The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider contracting with a nonprofit to possibly redraw its precinct maps ahead of the 2026 election.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider contracting with a nonprofit to possibly redraw its precinct maps ahead of the 2026 election.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider contracting with a nonprofit to possibly redraw its precinct maps ahead of the 2026 election.
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider redrawing its precinct boundaries ahead of the 2026 election, according to an agenda item up for consideration Wednesday.
The commissioners court will consider contracting with the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit, to receive “advice and consulting services regarding redistricting for county commissioner districts,” the agenda item reads. The scope of services includes providing legal advice, drawing potential maps, and discussing the potential adoption of a new map.
The county would pay up to $30,000 in exchange for services, according to the agreement. The commissioners court is comprised of four commissioners elected by their precinct and a County Judge, who is elected by the county at large.
The commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Tarrant County Administration building.
The county typically undergoes redistricting every 10 years when official census data is released, which is in line with both the U.S. Congress, the state legislature and other local government entities.
In 2021, Tarrant County held six public input sessions and contracted with Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP to inform the redistricting process, but ultimately decided to keep the same districts, saying the precincts remained balanced as is.
The court is currently led by three Republicans, County Judge Tim O’Hare, Manny Ramirez and Matt Krause. Ramirez and Krause represent the northern half of the county, including parts of Fort Worth and Mid-Cities suburbs.
Two Democrats, Alisa Simmons and Rodrick Miles, represent precincts 1 and 2 in the southern part of the county, including parts of Fort Worth, Arlington and Grand Prairie. Both precincts are majority-minority districts, and both Simmons and Miles are Black.
Simmons, who is up for election in 2026 alongside O’Hare and Ramirez, calls the proposed redistricting “racial gerrymandering.” Simmons represents Precinct 2, which until 2019 was represented by Republicans. Simmons has routinely clashed with O’Hare over a variety of issues.
“I will not stand by while extremists try to dismantle fair elections in Tarrant County,” Simmons said in a statement. “This blatant attempt at racial gerrymandering would dilute the voting power of people of color in Precincts 1 and 2, threatening to eliminate one—if not two—districts where minority voters have consistently elected candidates of their choice.”
Texas State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, also issued a statement opposing the proposed redistricting.
“A mid-decade redistricting is a completely unnecessary, foolish endeavor that will undoubtedly expose Tarrant County taxpayers to costly litigation,” Turner said.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to “fighting voter fraud along with its revolutionary data-driven litigation efforts,” according to the organization’s website.
The organization’s president and general counsel, J. Christian Adams, is a former Department of Justice lawyer who, in 2020, was appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights by President Donald Trump and wrote a book critical of the Obama administration, according to his bio on the foundation’s website.
The organization represented Galveston County after the Department of Justice alleged the county commissioners’ court violated the Voting Rights Act by eliminating the only minority-majority precinct in the county. In 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Galveston County.
The Tarrant County GOP supports the proposed redistricting, the party said in its weekly newsletter, according to reporting from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“There are two Democrat commissioners and two Republican commissioners, because of blatant gerrymandering decades ago which has never been corrected,” the newsletter said, according to the Star-Telegram.
Tarrant County has recently been considered a “purple county,” often oscillating between electing Democratic and Republican candidates for president and senator. Most recently, 51.8% of Tarrant County voters supported Donald Trump for president. Four years prior, Joe Biden won the county with 49.3% of the vote.
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