Saturday, August 24, 2024
On Feb. 12, several Republican primary candidates vying for positions across the metroplex came together for a Republican Party candidate forum. Precinct chairs for the Tarrant County Republican Party put forward funds to hold a Tarrant County Republican Primary Candidate Forum at the Rockwood Golf Course in Fort Worth for candidates overlapping Texas House District 99. Longtime incumbents faced off against newcomers in the state infamous for its number of elections and offices.
Precinct chair Katheryn Moore emceed the event and introduced candidates. Moore described how only 40% of voters vote in primaries and stressed their importance in deciding the outcomes of elections. Candidates spoke for a maximum of three minutes each and spoke with attendees at the end of the event.
Tarrant County will hold primary elections for sheriff, tax assessor-collector, county commissioners, constables, criminal court district judges, district court judges and more March 5. Early voting began Feb. 20. Primary candidates who spoke at the forum who did not have a challenger present include incumbent Pat Hardy, State Board of Education District 11; Rick Barnes, challenger for Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector; and Joe D. “Jody” Johnson, challenger for Tarrant County Constable Precinct 4. Their remarks are below. Hardy is facing off against challenger Brandon Hall, who was not present. Barnes is challenging incumbent Wendy Burgess in the primary. Johnson is facing incumbent Jason “Scott” Bedford and challenger Carolyn Gilmore in the primary, neither were in attendance.
Pat Hardy, State Board of Education District 11
Hardy has served her constituency of approximately 1.5 million constituents since 2003. She described having lived and worked in the area as an educator for over 30 years.
“I have been on the State Board of Education now for quite some time and the reason I ran… in the beginning was it was not in good shape 20 years ago,” Hardy said. “It had a lot of problems, and a lot of people still think it has problems, but the problems have been diminished a great deal over the years because we have learned to work together, but it’s easy because we have 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Someone said, ‘she always votes with the Democrats’, and I was like ‘I think it’s the other way around, the Democrats vote with us.’”
Hardy went on to describe the impact she has made in the district over the years and describing some of the changes that have occurred in her office’s duties, such as textbook review.
“The idea of gender is not taught in the elementary grades because it was a Republican board that said ‘no, it’s not going to exist,’” Hardy said. “We don’t have as many controversies because we kind of straighten it out to begin with. Some of the other things that come along are the textbooks and we’re very strong at looking at the textbooks, but I have to tell you, I’ve come to a rude awakening because just this last time when we went over science textbooks, I had to look a lot closer. In years gone by, we had teacher groups that viewed it and checked it and then we would look at it and we would not have to look as closely. Now it calls for everyone to be on their toes at all times because you just never know when someone is going to pull something on you because the ridiculous things we had to pull in that review was crazy, but that’s the way it is today. People are very daring to put things out there that a few years ago they would not have done.”
Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector, Rick Barnes
Barnes began by describing some of his experiences as Tarrant County Republican Party chairman, praising the precinct chairs for putting together the event and speaking about his background. Barnes explained he was born in Fort Worth but was put up for adoption and joined a family full of other adopted children.
“I’m not sure who my birth mom is but I’m glad she chose life,” Barnes said. “I am one of five kids in our family, all of which were adopted. So, when we get together and talk about adoption and the realisms of what it means to be conservative it’s an easy conversation for us. I was once asked what makes me a conservative and I didn’t really know how to answer the question. I just simply said I think I’ve been one since birth, it kind of came out that way. I was raised by my father who was my high school principal who also was a Southern Baptist deacon, so we had a lot of rules and followed them or else.”
Barnes went on to describe his experience as GOP party chair for the last four years and his three years as mayor pro tem in Keller.
“We really worked hard to make sure Tarrant County remains the reddest urban county in the United States of America,” Barnes said. “When I first became the party chair, it was Orange County California, then half of them moved here and we became number one. So, it’s good to continue to work with all of you. I want to be your tax assessor-collector for one big reason. We’ve got a manager in office right now; we need a leader in this position. About 75% of this job is statutory. You follow the rules. In Austin, you do what you’re told, you do them by the deadlines and that’s an easy process. The rest of it requires a lot of leadership.”
Barnes continued by proposing some of his plans if he were to win the tax assessor-collector’s office. Barnes suggested no longer appraising property values at least once every three years. He also suggested limiting the value a property can increase by per appraisal to a maximum of 5%.
“Now my opponent will tell you that that’s against the law, but I don’t understand how Republicans think that way,” Barnes said. “Whenever (Gov. Greg) Abbott said, ‘let’s load them up in buses then take them to New York’ I imagine somebody said ‘that’s against the law’ and he said, ‘bring the bus!’ Whenever Trump said, ‘let’s go down there and build barbed wire and put some walls up,’ I’m sure somebody told him that’s against the law and he said, ‘call Home Depot and get some barbed wire.’ We don’t sit around as Republicans and wait for things to be comfortable and then do them when it’s easy. We make decisions that are tough.”
Barnes touted his number of endorsements by conservative candidates and an alleged lack of endorsements for incumbent Wendy Burgess.
Constable for Tarrant County Precinct 4, Joe D. Johnson
Johnson also praised the hard work of the precinct chairs. He talked about his 36 years in the county, starting when he attended the Fort Worth Police Academy in 1985. Johnson has since worked with the Fort Worth Police Department for a little over 30 years as a patrol officer, undercover in the street crimes unit, as a narcotics officer and as a S.W.A.T team member for 15 years.
“I got to spend a lot of time visiting with the public. I never thought I would become a politician. I can assure you now, I’d be the worst politician here and probably the worst speaker here, unless Joe Biden is watching.”
Johnson described retiring from the police department and speaking with Doug Preston, former Precinct 4 Constable.
“He said, ‘you know what, I think you’d make a great constable.’ I said, ‘Doug I’m not a politician.’ I told someone the other night, ‘I’m the beans and cornbread version of a politician. What you see is what you get. It’s nothing fancy about me.’”
Johnson was elected constable in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. Johnson handed over the reins to current constable, Jason “Scott Bedford, in 2022 in order to run for a Tarrant County Commissioners Court position.
“I would not be working so hard to get elected again as constable of Precinct 4 if the Precinct 4 constable’s office was not in dire straits,” Johnson said. “They are just broken. I know most of y’all probably don’t know the day-to-day activities that the constable does, but the constable in short is kind of like the arms and legs of the court.”
Among other issues, Johnson claimed the current constable, Jason “Scott” Bedford regularly does not show up for work, can’t keep a full staff of officers, and is often in conflict with the local courts.
“You have to solve problems as a constable, you’re not supposed to create problems,” Johnson said. “I have the experience and the knowledge to get this job done and bring it back to where it was at one time.”
