by Cecilia Lenzen, Fort Worth Report
August 18, 2026

Three seats on the Tarrant Appraisal District’s board of directors are set to appear on the November ballot, and 10 candidates have thrown their names into the race. 

Interested candidates had until Aug. 17 to apply for a place on the ballot, which features partisan midterm races as well as the nonpartisan TAD positions. This November marks the second time voters get to choose members of the appraisal district board as the result of a 2023 constitutional amendment that created new, voter-approved board positions in the state’s largest counties. 

All three seats are elected at-large, meaning voters may weigh in on each one. Candidates randomly select their place on the ballot at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 at the TAD headquarters at 2500 Handley Ederville Road in Fort Worth. 

TAD board members are unpaid and serve four-year terms. The board has nine members: three elected countywide by voters, five appointed by taxing entities and the tax assessor-collector, who is also elected countywide. 

The board’s main responsibilities are to set the district budget and hire a chief appraiser, the paid staffer who oversees property appraisals across TAD’s 73 taxing units. 

To help voters prepare for November, the Fort Worth Report compiled a list of candidates for the TAD election. This list will be updated as more information becomes available. A roundup of the partisan midterm races is available here

Place 1

Sayeda Bilqees Syed

Syed is a mechanical engineer, previously working in flood management for the city of Dallas. She unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the board during TAD’s first voter election in 2024. She served two years on the Tarrant Appraisal Review Board, a separate entity from TAD that reviews taxpayer protests of assessed property values. 

Rebecca Hardy

No information was available about the candidate. 

Phyllis Grissom

Grissom is a communications manager for Huckabee, the Fort Worth-based architecture and planning firm. 

Byron Haynes 

Haynes is a Realtor in Southlake. 

Place 2

Marshall Hobbs

Hobbs is a government professor, teaching at both Arlington Baptist University and Tarrant County College. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat on Fort Worth City Council last year. 

Paul Stockard

No information was available about the candidate. 

Cary Cheshire

Cheshire is a self-employed consultant and vice chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Tarrant County College board of trustees in 2025. 

Ambika Sharma 

Sharma is a community activist involved in the push for a data center moratorium in Fort Worth. 

Place 3

Matt Bryant (incumbent)

Bryant has served on the board since July 2024. He is a real estate investor who previously served on the Carroll ISD board of trustees. 

John Adams

Adams is the senior vice president of mortgage operations at Texas Bank.

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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