Set aside that Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn is a MAGA mainstay who has embraced and, in return, been backed by partisan extremists and white nationalists. Waybourn’s failure to do his job as Tarrant County Sheriff demands he be removed by voters this fall.
Here are Three Reasons to Fire Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn:
1. Waybourn Cannot Do The Job and Keep Tarrant County Safe
Under Waybourn, the Tarrant County jail has become a money pit that has cost Tarrant County taxpayers millions of dollars. Just one wrongful death lawsuit recently forced a payout of $1.2 million. Millions more are being spent on overtime pay because Waybourn is incapable of hiring and retaining jail guards and other personnel.
And Waybourn’s jail is a death trap. There have been over 60 deaths under Waybourn’s watch, and the latest may be the worst. A man was killed by two Waybourn jail employees who have since been indicted for murder. Waybourn is in full-blown cover-up mode, bringing in corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to help block the release of critical video needed to expose the truth. Why? Revealing the truth exposes Bill Waybourn as incompetent. He is both unwilling and incapable of running a modern urban Sheriff’s department.
2. Waybourn is Funded by White Nationalists
Two of the prominent groups endorsing Waybourn, True Texas Project and Defend Texas Liberty, have been engulfed in controversy for years. Not only do these groups embrace far-right views of Christian nationalism, but they frequently peddle racist conspiracies like the Great Replacement Theory. Despite making the Southern Poverty Law Center List of Anti-Government Groups for three straight years, Waybourn has stayed close with True Texas Project and regularly participates as a speaker for their local events.
This is not surprising when you understand Waybourn also collected thousands in donations from Defend Texas Liberty PAC, another group embroiled in scandal after their past-president hosted Nazi-sympathizer and white supremacist Nick Fuentes in 2023. Even after acknowledging the contribution, Waybourn declined to return the donation and refused to say whether he would continue accepting money from the group.
3. Waybourn is a Founding Member of the Radical CSPOA
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is a group of sheriffs and elected officials that believe they have the power to override federal and state authority on matters from border enforcement to gun control to election security. Not only is the authority unfounded in any legal grounding, but the training sessions with offered credits (often hosted by leaders like Waybourn or Ken Paxton) were promptly banned after an investigation from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
The CSPOA associates with groups like the Oath Keepers and National Liberty Alliance; they have been labeled as anti-government extremists by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League.
Bill Waybourn may think he deserves more authority than the Governor of Texas or the President of the United States. In reality, he shouldn’t be in charge of anybody in Tarrant County or any Texan anywhere.
