In the 2018 election, Democrats captured control of Fort Bend County, Texas. In that election, Democrats won every contested county-wide elected office. KP George was elected County Judge, the top-ranking county official. Grady Prestage and Ken DeMerchant won Precinct 2 and 4 Commissioner seats, which gave Democrats a 3-2 edge on Commissioner's Court.
Other Democratic winners were District Clerk Beverly Walker, County Court of Law Judges Nos. 3 through 6 Juli Mathew, Toni Wallace, Teana Watson, and Sherman Hatton Jr., Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Joel Clouser, and Precinct 2 Constable Daryl Smith. Brian Middleton won as the 268th District Attorney. Democrats also won the races for State District Judge which are congruent with the county. They were Frank J. Fraley (240th), R. O'Neal Williams (268th), Robert Rolnick (458th). Most elections were won by a margin of 53-47%. Beto O'Rourke lost his race for the US Senate, but led all Democrats in the county with 55.75%.
Our suburban-rural county is located in the southwestern part of the Houston metropolitan area. The main municipalities are Sugar Land, Missouri City, Rosenberg, part of Katy, and the county seat Richmond. Fort Bend County is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the USA. In 2010, Fort Bend County was 19 percent Asian, 24 percent Latino, 21 percent African-American and 36 percent Anglo, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. We are a relatively wealthy county, but with pockets of distressing poverty.
KP George recently wrote an op-ed which appeared in the Houston Chronicle. In the print edition it was entitled There's no place for hate in Fort Bend County.
When my wife and I moved to Fort Bend County in the late 1990s, our family and friends were worried. Sugar Land was not yet widely known as one of the best cities in America to live in and raise a family.
He goes on.
Sugar Land was the ideal place for my wife Sheeba and I to put down roots. Over the next 20-plus years, we were fortunate to build a home, raise three healthy children and pursue fulfilling careers (teaching for Sheeba and financial planning for me). When I was elected to the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees in 2014 and as county judge in 2018, we celebrated those moments as milestones in our unbelievably blessed American Dream.
Achieving that uniquely American Dream — a prayerful life of prosperity, good health and upward mobility — is what I usually choose to highlight when people ask about my journey. But there is another, darker side to that story that has been difficult to digest.
Recently, I shared with my fellow Fort Bend residents some disturbing social media messages that people have sent me over the last several months. I won’t go into the details of what these messages say — their ugliness and cruelty speak for themselves — but the common theme is a startling disgust for my status as an American citizen of Indian descent.
They target my accent, the sound of which proclaims my heritage with every syllable. They accuse me of changing my name to “trick” people, even though it has been in my family for generations, as our Christian community originates from those baptized by the Apostle Thomas during his missions to India almost 2,000 years ago. There are hundreds of these messages, delivered via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and even phone calls.
Many reference the coronavirus as source of their frustration, but their racially motivated malice and anti-immigrant animus are not some new phenomena. Those who must travel great distances from their homes to seek opportunity, prosperity and a better life for their children have long faced similar sentiments; indeed, it even forms a part of the nativity of Jesus Christ.
He reminded people that the CDC gives five reasons why minorities face a greater risk from COVID-19 and that discrimination is at the top of the list.
As the elected leader of Fort Bend County, I have worked with our incredible and tireless county staff and partners to bridge the gaps in care. We have opened both fixed and mobile pop-up testing sites in medically underserved areas to make testing as accessible as possible, no matter who needs it. Additionally, we have dedicated nearly $20 million to paying the rent, mortgage and utility bills of our residents whose livelihoods vanished overnight.
Thanks to KP George's leadership, early in the pandemic Fort Bend County was able to achieve significantly higher per-capita testing than other counties. This was done by offering to test everyone who wanted a test, whether they had symptoms or not.
Fort Bend County does not have a shield around it that prevents discrimination from affecting all of its residents. But what we do have is a unique opportunity — as one of the most diverse counties in America — to re-examine how we talk to and treat people who are different from ourselves. We have an opportunity to stop and think about the first thing that comes to mind when we see our neighbors. As a community, we can choose this moment to change how we care for each other — and especially how we look out for those who are more vulnerable and less fortunate, or who just look or sound or pray differently.
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being.” Freedom is why I chose to make the United States my home more than 25 years ago; the responsibility to defend liberty, equality and justice for all is why I chose to speak up today. In this great country, we have the freedom to make mistakes — but we also have the obligation to learn from them. Let us learn together and move forward.
