Republican Political Action Committees (PACs) backed council and school board candidates in Tarrant. The majority of these endorsed candidates suffered defeat.
In the bustling city of Mansfield, Texas, the political landscape was turned upside down during the February elections. A private gathering titled "Path to Progress: Restoring Conservative Leadership in Mansfield" saw Republican leaders and residents fill a cozy barroom, eager to support conservative candidates for local offices.
Campaign season was in full swing across Tarrant County, and Tim O'Hare, the Republican County Judge, rallied the crowd. He declared, "You are the most important race right here in May. Literally, in the entire state of Texas." He went on to list a slate of six candidates from local Mansfield races, encouraging attendees to back these conservative contenders to "change the direction of Mansfield."
The six candidates – three incumbent school board members and three City Council hopefuls – served as the face of the event and, in true conservative fashion, went on to run aligned campaigns, gathering endorsements from the Tarrant County Republican Party.
However, on May 3, the results were not what they expected. The conservative candidates failed to win, marking the start of a clear trend across Tarrant County. Voters expressed their support for deliberately left-leaning or non-partisan candidates instead.
The losses were not limited to Mansfield, as the True Texas Project, a local conservative activist group, saw 19 out of 33 candidate recommendations go down in defeat. The Tarrant County Republican Party, sharing many names with True Texas Project in their list of endorsements, also experienced losses, with a whopping 14 candidates losing, including all seven challenged school board candidates.
One exception was Melisa Perez, a Republican-backed Mansfield City Council candidate. Despite taking the lead in the four-way race for the open Place 5 seat, she fell just short, facing a June 7 runoff.
For many Mansfield voters, the outcome was a shock. Beth Light, a former school board member from 2006 to 2018, endorsed Ana-Alicia Horn, a school board challenger. Horn unseated board president Keziah Valdes Farrar May 3. Since her election in 2021, Valdes Farrar had been instrumental in a series of controversial revisions to Mansfield ISD's library policies.
Though she felt hopeful for Horn's candidacy, Light didn't anticipate every single incumbent to lose their seats. She said that the election results illustrated that voters wanted to keep outside Political Action Committees (PACs) and partisanship out of local elections.
The changing political landscape in Mansfield highlighted a shifting tide in local elections across the nation. Professor Brandon Rottinghaus from the University of Houston explained, "We are seeing more money poured into local races, more attention to individual candidates, and more advocacy policies. This competitiveness of local politics makes it easy for people to see where candidates stand ideologically."
It is important to note, however, that broader political sentiments cannot be accurately determined based on local, off-cycle elections, which consistently have lower voter turnout than November elections with national candidates on the ballot. The results in Mansfield are likely a reflection of a group of passionate, civically engaged residents voicing their discontent with partisanship in recent years.
The mayoral race between incumbent Michael Evans and opponent Julie Short became incredibly personal as each candidate's religious beliefs and stance on diversity took center stage in mailers and exchanges. Evans, who has a history of supporting Democratic candidates, expectedly called for "consensus bridges" with those he disagreed with, while Short, a member of the Keep Tarrant Red PAC, saw the election as an opportunity to push her openly conservative agenda.
Competing patriotically-charged PACs have found their way into at-large school board elections across Tarrant County following the pandemic. In Mansfield ISD, a school district serving approximately 36,000 students, voters ousted three Republican-backed incumbents, including their board president and secretary. These races in 2022 were marked by Patriot Mobile Action injecting half a million dollars into school board races across the metroplex.
The Patriot Mobile PAC, a Christian cell phone company, covers its mission to "keep Tarrant County red" and "defend our God-given constitutional rights and freedoms while glorifying God." Since the election, the school board has faced controversy over election integrity scandals, illustrating the impact that ideologically driven PACs can have on local elections.
In a Facebook post after her loss, board president Valdes Farrar congratulated her challenger, Horn, for her victory and wished her well. Incumbents did not respond to requests for comment, while opponents welcomed the election results as a resounding vote for nonpartisanship and transparency. The winners of the school board races are now tasked with addressing looming budget shortfalls, school vouchers, and curriculum debates across Texas.
- The city of Mansfield, Texas witnessed a shift in its political landscape after the February elections, with conservative candidates in local offices failing to win, signaling a trend towards left-leaning or non-partisan candidates.
- The gathering titled "Path to Progress: Restoring Conservative Leadership in Mansfield" saw various conservatives rally around six candidates from local Mansfield races, hoping to change the direction of Mansfield.
- Among the six candidates, only Melisa Perez, a Republican-backed Mansfield City Council candidate, managed to reach a runoff, falling just short in a four-way race for the open Place 5 seat.
- A former school board member, Beth Light, endorsed Ana-Alicia Horn, a school board challenger who unseated board president Keziah Valdes Farrar May 3.
- In her election, Horn ousted Valdes Farrar, who had been instrumental in a series of controversial revisions to Mansfield ISD's library policies.
- The losses experienced by conservative candidates, including the Tarrant County Republican Party, and the victory of Horn, led some voters to believe that they had voiced their discontent with partisanship in local elections.
- In a Facebook post after her loss, Valdes Farrar congratulated Horn for her victory and wished her well.
- The results in Mansfield are likely a reflection of a group of passionate, civically engaged residents, and they may indicate a shifting tide in local elections across the nation.
- Patriotic PACs, such as the Patriot Mobile PAC, have played a significant role in at-large school board elections across Tarrant County, with the potential to impact local elections with ideologically driven agendas.
