By Valerie Fields Hill
Texas Metro News
A pair of elected officials were installed Sunday in Tarrant County during a busy day of inaugural activities.
Alisa Simmons, the third African American woman elected to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, was sworn in during ceremonies at noon Sunday at the Tarrant County Sub-Courthouse in Arlington. Longtime family court judge Maryellen Hicks conducted the formal swearing-in.
Simmons takes the Precinct 2 seat formerly held by Devan Allen, the second African American woman on the county court, who did not seek re-election.
After three votes, there was no Speaker of the House, and so Congress adjourned until Wednesday at 11am CST. When Congress reconvened, there were three more votes with the same results and Congress voted to adjourn again. Freshman Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, along with Congressmen Colin Allred and Marc Veasey for the North Texas delegation, each cast their votes for Congressman Hakeem Sekou Jeffries of New York who actually defeated others in every tally, however he did not receive the majority of votes cast.
Later Sunday afternoon, Kenneth Sanders, Southeastern Tarrant County’s first Black justice of the peace, took his oath of office. Sanders, who was re-elected for a second term, joins Lisa Woodard as the second Black peace court judge in the county. He will sit on the Precinct 7 bench.
Both inaugural events drew crowds of hundreds – and included emotional testimonies of the challenges each candidate faced, including racism, in becoming elected to their respective seats.
Simmons, who is the longtime Arlington NAACP president, was the subject of a false smear campaign in which her runoff opponent Andy Nguyen suggested she had used racial slurs. Simmons said she had not and that Nguyen was attempting to capitalize on a series of digital hacks that had been falsely attributed to her and to the NAACP.
Sunday, Simmons’ pastor, the Rev. Perry Crenshaw of The Church on the Move Ministries in Grand Prairie, and the Rev. Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth, both prayed for Simmons’ safety and success, citing her prior challenges during the contentious election.
Sanders, a Democrat, said he was an unlikely candidate: He had no idea when he purchased his home in South Arlington, near the Mansfield, that the area was a historic Republican strong hold.
“I didn’t grow up wanting to run for public office,” he said during remarks after his swearing-in. He simply saw an opportunity to serve the community in which he lived, he said. “People told me ‘Oh, you’ll never win over there’.”
The inaugural activities for Sanders, which were held at the Tarrant County Sub-Courthouse in Mansfield, featured prayers by the Rev. Michael Evans, who is Mansfield’s first Black mayor.
