FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Allison Campolo, [email protected]
817-335-8683

Tarrant County, Texas – Today, in response to a statement released by Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare on May 16, 2023, Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Dr. Allison Campolo and past Chair Deborah Peoples released the following statement:

The Tarrant County Democratic Party vehemently denies the accusation that a respected leader of our Party “orchestrated a sophisticated vote-harvesting operation” during a previous election cycle. This ridiculous and baseless allegation made against previous TCDP Chair Deborah Peoples is patently untrue. The same people who are behind this action have attempted to conduct an identical smear campaign against Chairwoman Peoples in previous years. The allegations were so absurd that the District Attorney refused to consider them.

The fact that our recently-elected County Judge has chosen to resurrect this discredited accusation is extremely worrisome and highlights the concerns that have been raised that he is intent on conducting his duties with fear, lies, and propaganda, and is obviously committed to across-the-board, ongoing voter intimidation tactics in Tarrant County. These baseless and absurdly slanderous statements constitute a danger to this county and are nothing more than an attempt to undermine the effective democratic election process that Tarrant County has proudly followed since its creation. 

Chairwoman Peoples responded to these accusations saying, “He is telling lies about me to distract from his actions to destroy democracy in Tarrant County. If the County Judge is so sure that criminal activity occurred that he can repeat it in an official statement from his office, then we invite him to work with the District Attorney and the Sheriff’s Office to investigate these claims. We, as we have always been, will be transparent and cooperative in any investigation since absolutely no illegal or improper activity has occurred. And once it is shown that these allegations are just as false as they were deemed to be the first time they were raised, we expect Mr. O’Hare and the other perpetrators of this lie to publicly apologize and admit the grave error they have committed.”