DALLAS — Former Tarrant County Judge Glenn Whitley is a proud, life-long, card-carrying member of the Republican Party.
During his decades in office, he was one of the state’s most prominent local Republican leaders.
He had never in his life endorsed a Democrat until 2022, when he backed Mike Collier for Lieutenant Governor over Dan Patrick.
Now, two years later, you can add two more Democrats to his list of endorsements that reach across the aisle: Kamala Harris and Colin Allred.
And Whitley tells us he knows exactly how some of his fellow Republicans will react.
“I know that, what I consider to be the extreme far-right Republicans, will yell and scream, well, he never was a Republican, you know, he was just a RINO (Republican In Name Only),” Whitley said on Inside Texas Politics. “But I’ve looked at this. And as I’ve said, Collier was the first Democrat I had ever openly endorsed. And Harris and Allred will be the second and third.”
But the former county judge says he’s also had conversations with many Republicans who tell him while they may not be able to bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, they will simply skip the top of the ticket and not cast a vote in the Presidential and U.S. Senate races.
“I don’t think it will impact the election in Texas. But I do believe that around this country it will,” argued Whitley.
Whitley made clear his vote is for Harris as much as it is against Trump.
Whitley says the former President is a bully who disrespects the military and veterans and who led the Jan. 6 insurrection.
But he argues Harris is trying to lift up the country and approaches issues with an open mind, pointing to her stance on fracking as an example.
“I really believe that in ’19, she was against that, and she felt like because of environmental concerns that she needed to. But I think she approached it with an open mind, said that, okay, I can get to a lot of the clean air stuff that I want and still support fracking,” Whitley told us.
Cruz responded to Whitley's endorsement at a campaign event in Tarrant County Saturday, pointing to a Democrat in Harris County who is supporting him.
"There are a few people who used to be Republicans who've decided they can't stand Donald Trump and so they're voting for Kamala Harris," Cruz told WFAA. "We saw Liz Cheney come out and say she's voting for Kamala Harris. And I will say there are a handful of people for whom Trump derangement syndrome is a real thing."
Houston District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Democrat, is supporting Cruz over Allred.
"She's voting for me because she wants a Senator who will stand up and support law enforcement, who will lock up violent criminals and keep them in jail and who will secure the border," Cruz said.