Democrat Patrick Moses (left) is challenging Bill Waybourn, the Republican incumbent, in the Tarrant County Sheriff’s race . (Photos courtesy of Moses and Waybourn campaigns)
Sheriff Bill Waybourn is running on issues like election fraud and immigration, while challenger Patrick Moses wants to bring accountability and transparency to the troubled Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
The Democratic Party is looking to flip several seats throughout Texas this election cycle, chipping away at Republicans’ long-standing control over the state.
Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth, is the only Republican-led urban county left in the state, and its sheriff’s race continues to heat up as Democratic nominee Patrick Moses challenges Republican incumbent Bill Waybourn.
If Democrats flip this seat, it could indicate that the party is on its way to leading the county, according to political observers, and demonstrate the willingness of Fort Worth residents to vote for Democrats down-ballot, not just for president or US Senate. President Joe Biden won Tarrant County by about 7,400 votes in 2020, while Waybourn won reelection by nearly 9%.
Waybourn started his career in 1978 when he joined the US Air Force, and after serving his active duty began working for Dalworthington Gardens Police Department in 1981. He was promoted to Chief of Police in 1984, and held that position for 30 years before becoming Sheriff of Tarrant County in 2017.
He received an endorsement from Gov. Greg Abott in September, and has continued to make headlines throughout this year.
At least 65 people have died in Tarrant County jail custody since he took office. In May 2024, he faced calls to resign after a jail death was caught on video and released. Three former Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office deputies recently filed lawsuits that drew out a “pattern of corruption and apathy” in Waybourn’s department. The state has found that Tarrant County violated the Sandra Bland Act, which requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths.
Waybourn is also known for his MAGA rhetoric, with critics claiming he’s been more interested in building his national profile over the last seven years, pursuing national right-wing media stardom while neglecting his duties at home.
At a 2019 White House briefing with President Trump, Waybourn called undocumented immigrants living in the country “drunks” who will “run over your children.”
Amidst these controversies, Moses — a retired federal law enforcement officer with over 30 years of experience — hopes to defeat the GOP incumbent and helm the third largest jail in the state of Texas.
Moses is the senior pastor of the First Missionary Baptist Church of Fort Worth, and previously worked as a field operations assistant director for the Federal Protective Service, the arm of the US Department of Homeland Security that provides law enforcement, protective investigation and intelligence and security for federal facilities across 23 states.
Moses has garnered support from Democratic Rep. Chris Turner and the North East Tarrant County Democrats, and the Local Accountability PAC — a national progressive group that focuses on sheriff races — is launching a six-figure super PAC in Tarrant County in his support, according to the Texas Tribune.
“Across the country, extreme sheriffs like Waybourn have used their office for a radical agenda while ignoring his community’s safety,” Local Accountability PAC’s Max Rose told The Texas Tribune. “Sheriff Waybourn is just another extremist too focused on scoring MAGA points to actually keep the community safe. That’s why people keep dying on Waybourn’s watch. That’s no way to run a sheriff office. He needs to go.”
Waybourn and Moses are running on starkly different platforms, with the Republican incumbent running on issues like election fraud and immigration in Texas, while the Democratic challenger has said that he believes neither of those topics are relevant to the sheriff’s work.
“The work of transforming the culture and ensuring that the right people are in place, providing leadership for detention, providing leadership for every part of the sheriff’s office — I’m prepared for that from Day 1,” Moses told KERA news.
Moses has stated on his campaign website that if elected his top priorities will be “public safety, professional management of the county jail, professional culture of accountability and increasing and embracing community trust,” along with championing the creation of a Civilian Review Commission, which would investigate instances of excessive force, including deaths, that occur in the county jail, and release a public report detailing the results of those investigations.
“This race is certainly a measure of where Democrats stand relative to Republicans in the county, but the race is much more than that,” Matt Angle, founder of the Lone Star Project, told Courier Texas. “But it’s also a measure of whether Tarrant County voters will continue to tolerate profound incompetence and destructive hyperpartisanship by their sheriff. It’s a measure of extreme and incompetent vs. mainstream and capable.”
Early voting continues through Nov. 1 and election day is Nov. 5. For more election information check out the Courier Texas voter hub.
