Publisher’s note:  Samantha Russell is my daughter-in-law.

Forum moderators Eliel Rosas and Marc Christen had their hands full during the Monday night candidate forum featuring candidates for Ector County Justice of the Peace #1 and Ector County Commissioners’ Court candidates #1 and #3.

For the convenience of our readers we have uploaded an approximately 12 minute video containing clips of the moments described below. The entire forum can also be viewed online.

The opening question was standard forum fare:  “Please introduce yourself and answer two questions:  What is your primary goal in running?  How would you define conservatism and Republicanism?”.  Stringer was the last candidate to answer this question and immediately went off topic in an attempt to attack Russell who was seated beside him on the dais.  Instead of answering the question posed, Stringer read a text message on his phone which was sent out by Russell’s campaign: “Our current County Commissioner Don Stringer is years delinquent on his own property taxes, owing over $10,000.”

Moderator Rosas immediately interceded by again asking Stringer to answer the questions posed and stating that Stringer would have ample time later in the forum to address this issue if desired.

Stringer than turned towards Russell, leaned forward aggressively and began to angrily point his finger in Russell’s face while claiming he was going to sue Russell for defamation.

During another question from the moderators concerning the accessibility of the candidates to the public Stringer claimed he was very accessible and promptly returned phone calls and emails.  In her rebuttal, Russell said that she had heard the opposite from several people she had talked to during the campaign.  Russell recounted a conversation she had with another elected official who described how he had made many unsuccessful attempts to connect with Stringer to discuss a topic of interest to both the County and his organization.  Finally, he said, he ran across Stringer at a grocery store, approached him and said that he had attempted to contact him repeatedly and would like to schedule a meeting to which Stringer responded “get in line behind everybody else.”

At this point Stringer began to lean forward aggressively and swivel towards Russell and interjected “you lie very well”.  As Russell concluded Stringer aggressively snatched the mic from Russell’s hand and, over the objection of the moderator, attempted to divert the conversation onto another topic.

During the next question Stringer, who was standing, began to aggressively bend down and lean forward towards Russell and heatedly stated that he “returns every phone call, every email”.  At this point, recognizing the potential threat Stringer’s aggressive behavior posed, JP #1 candidate Steve Brennan leaned past his opponent to catch Russell’s attention and asked her if she would like to swap seats with him.  Russell gladly accepted Brennan’s offer and moved a few seats down while Brennan took the seat beside Stringer.

Later, on her campaign Facebook page, Russell described the event in the  following post:

As the switch was occurring Moderator Rosas stated “I hope that the audience is here taking notes.  The most important people here are the ones behind our backs …. So, whatever is taking place here tonight is being taken note of.”

A bit later in the forum Stringer turned his aggression towards JP Candidate Brennan as moderator Rosas posed a question to Stringer and Commissioner 1 officeholder Mike Gardner.  The question from the audience asked the two incumbents their thoughts about the fact that their recent appointee to the JP #1 office, Carlos Chavez, had failed to appear at any one of the four scheduled candidate forums.  During his comments, Stringer said he thought that Chavez hadn’t appeared because he “didn’t want to get attacked”.  

At this point Brennan pointed a comment at Stringer:  “but you attacked your opponent.”  Stringer became noticeably agitated and claimed “No, she attacked me.”  Brennan then left his seat to move away from Stringer.  Stringer angrily followed Brennan several seats away while aggressively raising his voice and wielding his phone demanding that Brennan “read this text”  apparently referring to the text message sent by the Russell campaign.  As Stringer continued to pursue Brennan, Brennan forcibly told him to “back off!”.

Those in attendance were visibly disturbed by Stringer’s behavior.  The off duty Sheriff’s deputy hired by the Ector County Republican Party said after the forum that he was ready to restrain and remove Stringer if necessary and that he was moving towards the dais before Brennan intervened.  

Russell has been endorsed by the Ector County Republican Party while Stringer has been endorsed by Lewis/Kelm.

Voters can early vote now through March 1, 2024. Election day is March 5, 2024.