the other three precincts, and Precinct 2 encapsulates Arlington. According to an April 2 statement by Simmons, she and Precinct 1 Commissioner Roderick Miles, Jr. represent districts with majority-minority voting age populations.
“Minority citizens in our districts have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to elect their candidates of choice,” Simmons said. “We explicitly laid out the record showing that the Public Interest Legal Foundation is not a conventional law firm but rather an ideologically driven organization committed to attacking fundamental voting rights and undermining the rights and voting strength of people of color.”
Patrice Jones, founder of Southside Community Gardens and Precinct 1 resident, attended the meeting and was removed after clapping, in violation with the court decorum. She said redistricting Tarrant County is a purposeful attempt to push Simmons out because she’s a Democrat.
“With Commissioner Simmons losing her seat, we would really lose representation and the voice that Black and Brown people need,” Jones said. “Representation matters a lot in this country, and we haven’t had that here in Tarrant County.”
In 2021, the commissioners voted not to redistrict after the 2020 census data showed the districts were balanced.
In a statement posted on X, Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez said it’s been 15 years since Tarrant County has had redistricting.
“Conservative policies and values continue to make Tarrant County the greatest and most successful county in the nation,” Ramirez said. “I believe that I have a moral obligation to do everything legally permissible to ensure that our county continues to enjoy responsible conservative leadership.”
Longtime Arlington resident Jan Tyler attended the meeting and said after 15 years, redistricting should be done in Tarrant County.
“It may have been poor judgment in 2021 that they wouldn’t have it in a normal timeline of things,” she said. “That was the normal time to do it, that they didn’t do it.”
Seventy-seven people signed up to speak during public comments on the item, and the time limit was reduced to one minute per person.
Edward Spears, pastor and founder of Faith & Love Church of God in Christ in Fort Worth, took time off work to speak to the commissioners during the public comment. He had worked with the Fort Worth Independent School District for many years and was there when it redistricted.
Spears said redistricting should be an open, public process and that the agreement with PILF should have been done through a request for proposal.
“The deliberate manipulation of voters is a problem, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican,” he said. “You want to have a full and fair election. That means everybody needs to have a vote. Anytime we’re doing something like this secretly that means we’re trying to not do it with integrity.”
TCC student and the Tarrant County Democratic Party Leadership Committee member Carrington Sneed spoke during public comments, urging commissioners not to vote in favor of hiring PILF.
“Tim O’Hare is doing everything in his power to draw the lines, so he can consolidate power because deep down, he’s afraid,” Sneed said. “Afraid of black voters, afraid of democracy, afraid of a country that doesn’t look like him, and one he can’t control. He’s not just drawing maps. He’s building walls.”
True Texas Project CEO and founder of the NE Tarrant Tea Party Julie McCarty spoke in support of hiring PILF and redistricting Tarrant County. She said she agreed with Ramirez’s statement that redistricting is needed.
“I think any conversation where there are accusations of gerrymandering must begin with the current map,” McCarty said. “No one can honestly look at that map and say that it is pure.”
Bishop Mark Kirkland of Greater St. Mark Ministries in Fort Worth regularly attends Commissioners Court meetings. He said redistricting now without new census data would be like throwing darts in the dark.
“This is about Alisa Simmons. That’s what this is about, nothing else,” he said. “We’re about to start at $30,000 as a basement number, and we’re probably going to be well over a quarter of a million by the time this thing is done, and it’s all for one person.”
