O’Hare’s plan to redraw Tarrant County Commissioner Precincts is overt and intentional discrimination
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare voiced his philosophy of leadership during his 2022 campaign when he boasted, “… if you are a Republican office-holder and you haven’t been called a racist, you probably haven’t done a thing.”
O’Hare is making good on his promise of engaging in overt racism. His plan to hire a notorious legal team known most for attacking the Voting Rights Act and destroying minority voting strength is a clear act of intentional discrimination. While the U.S. Voting Rights Act has been weakened in recent years, engaging in intentional discrimination remains illegal in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
O’Hare and his complicit colleagues are promoting a series of lies to camouflage their racially discriminatory acts as simple partisan politics. They claim that the current boundaries are unfair politically and the Commissioners Court failed to ratify boundaries in 2021. Both claims are demonstrably false.
The Current Map Accurately Reflects the Racial Makeup of Tarrant County
Tarrant County is a majority minority county with Anglos making up just over 42 percent of the county’s population. Currently, two commissioner districts, Precinct 3 (Matt Krause) & Precinct 4 (Manny Ramirez), elect candidates preferred by Anglo voters. The two other commissioner districts, Precincts 1 (Roderick Miles) and 2 (Alisa Simmons) elect the minority candidates of choice.
It is the intention of O’Hare and his MAGA colleagues to racially gerrymander the current boundaries to destroy minority voting strength in Commissioner Precinct 2 to make it impossible for minority voters to elect their candidate of choice. Their actions would ensure the Anglos who barely make up 42 percent of the county would control 75 percent of the Commissioner seats and 80 percent of the votes on the Commissioners Court. This plan would grossly undermine the established and proven voting strength of Black, Hispanic, and other minority voters in Tarrant County.
The Current Map Accurately Reflects the Political Behavior of Tarrant County
Tarrant has been essentially evenly split politically over the past decade. Democratic candidates like Beto O’Rourke in 2018, Joe Biden in 2020, and Colin Allred in 2024 have carried the County. Even in down-ballot races where Democrats are badly outspent by Republicans, Democratic candidates close in on 50 percent of the vote. Tim O’Hare himself in 2022 lost both Commissioner Precincts 1 and 2 and won countywide by less than 35,000 votes against his Democratic opponent whom he outspent more than 4 to 1.
Engaging in an intentionally discriminatory racial gerrymander will push the county far out of political balance.
The Current Boundaries Were Properly Ratified in 2021
The Tarrant Commissioners conducted an extensive examination of the precinct boundaries in 2021 and correctly determined that the population deviation between each district was well within the 10 percent allowed by state and federal law. They further correctly determined that the current boundaries fairly reflected the racial make-up of the county and the political behavior of the county. Opting to retain the boundaries is not a failure to act. It is a deliberative affirmation that the current boundaries best reflect the makeup of Tarrant citizens and best serve their needs.
Any claim that the districts were drawn to favor Democrats is ludicrous. Precinct 2 was held by a Republican for decades. In fact, it was not until 2018 when Republican Andy Nguyen was defeated by Democrat Devan Allen that a Democrat was able to capture the seat. What happened to cause that change? The minority population in Precinct 2 increased dramatically to the point that minority voting strength was sufficient to elect the minority candidate of choice. Tim O’Hare’s efforts are intended to destroy that recently realized minority voting strength.
O’Hare Plans to Hire Legal Counsel that Specializes in Racial Discrimination
O’Hare is working to force Tarrant County taxpayers to hire and pay the notorious voter suppression law group, Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), to serve as legal counsel to oversee his efforts to destroy minority voting rights in Tarrant County. The group specializes in filing lawsuits and working to convince anti-minority office-holders to attack and undermine the voting strength of minority citizens through racial gerrymandering and gross voter suppression laws. O’Hare is dishonestly posting a fee cap of $30,000 for PILF. He knows, however, that his discriminatory actions will lead to extensive and expensive litigation that will eventually cost Tarrant taxpayers hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.
O’Hare is Revealing What Intentional Discrimination Looks Like
The effort underway to redraw Tarrant commissioner boundaries to destroy the effective voting strength of minority citizens in at least one and possibly two precincts is Tim O’Hare making good on his promise to engage in racist activities. O’Hare’s efforts are overt and are being made in the face of clear evidence that damage will be done to minority voters. He is engaging in blatant and intentional discrimination.
