Tarrant County Commissioners Court approved a redistricting plan designed to increase Republicans’ advantage on the county’s five-member governing body starting with the 2026 elections.
Democrats have already filed a lawsuit challenging the new district lines, drawn to advance Republicans from a three- to a four-member majority on the commissioners court.
Tuesday’s 3-2 party-line vote established a new commissioner precinct map, labeled Option 7 on the county’s Redistricting 2025 website, that proponents say better reflects the county’s current political reality.
All countywide elected offices—including county judge—are held by Republicans, as are most of the partisan elected positions in Tarrant County.
Yet under the current county districting plan, Democrats hold two of the four commissioners court precincts.
The new map changes Precinct 2 from a Democrat district to one with a Republican advantage by relocating Democrat voters into Precinct 1, the county’s other Democrat-represented district.
Commissioners’ precinct boundaries have not been redrawn since 2011. The new boundaries will be used in the county’s 2026 elections. Precincts 2 and 4 will be on the ballot, along with the county judge seat.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said the redistricting fulfills a commitment he made to voters during his 2022 campaign.
“Far too often Democrats take ground while Republicans cede it. That is no longer the case in Tarrant County,” O’Hare wrote in a statement following Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting. “Today’s vote will ensure conservative governance of Tarrant County for years to come.”
Redistricting is typically conducted following each decennial census in order to rebalance the voting population. Following the COVID-delayed 2020 census, Tarrant County decided not to redraw the commissioners’ precinct boundaries. The entire court membership has changed since then.
The 2025 redistricting process began in April. Leading up to the selection of a new map, the county held public hearings in each of the four commissioner precincts.
The final vote followed hours of public comments for and against the plan.
A county official told Texas Scorecard that 268 people signed up to speak on the issue.
Tarrant County resident and conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss spoke in favor of the redistricting plan, noting that “people of all races are on both sides of the partisan aisle.”
“Tarrant County is the reddest county in the nation, and Republicans deserve to have equal representation in our county commissioner districts,” she told the court. “We hold 100 percent of the countywide offices, and we hold over 86 percent of all other offices in Tarrant County.”
“The redistricting based on partisan lines has been affirmed and approved at the Supreme Court level,” she added. “There is nothing illegal about it.”
A 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision cleared the way for redistricting based on party affiliation.
The Court found that drawing electoral districts for partisan advantage is not unconstitutional, concluding that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whose Precinct 2 was redrawn to favor Republicans, insisted that all seven proposed maps represented unconstitutional “racial gerrymandering” and were racially motivated.
Redistricting opponents who spoke Tuesday made the same accusations. Many referred to “packing and cracking,” a term used in voting rights litigation.
Simmons had encouraged opponents to attend a forum held the night before Tuesday’s vote that would provide “training on speaking at Commissioners Court” and “Talking Points” from redistricting “experts.”
During the commissioners’ discussion of the proposed plan, Simmons described the court’s mid-decade redistricting process as “unusual.”
“I didn’t say it was illegal, I said it was unusual,” she said.
Simmons also called the redistricting “racism.”
“The maps are racist. Anybody who votes for the maps is racist,” said Simmons. “It’s Jim Crow. This is Make America Great Again, but not in D.C., in Tarrant County … This is racism.”
Simmons also claimed “it’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true” that the county has not redistricted in 15 years; rather, she said, commissioners at the time “deemed it unnecessary to redraw the lines.”
O’Hare reiterated the fact that Tarrant County has not redistricted commissioner precincts since 2011. “We looked at redistricting and decided to make no changes,” he said.
“If there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind in this room about whether or not Democrats would do this if they had the majority, we know from Harris, Bexar, Travis, and Dallas that they do and did,” added O’Hare.
“The vast majority of feedback I’ve received from constituents was in favor of making the maps more conservative,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Matt Krause, a Republican.
Krause also explained why claims promoted by the mayor of Arlington—that the redistricting plan violates Texas election law and the Voting Rights Act—do not hold up.
“I just don’t want those here opposed to the redistricting effort to be blindsided or disillusioned when what they’ve been told by their leaders—that this is blatantly unconstitutional, it’s racist—it doesn’t turn out to be like that,” said Krause.
A 2022 challenge to Galveston County’s commissioners court redistricting resulted in an appeals court upholding partisan-drawn precincts and the ending Texas’ use of “coalitions” of different minority groups to create majority-minority districts.
“I’m very excited for the future of Tarrant County after today’s vote,” Krause added in a statement following Tuesday’s meeting.
Other local mayors supported the redistricting plan, including Keller Mayor Armin Mizani, who noted that Tarrant County has grown by 400,000 residents since it last redrew commissioner precincts.
“We don’t believe this is by accident,” stated Mizani, attributing the county’s growth to conservative policies that attract businesses and families.
Republican Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez, whose seat will be on the 2026 ballot, said the redistricting process “did have flaws” and could have been “a lot more comprehensive.” But he noted two of his colleagues—Democrats Simmons and Miles—opposed any redistricting plan and “chose not to participate in the process.”
Immediately following Tuesday’s vote, State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington) announced his candidacy for the newly redrawn Precinct 2. Tinderholt had previously stated he was not running for re-election to House District 94.
Also on Tuesday, Cheryl Bean announced she is running in the Republican primary for the open HD 94 seat, with Tinderholt’s endorsement.
On Wednesday, Texas Democrat attorney Chad Dunn filed a lawsuit against Tarrant County and its Commissioners Court on behalf of Black and Latino voters impacted by the new district boundaries.
The lawsuit claims that the newly drawn precinct map was racially gerrymandered to eliminate one of the two existing majority-minority precincts in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Dunn was one of the attorneys who unsuccessfully litigated the redistricting lawsuit against Galveston County.
