After being named to the position in October, former Tarrant County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia was sworn in Thursday as the new elections administrator in Dallas County.
Garcia took the oath of office from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins Thursday afternoon and will now oversee the state's second-largest elections department.
"Heider Garcia has a proven track record of running excellent elections in several places receiving praise from elected officials in both parties and former Texas Secretaries of State. His thoroughness, fairness, and leadership abilities will be valued here,” said Jenkins.
Garcia, who has more than 20 years of election experience, was hired after the county's last elections administrator, Michael Carpello, retired.
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Garcia said he's excited to get to work with the staff in Dallas County, who he said he's been able to get to know over the last seven weeks. He described them as incredibly smart and dedicated and said they, like others he's known working in elections, do it for a love of country and community.
"It feels good. It feels challenging. It feels humbling, I think that's an important part of it. There's a track record that I bring with me but it's a new place, it's a new community so it's important to approach the job humbly and learn about the new community I'm serving," Garcia said.
Garcia announced in April he was resigning from his post in a letter he sent to Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare (R) and then-county administrator GK Maenius who has since retired. In the letter, Garcia thanked Maenius for his leadership and support while saying his decision to exit was driven by a difference of opinion with the county judge on how to conduct an election.
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“Judge O’Hare, my formula to ‘a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics; compromising on these values is not an option for me. You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus my decision to leave,” Garcia wrote.
O'Hare told NBC 5 in April that he never asked Garcia to resign or threatened to fire him. He said Garcia decided to leave on his own.
When asked about his departure from Tarrant County, Garcia said he's only looking forward.
"I learned a lot, I grew a lot in Tarrant County. I left a lot of good friends. We had a lot of good accomplishments and I take that with me to keep moving forward. I think it's important," Garcia said. "There's a saying we have in Spanish ... you don't go back even to try to gain momentum, you keep going forward."
Jenkins, on Thursday, said he didn't get into the particulars of why Garcia left Tarrant County but instead chose to talk with those who worked with him and knew his work ethic.
"I reached out to Glen Whitley, my counterpart, I'm a Democrat and Glen is a Republican, I reached out to all the members of the commissioners court, and several of the elected officials of both political parties in Tarrant County and I could not find a person who did not say that Heider Garcia was honorable and excellent at his job," Whitley said.
Coming from Tarrant County, Garcia has years of experience leading large-scale elections and working with elections technology. Before spending five years in Tarrant County, he was the elections manager in Placer County, California for two years. Since leaving Tarrant County in the spring, Garcia has been working as a senior election subject matter expert for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
In June, Tarrant County's election commission voted unanimously to appoint Chief Deputy Clerk Clinton Ludwig as the next elections administrator. Before his appointment, Ludwig had no direct election experience.
