(The Center Square) – The last large urban Republican majority county in Texas, Tarrant County, has flipped blue.
Democrats won nearly every seat on the ballot in the north Texas county that’s the third largest in the state with more than 2.1 million residents.
There are 1.3 million registered voters in the county, more than 733,000 voted in the Nov. 3 election, according to county data.
In 2024, President Donal Trump won the county by nearly 52%. In the November 2022 election, Gov. Greg Abbott won nearly 52%. This election, Republicans lost badly.
At the county level, one of the biggest upsets was the ousting of incumbent Republican Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare and the flipping of two county commissioner seats. O’Hare has consistently made headlines for kicking people out of court, including Republicans asking questions, with viral videos posted on social media.
He lost by 13 points. Democrats won races for district clerk, county clerk, and two county commissioner slots. Only one Republican remains on the court, Matt Krause.
The county also elected a Democrat district attorney, a Democrat State Board of Education member and Democrat judges to 13 contested races for county and district court.
The Tarrant County Democratic Party thanked voters for flipping “the last red urban county in the United States to BLUE.”
After his loss, O’Hare said, “The voters have spoken in Tarrant County, and despite our best efforts, they decided to go in a different direction.” He pointed to economic successes, including cutting the property tax rate four times, giving the first homestead exemption in county history, and cutting the county budget by $70 million without cutting services.
Krause acknowledged the election was a “bloodbath at the local, state, and national level” and that Republicans “especially here in Tarrant County, have two options: 1. We can accept the narrative that once a county flips it never comes back. 2. Take stock of ourselves, redouble our efforts in 2028, and retake ground lost.”
He said he chose the second option, adding, “It won’t be easy. It will take a lot of hard work. But, it is certainly worth the effort. Tarrant County has been a leader for a long time and has strengthened the state because of it.”
At the state level, nearly every Republican lost by large margins.
Their losses came after years of Republican precinct chairs complaining about the direction of the Tarrant County Republican Party, including lack of unity, leadership and inability to bring more people into the party. Its former chair Bo French’s unapologetic racist comments resulted in rebuke from Republicans while he was chair and after he resigned to run for the Texas Railroad Commission, The Center Square reported.
During the RCC race, Tarrant County Young Republican’s chair resigned stating he was voting for Democrat Jon Rosenthal. Other Republicans said the same and the Texas Oil & Gas Association, the largest organization representing the industry, didn’t endorse French.
Rosenthal won 56% of the county, defeating French by 15 points. Statewide, Rosenthal won nearly 53% of the vote. He was the first Democrat elected to the RCC in 32 years.
In the race for state Senate, SD 9, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed Republican candidate Leigh Wambsganss, who many Republican voters didn’t support. After she lost a special election in February to Democrat Taylor Rehmet, who ran a campaign on bipartisanship, Patrick blamed Republicans. After Rehmet was sworn into the Senate, Patrick didn’t assign him to any committees.
More than $3 million was poured into the SD 9 race and Wambsganss still lost. Rehmet won 51% of the vote Tuesday, flipping the long-held Republican seat blue.
In other statewide races, Tarrant County voters elected Democrats by double digits.
Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governor’s race by 14 points in the county; Patrick lost reelection by 11 points. The county voted for Democrats for attorney general, Agriculture Commissioner, General Land Office Commissioner and state Comptroller, by up to 14 points.
County voters rejected all Republican incumbent justices on the highest appellate courts. Texas Supreme Court justices lost by 13 points; Court of Criminal Appeals and the new 15th Court of Appeals justices lost by up to 11 points. They all lost statewide, in an unprecedented flipping of court seats and majorities, The Center Square reported.
In the state legislature, county voters elected three Republicans to the state House and helped flip several seats blue. Overall, they elected seven House Democrats. They also overwhelmingly voted for a Democrat in the race for state Senate, SD 22, but Republican David Cook won, garnering more support in other parts of the district.
Statewide, Democrats flipped the majority in the Texas House by historic margins, The Center Square reported. The Texas Senate kept its Republican majority.
In response to overall losses, Texas GOP Chair D’rinda Randall said they are “not the end of our story. We will reflect honestly, learn from our setbacks, and come back stronger.
“Election night brought some difficult losses, but there were victories as well. Republicans held their majority in the Texas Senate, and there were wins worth acknowledging.”
At the federal level, in the U.S. Senate race, Democrat James Talarico won the county by 19 points.
County voters overwhelmingly supported Democrat Frederick Haynes who won a newly redistricted open seat. U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne was the only incumbent Republican member of Congress to win the county, whose voters rejected three other incumbent Republicans in Congress. All four won reelection.
Statewide, the Republican congressional delegation lost at least six seats in Texas, The Center Square reported.
