Tarrant Co. Judge Tim O'Hare loses reelection bid

Political experts are watching to see if Tarrant County might turn blue tonight as well. Yeah, Tarrant and Fort Worth have tended to bounce back and forth the last elections. It voted for President Trump in 2016 and then for Joe Biden in 2020, then went back to Donald Trump in 2024. So let's take a look at the few local races tonight. In the race for State Senate District 9, Republican Lee Wambachans is trailing 47% to Taylor Redmond. 53%, and that's with 74% of the votes counted. And you may remember that this vote was a big surprise because Redmond beat Wambachans in a special election for the same seat in January. A surprise because President Trump won this district by 17 points in 2024. Tarrant County judge, long-time Republican incumbent Tim O'Hare has conceded. Democrat and current commission court member member Alisa Simmons has... Won this, not many, only 52% are counted, but Tim O'Hare called Alisa Simmons and she went on and accepted it. 58% to 42%. Fox News Alex Boulay at Alisa Simmons' watch party at Texas Live in Arlington as the results came in. Alex. Hey guys, good evening. I can tell you that there are certainly a lot of very happy Tarrant County Democrats here inside of Choice, which is the venue at Texas Live, where Simmons was holding her watch party, which has now turned into a celebration. You can certainly hear the lively crowd here behind me. You know, it's interesting. We had originally started the afternoon in Fort Worth outside of the Tarrant County GOP watch party, and we had been told by organizers. We ended up transitioning over here around 8pm and I can tell you just as we were coming inside from the front entrance, Simmons was coming in the rear entrance here, greeted by applause from her supporters. I think that we have some of that video. I happen to catch it on my cell phone. You see it right there. She was coming in the side door and was greeted by cheers and applause from her supporters who had eagerly been awaiting her arrival. She walked up on stage there. You can see folks with their cell phones out. That is her mother who is hugging her there and congratulating her. We're surprised to hear that at that moment when we had walked in, it was so relatively early in the evening, she told the crowd that Judge Tim O'Hare had called her already to congratulate her. Here's some of what she had to say. Victory is yours. It would not have been possible without you, each and every one of you. And I told Judge O'Hare this when he called. He called an hour ago to congratulate me. They're dismissing us again. And I told Judge O'Hare this when he called. He called an hour ago to congratulate me. They're dismissing us again. And I told Judge O'Hare this when he called. He called an hour ago to congratulate me. And I told Judge O'Hare this when he called. He called an hour ago to congratulate me. And I told Judge O'Hare this when he called. Congratulations. Perfect is not to dance. And when asked what she would say to Tarrant County residents who had been kicked out of those contentious commissioner court meetings by Judge O'Hare at the time, and she said, quote, welcome back. And I can tell you that it still remains a very lively crowd here inside of the venue. Simmons is still here with her family. She thanked her oldest son as well for coming on to her campaign. She said at the beginning of her campaign, she really had No social media presence and she said that her son told her that she needed to get her voice out there and that she needed to engage with younger voters and he helped get her on a bigger reach as far as social media goes and she wanted to thank him for helping her reach those younger voices. No doubt they were a part of her victory pathway here this evening. word from Tim O'Hare's campaign. We will certainly continue to monitor that as well. As you all know, and we've been talking about this evening, Tarrant County is certainly a bellwether county, meaning, of course, that the way election results come here could indicate kind of the way that the larger electorate is leading statewide. This small indication of maybe this county turning purple or some dare say blue. It's still early in the evening. We'll have to wait and see.