’24 Local Voter Guide

If you’re a sentient being existing in the country right now, you’re probably aware it’s election season. You may even have noticed this particular election is a presidential election. Hopefully, you’ve registered to vote (the deadline is Monday, Oct. 7), and even if you think you are, it’s important to double-check, as Gov. Greg Abbott has been bragging about purging over 1 million people from voter rolls. If you need help deciding between the Trump/Vance and Harris/Walz tickets, there are plenty of resources out there for you, but this guide isn’t one of them. We ask that you please just educate yourself on what Project 2025 is and what it would mean for our future. (Hint: nothing good.)

Here in Tarrant County, school board candidates, state representatives, and state supreme court justices mean just as much as, if not more than, the presidential election. In your daily lives, you will feel the effects of what your local and state officials do more than you will feel what the federal government does — full stop. And, due to unchecked gerrymandering and voter suppression, voter misinformation, and lack of voter education, Texas has for decades been under increasingly extremist Republican rule that is at odds with what most citizens want from their government. We could start to change that this year by voting in the following races.

Notable Statewide Races

U.S. Senate — U.S. Rep Colin Allred is running against the much-hated, much-maligned longtime incumbent and podcaster Ted Cruz. You don’t have to like Allred (his bipartisan schtick gets old, and he is from Dallas, after all), but flipping a Senate seat here would send a huge message to the country that Texas is through being controlled by Republican extremists serving only themselves. Allred supports gun reform, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and paid family and medical leave for all Americans. Cruz supports all-inclusive resorts in Cancún.

Texas Supreme Court — In Texas, we don’t have the option of citizen-led, statewide ballot initiatives to protect a person’s right to access abortion the way states like Kansas have. Instead, we have to take the route of electing candidates and judges who will expand and protect our reproductive rights. One of the ways we do this is by electing Democrats to the Texas Supreme Court, which is currently 100% Republican. We can flip three of the Supreme Court seats from MAGA judges by voting for these candidates:

Place 2: DaSean Jones

Place 4: Christine Vinh Weems

Place 6: Bonnie Lee Goldstein

Almost all of the current Texas Supreme Court judges were first appointed by Republican governors, due to a judge’s retirement or other extenuating circumstances, and then subsequently reelected. Citizens have had little say in the makeup of this court, and it’s time to end that pattern.

Railroad Commissioner — Not about trains. This important position controls the regulation of the oil and gas industry and is hugely important for driving climate-change policies. Democrat Katherine Culbert is a chemical engineer with firsthand experience working for oil and gas, yet her campaign’s key messages center on protecting the environment and holding corporations accountable. She has pledged to weed out corruption in the railroad commission, while incumbent Christi Craddick mostly echoes Republican talking points of “defending our values” and “keeping Texas strong,” whatever that means.

Notable Local Races

Tarrant County Sheriff — At least 65 people have died in Tarrant County Jail since Bill Waybourn assumed office in 2017. His opponent, Democrat Patrick Moses, has campaigned on what he calls the 100P3 initiative: a comprehensive review during his first 100 days in office of every practice, policy, and procedure in place at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The retired executive with the Department of Homeland Security has said each death at the jail is another reason for him to run and pledged that he will champion the creation of a Civilian Review Commission. Meanwhile, Weybourn’s focus has been on catering to election deniers with his bogus “election integrity task force,” which so far has prosecuted no one because the narrative of widespread voter fraud is just another Republican scare tactic and is not based on reality.

Commissioners Court Precincts 1 and 3 — The Tarrant County Commissioners Court recently voted, narrowly, to allow local college campuses to remain early voting locations, as they have been for many years before Republicans like County Judge Tim O’Hare and other right-leaning commissioners’ bold attempts to remove them. The move was clearly an attempt to suppress young voters, many of whom don’t have their own modes of transportation. If that gives you an idea how important the somewhat-obscure Commissioners Court is, consider voting for the Democrat running in your precinct.

In Precinct 1, Roderick Miles is hoping to take the seat over from retiring Dem Commissioner Roy Brooks, for whom he served as an aide for many years. In Precinct 3, which includes deep-red Southlake and Colleyville, Laura Leeman is hoping to replace retiring Commissioner and Republican Gary Fickes, if she can get past former state legislator Matt Krause. If you’re a Dem voting in Precinct 3, it is extra important that you don’t skip this box on your ballot.

Texas State Board of Education District 11 — The State Board of Education sets curriculum and chooses textbooks for Texas public schools. Given the attacks on books, teachers, librarians, and, most notably, historical facts, these seats are more important than ever. Democrat Rayna Glasser is running against Weatherford Republican Brandon Hall, who beat longtime incumbent Patricia Hall in the primary after claiming she wasn’t Republican enough because she didn’t support the ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools. Oof. Glasser, on the other hand, has been outspoken about keeping religious teachings out of our schools, so the choice is clear — vote Glasser.

U.S. House of Representatives (12th District) — Texas State Rep. Craig Goldman is vying to replace longtime U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, and Democrat Trey Hunt is his opponent. Goldman’s Republican buddies in Austin have spent a lot of money to ensure he secures this seat, but you can stick it to them by voting for Hunt, who is a Homeless Housing Coordinator for Tarrant County’s health department and supports sweeping criminal justice reform.

Texas House of Representatives (District 97) — Fort Worth native and naval veteran Carlos Walker, who has worked for Fort Worth ISD for decades, strongly supports more state funding for public education and reducing teacher burnout and turnover by increasing teacher pay. His Republican opponent, John McQueeney, is a fast-food restaurant franchise owner who will support Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to continue underfunding public schools in favor of his beloved voucher program. Vote for Walker.

Other Considerations

Besides the two mentioned above, Tarrant County comprises six other congressional districts and 10 more Texas House of Representatives districts. If you don’t know the district in which you reside, use the Tarrant County voter lookup tool on TarrantCountyTX.gov/en.html and then research the candidates running in your district. Ballotpedia.org makes this simple by allowing you to create a sample ballot tailored to you that lets you drill down on individual candidates, their qualifications, and policies. Don’t be surprised if you find that many Republican candidates choose not to participate in the candidate questionnaires, likely because they know an informed electorate does nothing to help them.

A final reminder as you head to the polls in just a few weeks (early voting begins October 21): In Texas, public education is under constant attack and is severely underfunded (and that underfunding is also related to why your property taxes are so high). It’s so underfunded that a recent study showed that over 91% of Texas public school students attend inadequately funded schools — and now far-right Republicans want to turn Texas into a voucher state.

In Texas, reproductive rights are nonexistent, yet we have one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates, and it’s even worse for Black women. Some Texas Republicans are literally considering the death penalty for anyone who gets an abortion, and IVF and contraception are next on their hit list.

In Texas, anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, whether a child or adult, is routinely investigated, ostracized, and stripped of basic rights. We’re helping the wealthy with tax cuts and loopholes, while the rest of us are overworked, underpaid, and exhausted trying to pay rent we can’t afford. We spend our summers and winters wondering if the electrical grid will collapse as we set records for droughts, heat, and floods — often all at the same time. And on and on.

We stop all this madness by showing up to vote and voting down the whole ballot. Many people just select the top races (e.g., the president) and waltz on out of the voting booth. Please don’t do this. There is no “straight-ticket voting” in Texas, meaning there is not an option to have the machine select all candidates of one political party for you. You will have to individually select each candidate. To save time, print your sample ballot or write down your picks for each race and bring it with you to the polls. Physical “cheat sheets” are A-OK. You just can’t look at your phone while in the booth. Now go forth and save democracy!

This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.