RICHMOND, Texas – Leading in the polls against his Democratic challenger, Fort Bend County Pct. 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers says he feels comfortable with the lead he has built over his opponent.
“I’m feeling great, 59, 41, 18 points, that’s pretty much insurmountable, I’m not going to declare victory just yet but I think it’d be nearly impossible for my opponent to catch me,” Meyers said.
The race has been marred with controversy as Democrat Taral Patel faces nine criminal charges related to campaign activities. Patel is accused in a social media hoax where he allegedly created fake social media accounts to post discouraging remarks about Meyers as well as to direct racial attacks at himself.
Fort Bend County Judge KP George has also been implicated in the hoax. George faces a misdemeanor charge of misrepresenting the identity of a candidate.
Meyers said he is saddened at the actions Patel took.
“It’s even more unfortunate that he painted this community as a racist community when we’re not. This is a very caring community,” Meyers said.
Meyers also noted he believes many Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for him after Patel’s indictments.
“This is a 54% Democrat precinct and up 18 points that means a whole lot of Democrats had to cross party lines to vote for me,” he said.
Although the race hasn’t been officially called, Meyers is already talking about future plans for the county. He says one of those involves him being appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to an energy working group to help develop new energy policy.
“We’ll be working on legislation that he is going to be bringing forward to make Texas a leader in developing the next generation of energy, plus solving our water problems,” he said.
On top of that, Meyers said he is working with a group of other leaders in other counties to allow Texas counties to create industrial development districts to help attract more industry to communities.