For Immediate Release:
Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Rick Barnes made the following remarks at a press availability on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at the Tarrant County GOP headquarters:
By now we all know about Robert Francis O’Rourke and his DWI conviction where he fled the scene of an accident and his desire to defund and dismantle our law enforcement. That extremism and lawlessness extends from the top to the bottom of the Democrat ballot in Tarrant County.
In recent weeks we have received numerous pieces of evidence that allege both corruption and extreme racism on the part of Democrat candidates in Tarrant County. Specifically judicial candidate Lesa Pamplin, Alisa Simmons who is running for County Commissioner and Deborah People who is running for County Judge.
Local judicial candidate Lesa Pamplin’s history of making extreme racist comments has come to light. Her Twitter is full of rhetoric showing a blatant bias against both Caucasian and Asian-Americans. Racism, regardless of the color of the offender, has no place in our society, let alone our justice system. In fact, our entire justice system is built on the foundation that justice is blind. If Ms. Pamplin is elected, any Caucasian or Asian-American appearing in her court – whether as a defendant or attorney – would demand she recuse herself from their case. This would inevitably send our County Criminal Courts into chaos and cause the County to spend resources dealing with issues the judge caused and not the party’s dispute.
As if this were not enough, Democrat County Commissioner Candidate Alisa Simmons made an expletive-filled message in which she not only uses racial slurs but mocks a child sexual assault victim. While she alleges this to have been a spoofed post, she has failed to offer any proof supporting that. There is also a voice recording of her using similar language and rhetoric about the same topic.
And finally, recently surfaced police body cam footage revealed that Deborah Peoples, the Democrat candidate for County Judge, was allegedly implicated in a ballot harvesting scheme in 2016, paying a homeless man hundreds of dollars for each ballot he obtained. When he was arrested it was a close associate of Peoples’ who bailed him out of jail. This kind of corrupt and unlawful behavior has no place within the leadership of our county government.
Ms. Peoples has stated in her campaign rhetoric that she intends to serve ALL residents of our great county, yet as a candidate for Mayor of Fort Worth she called for a public boycott of businesses; stated clearly that where she sees the campaign sign of an opposing candidate, she also saw racism; and clearly stated that it was her desire to defund the police. None of this leads to unity within the County or with her misguided statements to serve all the residents of Tarrant County.
These incidents only go to show the Democrat Party in Tarrant County contains corruption and racism from the top to the bottom of their ballot – these are three clear examples from the 2022 election alone. The citizens of Tarrant County deserve better of their elected officials and anything less than censuring and replacing these candidates shows how Democrats care more about their extreme agendas than leading the County.
I call on all citizens of Tarrant County who has information on racists behavior from any candidate for office to report it immediately. Racism has no place in our great County of diverse citizens. Furthermore, if anyone out there is aware of any fraud taking place in our elections, from any citizen or elected leader whatsoever, I ask that you report it to us immediately and we will help you get it to the correct legal authority.
There is too much as risk in our great County. We ask for your assistance.
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