New Tarrant County commissioner stresses policy over politics

There were questions about whether Tarrant County would flip blue on Tuesday, but it stayed mostly red and Republicans kept control of the commissioners court. Unofficial results show voters went with Republican Tim O’Hare of Southlake for Tarrant County judge. In a tight race for Precinct 2, which covers Arlington and Mansfield, Democrat Alisa Simmons cinched the position with 51.45% of the vote. And in Precinct 4, which represents Northwest Tarrant County, Republican Manny Ramirez won easily over Democrat Cedric Kanyinda with 59% of the vote. He’ll be the first new commissioner for the precinct in 35 years. J.D. Johnson, the outgoing Republican commissioner who didn’t seek re-election, has held the spot since 1987. Ramirez, who will step away from his duties as the Fort Worth Police Officers Association president to be a commissioner full time come Jan. 1, is somewhat of an anomaly in today’s Republican politics.

He shied away from events that would pit him too far to one side or another politically. Throughout the campaign cycle, Ramirez was invited to candidate events that featured Republicans who support ideologies farther to the right. He rarely showed up. Though he had a watch party planned at the FWPOA office Tuesday evening, Ramirez did end up stopping by the Tarrant County GOP’s victory rally at Ashton Depot in Fort Worth. And Ramirez has remained relatively incident-free even as Republican politics became increasingly partisan in Tarrant County races. He’ll tell you himself — throughout his campaigns for the GOP nomination and his eventual victory, Ramirez didn’t say his opponents’ names once. To Ramirez, how county residents saw him campaign and how he’ll lead will reflect what Tarrant County residents and community members need: Leadership focused on solving the county’s most important issues. “My goal in both the primary campaign and this general campaign was to really showcase that we can bring civility back to politics, and that we can be issues-based, we can be common sense and really just focus on making our community members’ lives better in improving the quality of life in our county,” Ramirez said. “And if we stay laser- focused on that and drown out all the rest of the noise, I think that’s how we’re going to become the greatest county in the nation.” But make no mistake — Ramirez is conservative and a staunch Republican. Ramirez said his focus in the campaign was about the issues at hand, like infrastructure and being a responsible steward for taxpayer money.