Tarrant County Commissioner, Precinct 2

Alisa Simmons has been the Tarrant County Precinct 2 commissioner since January 2023 and is not seeking reelection to that seat¹. She was a journalist and a county 9-1-1 administrator, and led the Arlington NAACP for more than a decade¹². She holds a journalism degree from Texas Woman's University⁴.

Where they stand

• Property taxes: Hold them about steady Voted · medium confidence
  • Voted against the fiscal 2027 budget and a tax rate of 18.6 cents per $100 valuation, which was below the no-new-revenue rate; she said the rate was not sustainable and asked for forecasts of several options, from keeping the current rate to cutting or possibly raising it. (2026-09-15) source
  • Has said she wants to provide meaningful tax relief without dipping into county reserves or cutting services. (2026) source
  • Was absent, with the other Democratic commissioner, from the Sept. 16, 2025 meeting, blocking a vote on an 18.62 cent rate; she said the county would instead get the no-new-revenue rate of 18.66 cents, which was still below the prior rate of 18.75 cents. (2025-09-16) source
  • Voted for county tax rates below the no-new-revenue rate in her first two years on the court. (2024) source
  • Voted for the county's first 10% homestead exemption, approved unanimously in June 2023, and has said she made the motion for it. (2023-06-06) source
  • Voted against a 10% hospital district homestead exemption in June 2023 (passed 3-2) and against raising it to 20% in June 2024 (passed 4-1), citing concerns about the hospital's bond program. (2024-06-18) source
  • Said her top priority is right-sizing the budget without increasing the tax rate and that she favors a stable tax rate set at the start of the fiscal year. (2026-02) source
• Redistricting: Legislatures draw maps under strict neutral rules that courts can enforce Voted · medium confidence
  • Voted against the mid-decade commissioners court map adopted 3-2 in June 2025, and supported keeping the existing map. (2025-06-03) source
  • Said the new map discriminated against Black and Latino voters. (2025) source
  • Said reapportionment must be driven by population data rather than political retaliation, race or partisan advantage, and that any future redistricting must follow clear, neutral criteria with independent legal review. (2026-02) source
• Immigration: Position does not fit our answer choices; see evidence. Voted · medium confidence
  • Voted against applying for a $140,000 state grant supporting the sheriff's 287(g) partnership with ICE. (2026-02-10) source
  • Said the grant does nothing to meaningfully address violent crime and that funding ICE collaboration would harm public trust in local law enforcement. (2026-02-10) source
• Policing and crime: Shift some police funding to mental health and social services Said · low confidence
  • Her campaign plan calls for a countywide crisis response system with mobile crisis teams and specially trained law enforcement, expanded pre-arrest diversion, and more mental health capacity so behavioral health calls do not default to arrest and jail. (2026) source
  • Her campaign plan calls for investing in prevention and community-based support instead of paying more for crisis and incarceration later. (2026) source
  • Listed mental and behavioral health and jail accountability among her top priorities, saying the jail has become the default mental health provider. (2026-02) source
  • Her campaign proposes independent investigation of every in-custody death and an independent custody death review board. (2026) source
• Election rules: Position does not fit our answer choices; see evidence. Voted · medium confidence
  • Voted against the November 2026 polling site list, which has 92 fewer Election Day sites than in 2022, and repeatedly tried to add a University of Texas at Arlington site back. (2026-09-01) source
  • Called the polling site reduction political, saying it was about power rather than cost. (2026-09-01) source
  • Opposed the creation of the county Election Integrity Task Force in 2023 and later said protecting election integrity and creating a politically branded task force are not the same thing. (2026-08) source
  • In a 2020 candidate survey she listed voting rights, expanding rather than restricting access to the polls, as a priority. (2020) source

No public position found on: AI data centers, Judges, Death penalty.

Record

• Elected Tarrant County Commissioner for Precinct 2 in 2022 and took office in January 2023; ran unsuccessfully for Texas House District 94 in 2020⁴¹.
• Won the March 3, 2026 Democratic primary for county judge with 61.4% and faces Republican Tim O'Hare on November 3, 2026¹².
• Voted against the June 2025 commissioners court redistricting map, which reshaped her precinct; she then ran countywide for judge instead of seeking reelection⁵³.
• Voted for the county's first homestead exemption in 2023, which passed unanimously; voted against the hospital district homestead exemption in 2023 and its increase to 20% in 2024¹⁴⁹.
• In September 2025 she and Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. were absent from a meeting, preventing a tax rate vote; she called her absence a necessary act of conscience⁸. She also missed the follow-up meeting six days later, which her spokesperson attributed to a family funeral and which she told a reporter she would not have attended anyway; the rate passed 3-1¹⁵.
• Voted against the fiscal 2027 budget and tax rate, which passed 3-2⁷.