Politics: Aledo, Willow Park unseat mayors

NOTE: This article was corrected from its original version.

Teresa Palmer was elected mayor of the City of Willow Park in early and election-day voting that culminated on May 3.

Palmer was successful in her challenge to eight-year incumbent Doyle Moss.

Palmer took 64% of the votes.

Likewise in Aledo, city council member Shane Davis successfully upset Mayor Nick Stanley in a closer race.

Davis took 56.9% of the votes in that race.

Challenger Todd Covington unseated Aledo City Council member Christian Pearson with 63% of the vote.

Breaking the incumbents’ curse, Weatherford Mayor Paul Paschall cruised to an easy victory over his challenger, taking almost 90% of the vote, and Aledo ISD School Board President Forrest Collins took 65% of the vote in his race.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker also cleared the 80 percent threshold in Parker County against seven opponents, and won Tarrant County as well.

“On one hand I’m very excited that the citizens spoke so strongly, but I’m a little bit nervous, too,” Palmer said. “I think the victory is due to the citizens who wanted it. They were very vocal about the changes that they wanted from me when I knocked on their doors, but they also went to the polls.”

Palmer said she was interested in exploring Willow Park becoming a home rule city.

Davis, Mayor-Elect in Aledo, said the campaign was tiring.

“It was a hard campaign season, but I feel great. I feel energized, and I’m excited to get in and start working with the rest of council and moving the city forward,” Davis said.

Davis attributed his victory to hard work, contacting voters multiple times, and seeing them at the polls.

Davis said he would meet with outgoing Mayor Nick Stanley for a transition plan.

“We need to get people excited about Aledo, about town, Front Street, shopping, small shopping, local. I really want to hit on that. I need to sit with council and find out what they’d like to do, what they feel our needs are, and then put a plan together,” Davis said. “And you know, we’re not turning the ship around necessarily. The ship’s still going on in the same direction. We’ll just have a different captain.

Collins, who retained his school board seat with 65% of the vote, said it was a hard race.

“I feel like the work that we’ve done as a school district has been validated by the voters,” Collins said.  There was a lot of misinformation spread, and I’m incredibly proud of our community for looking through all the nastiness and finding the truth and making the decision to support our teachers in our school district and the work that they do.”

“People want to see their schools be successful,” Collins added.  “They want to support their schools, and they don’t want politics in their schools. They don’t want to see schools attacked. I think people have seen enough of that, and that was not only reflected in my race, it was reflected in places like Mansfield and Grapevine Colleyville, where voters stood up and said that they’ve had enough of people attacking their schools.”

Only 8,742 out of 108,774 registered voters in the county participated in the election.