GOP candidate seeks to block Dem’s win amid eligibility question

Facing questions in late September about her eligibility to hold public office, Ericka Lomick, the Democratic nominee for Texas House District 93 in Tarrant County, suspended her campaign weeks before Election Day. But it was too late to remove her name from the ballot.

In the wake of last week’s blue bloodbath that saw her win, Lomick reversed course and said this week she’s “fully qualified to take the office to which I was elected.”

But on Friday, her Republican opponent Alan Blaylock asked the state to stop her. Blaylock’s lawyers sent a letter, obtained by The Texas Tribune, asking Secretary of State Robert Howden to declare Lomick ineligible because of a previous felony conviction in a North Carolina federal mortgage fraud case. The GOP nominee’s lawyers asked Howden for a response by noon Monday as the deadline to certify the election looms.

Texas law generally bars convicted felons from running for or holding public office, unless pardoned. Though, a 2019 attorney general’s opinion suggests a convicted felon can run again if they are “released from the disability to hold office,” which refers to a designation from a court restoring rights.

On Thursday, Lomick said in a statement to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram “although I was convicted of a felony in North Carolina many years ago, I was fully released from the resulting disabilities. I am preparing to represent the residents of my district.”

Lomick’s statement did not elaborate, according to the Star-Telegram.

The Tribune was unable to reach Lomick on Friday evening.

A Secretary of State spokesperson said early Friday evening the office did not plan to comment “at this time.”

Weeks before the election, a PAC published details about the time Lomick had served in connection to the fraud case in North Carolina. Lomick pleaded guilty in 2011 to mortgage fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for 63 months prison time and a $300,000 restitution, according to Protect and Serve Texas PAC and exhibits submitted to Howden reviewed by the Tribune. Federal prosecutors filed a lien for the same amount in 2024.

“The people of House District 93 deserve a representative who can serve,” Blaylock, a former Fort Worth city council member, said in a statement Friday. “Now I’m asking state officials to follow the law and make sure this district is represented by someone legally eligible to hold the seat. Anything less is a fraud.”

The two candidates were vying to succeed former state Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, one of the most hardline conservatives in the Legislature who did not seek another term and stepped down in July to work for Gov. Greg Abbott as a senior adviser on election policy.

The race was perhaps once considered a lock-in for Republicans in ruby-red Tarrant County. But after last week’s election, the Texas GOP has found itself in the minority in the Texas House for the first time since the 2001 Legislative session, after Democrats regained control of the chamber, and any seat could help the party leverage any remaining power.

Lomick and Blaylock were on the ballot for two contests: one for a full four-year term and another to serve the remainder of Schatzline’s term — through January. Lomick received the most votes in both.