Progressive Texas organizers hail shock win as far-right Republicans left reeling

[erronis]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/15/texas-organizers-republicans

Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing

Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He'd noticed that a local member of the state legislature, Mike Lang, had become a vocal advocate for using public money for private schools - despite the fact that Lang campaigned as a supporter of public education.

With a little research, Tackett found that Lang had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn, billionaire megadonors whose deep pockets and Christian nationalist views have consumed the Texas GOP. Tackett published his findings on social media, and soon enough, people started asking him to create pie charts of their representatives' campaign funds. These charts evolved into the organisation See It. Name It. Fight It.

. . .

"It's a bunch of folks that are Black, brown, white, mostly progressive, but we've got a few folks that play into that former Republican space, as well," he says. "It's not about Republican versus Democrat. It's really all about what we stand for, because we can agree that public education is foundational to the success of our democracy. We can agree that a person should have rights over their own body, and it should be easier to vote, not harder to vote."

. . .

"There's actually a big enough and a diverse enough base amongst Democratic voters in Tarrant county that if we actually invest in those communities, we have the votes to be able to win," he says.

[walkingman]

1. Goes back to the old saying, "Watch what they do, not what they say". ☮

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Good for Chris Tackett! May he fight and win for the right reasons. ...n/t

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

3. "It's not about Republican versus Democrat. It's really all about what we stand for,

I love this

[efhmc]

4. I do so love it too.

[maliaSmith]

5. Tracking politicians donations from companies

Get the Ap "Goods United US" and you'll see who donates to politicians and which companies get political donations and what percentage from either party.

[erronis]

6. thanks for that recommendation. It's "Goods Unite Us" (https://www.goodsuniteus.com/)

https://www.goodsuniteus.com/

We're Spearheading the Fight Against Money in Politics

We are a dedicated group of data analysts, researchers, and democracy advocates, bringing transparency, accuracy, and accountability to corporate political influence — and giving power back to everyday people.

[electric_blue68]

7. Sounds promising! TY

[MagickMuffin]

8. Tarrant County is run by magas

From the Mayor to the county judge Tim O'Hare a former gop county chair. He's extremely partisan. Labels Democrats as evil. Makes sure polling locations have less machines to have available. Made sure early voting had extremely limited polling locations. My community which used to have several early voting locations had zero. I waited until election day to vote, which I'm sure a lot of people did as well.


Here's his fb page: https://www.facebook.com/tackett.chris

[erronis]

9. Can't get to fb but his Wikipedia page is damning enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Hare

In 2021, O'Hare and Leigh Wambsganss earned national acclaim among conservatives for their work co-founding the Southlake Families PAC, a group that promotes itself as "unapologetically rooted in Judeo-Christian values" and fought against the Carroll Independent School District's diversity plan to crack down on racism and anti-LGBTQ bullying. The group raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a slate of school board candidates who promised to kill the plan and 70% of its endorsed candidates won their races.[5][6][7]

. . .

In 2011, O'Hare proposed a referendum to make a new municipal Farmers Branch school district by merging the city's portion in the Carrolton-Farmers Branch and Dallas Independent School District. At the time, the city did not have the 8,000 children required under Texas law as a requirement for forming a new district, so KTVT stated, "Even if the proposal had passed, there would have been little, if anything, the city could have done to move forward." About 66% of voters decided against the referendum.[9]

In 2006, O'Hare introduced numerous ordinances targeting the city's growing undocumented immigrant and Latino community, including: requiring proof of citizenship to rent, establish English as the city's official language, and to enable local police to check immigration status as well as enforce immigration law. By 2012, the city had engaged in a protracted legal fight in courts defending the constitutionality of the ordinances, spending over $5 million on legal fees and retained Kris Kobach as counsel.[10] Writing for International Migration, Brettell and Nibbs contextualized O'Hare's ordinances as part of a growing "Latino threat narrative" stating that he had scapegoated the city's lagging home appreciation on undocumented, largely Latino immigrants.[11] In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a lower-court ruling that declared the ordinance unconstitutional.[12]
Tarrant County Judge

In 2022, O'Hare ran for County Judge of Tarrant County. He defeated former Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price, who was supported by incumbent judge B. Glen Whitley and Mattie Parker, in the Republican primary with the support of Donald Trump.[13] He was elected in the general election, defeating Democratic nominee Deborah Peoples with 53% of the vote.[3] Writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Abby Church said "Hare's induction onto the commissioners court marks a transition in Tarrant County politics. The county has largely been governed by middle-right leadership from Whitley, a Republican, and Tom Vandergriff, who was county judge for 16 years before Whitley. With O'Hare, the county takes a sharper turn to the right."[14]

In 2024, O'Hare was a speculated candidate for retiring U.S. Representative Kay Granger's 12th district seat, but opted to remain in his position.[15]

In May 2025, when there were two Democrats and two Republicans on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, O'Hare declared that the ongoing process of redistricting Tarrant County precincts was "purely 100% about partisan politics", as he detailed that "my plan and what I campaigned on openly and publicly, dating as far back as May 2021", is to "pass a map that guarantees, or comes as close as you can to guarantee, three Republican commissioners" in Tarrant County out of four, as O'Hare thought that "Tarrant County would be better served if we have strong Republican leadership".[16][17]

[MagickMuffin]

10. Like I said PARTISAN as hell

He isn't liked among very many people even within his own party.

We were extremely fortunate that Leigh Wambsganss lost her election to Taylor Rehmet (I helped) in Jan. They'll have to face off again in Nov. But reading comments on her fb page is hilarious comments. No one likes her. Plus someone had posted a video of her knocking a phone out of someone hand who asked what she would do when she lost the election. Her 1st response was violence.


Poor Jesus, he needs to start smighting some of these false prophets/profits grifters.