Chris Jamieson smiled as he embraced Commissioner Manny Ramirez after the Tarrant County official swore him in to Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The new council member said it was a hard-fought campaign<\/a> for the seat representing the city\u2019s far north. Ramirez\u2019s support was one of several that helped give him the edge in the race.<\/p>\n \u201cCampaigns are never won alone,\u201d Jamieson said from his new seat at the dais. \u201cI\u2019m deeply thankful for every person who stood beside me through this journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamieson\u2019s swearing-in comes 10 days after he narrowly defeated Alicia Ortiz<\/a> in a race for the council seat. Far north Fort Worth voters chose Jamieson to succeed Alan Blaylock in representing District 10. The special election was called as Blaylock stepped down to run for the Texas House<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Ortiz won a tight majority of Tarrant County\u2019s votes, residents living in the small portion of Fort Worth that stretches into Denton County ultimately gave Jamieson a margin of a reported 75 votes.<\/p>\n Around 5.4% of registered voters in the district participated<\/a> in the election. Jamieson thanked Ortiz for her campaign and her deep care and commitment to the community.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most meaningful parts of this journey was the opportunity to meet so many residents of District 10 \u2014 on front porches, at community events and at polling locations,\u201d Jamieson said. \u201cThese conversations mattered. Hearing your concerns, your ideas, your hopes for Fort Worth reminded me what public service is truly about.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamieson\u2019s seat was the only City Council position on the ballot, as council members are typically elected every odd-numbered year. In May 2027, District 10 will again elect its council member as all seats go up for grabs citywide.<\/p>\n Fort Worth established District 10 in 2023 in answer to the city\u2019s expansion to the north. The council redistricting took place citywide to address Fort Worth\u2019s growing population<\/a>. Blaylock was the first to hold the far north seat.<\/p>\n The district\u2019s existence has been largely marked by a pressing need for updated infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fort Worth\u2019s population boom and developer incentives<\/a> led to the construction of thousands of homes across what was previously sprawling ranchland. The fast growth created hour-long traffic jams<\/a> and a strain on the area\u2019s limited infrastructure, which Fort Worth and Tarrant County have poured millions into updating.<\/p>\n Blaylock said serving on the council was one of the greatest honors of his life. Listing what he saw as his tenure\u2019s greatest accomplishments, he highlighted District 10\u2019s rise as an economic hub, as well as investments in roads and water infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first ran for this office, I made a commitment to focus on the fundamentals that mattered most to the families and businesses in District 10 \u2014 safer neighborhoods, better roads, strong public safety, responsible growth, economic opportunity and, above all, a City Hall that listens and responds to its residents,\u201d Blaylock said, choking up as he read his remarks.<\/p>\n Before Jamieson\u2019s swearing-in, council members took turns thanking Blaylock for his time on council, commending what they described as his level-headedness, intelligence and helpful attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cIt truly has been an honor to serve alongside you,\u201d said council member Charles Lauersdorf, who represents a portion of northeast Fort Worth. \u201cEspecially as my partner in crime up north, reminding the city that there is part of Fort Worth north of 820.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple council members touched on moves within the Texas Legislature to tamp down local control<\/a>, often in the name of efficiency<\/a>. They told Blaylock they trust he\u2019ll represent north Fort Worth well, assuming he would win the reliably Republican seat in November.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that all of us here have drilled into your head how important local control is, so I know that you will be our fierce advocate in the state House,\u201d said council member Elizabeth Beck. \u201cThank you so much for your service to Fort Worth, and thank you for being my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Also at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, council members canvassed results for Fort Worth\u2019s bond and charter elections. Voters approved five charter amendments<\/a> and $840 million<\/a> in capital projects across the city, including infrastructure improvements in District 10.<\/p>\n Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org<\/a>or @shawlings601<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Jamieson smiled as he embraced Commissioner Manny Ramirez after the Tarrant County official swore him in to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":794151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-794150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116569005774905663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}