Fort Bend Independent: Minority-baiting by fringe elements in Fort Bend GOP poses a threat to the party’s future

In Fort Bend County politics, Democrats are in driver’s seat and participating in the primary with much enthusiasm. As the party is facing the electorate from a position of strength, there is a keen competition for several county wide races among Democrats.

There are five people on the primary ballot for county judge including three African-Americans, a man and two women, a Hispanic and a Muslim. For Pct. 4 Commissioner, there are seven candidates, including four women and three men, two of them Muslims and one African American.

In the Pct. 2 Commissioner race, long-time incumbent Grady Prestage has one opponent, Larry Blackmon.

Three district judge seats and one county court-at-law judge seat are contested. The incumbent District Clerk has two opponents in the primary and the county clerk position, currently held by a Republican has four Democratic Party contenders. In both races there is a Muslim candidate.

Notably, Sonya Jones, a former Fort Bend ID Trustee and conservative Republican, who had resigned her board seat, is now contesting in the Democratic Party primary for county clerk.

For County Treasurer, currently held by a Republican, there are five Democrats seeking the party nomination, including two Muslims, a man and a woman.

There are 34 candidates on the ballot for 10 contested races in the Democratic Party primary. This many number of candidates also explains the enthusiastic turnout of Democrats during early voting.

On the Republican side, 20 candidates are on the ballot for seven contested races in the county. There are five candidates running for county judge, four of them minorities, including a woman. County Judge KP George, who was a Democrat, is now seeking the Republican Party nomination. The county judge nominee will be decided mostly in the runoff in both the parties.

For Pct. 4 Commissioner, four are seeking Republican Party nomination and two of them are minorities.

In the judicial race, only one district judge race is contested. For 240th District Court judge, currently held by an Indian American Democrat, Surendran Pattel is seeking re-election and he has no opponent in the primary.

Ironically, on the Republican side, Frank Fraley, former District Court Judge, whom Pattel defeated in the primary in 2022, is now running as a Republican. Asha Reddy, an Indian-American, is running against Fraley and the Fort Bend GOP has formally endorsed her candidacy.

There are two candidates each in the straight contest for County Attorney, District Clerk and County Clerk.

In the Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace race, there are three Republicans seeking the party nomination.

The Democratic Party ticket in county races has virtually no white candidate and is dominated by different minority candidates and there is barely any mudslinging of fellow Democrats, at least in public.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, is fraught with minority-baiting and unseemly mudslinging in the two races where minorities appear to be heading for a victory.

The Republican Party as a body is not responsible for the negative campaigning, but a small, fringe group, has been causing a bitter division in the party, and further wounding the frail image of the GOP.

In fact, the Fort Bend GOP leadership has been strenuously cultivating the minority voters and has been engaged in minority community outreach to change the perception that Republicans are racists and anti-immigrants. Already, national politics is affecting the sentiment of voters in local elections and the negative campaign against minority Republicans will only diminish the party’s future prospects further.

The campaigning against J.J. Clemence as a Chinese agent in the county clerk race by her opponent Tamara McFarlane has received wide publicity and drew equally wide condemnation from party activists.

In the Pct. 4 Commissioner race, a smear campaign against Ramesh Chervirala has surfaced where he is maliciously smeared as a “Hindu extremist.” It is obvious that the smear campaign is from one of his opponents, particularly from the “Christian” wing. Nobody is claiming responsibility for the smear campaign.

The rogue faction of the Republican Party has not learned any lesson from Taral Patel aka Antonio Saclywag, who faced felony charges for posting racist comments against himself by stealing the identity of somebody else and the prosecution faced by KP George as one of the beneficiaries of such dubious campaign as a Democrat during his 2022 re-election campaign.

If the Republican Party has a fighting chance in the current election cycle, the party should thank KP George for becoming a Republican and help in reversing the redistricting in favor of the Republicans.

Now, if the Republicans want to retain their majority in commissioners court, they should win either the county judge seat or the Pct. 4 commissioner seat, since they already have two Republicans on the commissioners court.

The fringe group’s anti-minority campaign will not help accomplish this goal. If the candidates promoted by this divisive group win the Republican Party nomination, the Fort Bend GOP will become a minority party for a long time and will set the clock back as far as its outreach efforts to woo the minorities to the GOP, now flocking to the Democratic side, like moths to flames.

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