Mueller Wins Judge’s Race

County Votes Solidly Republican Amidst 60 Percent Turn Out

Dan Mueller will be the next Fayette County Judge. He won the general election with more than 86 percent of the vote.

Mueller, a Republican, faced a longshot Libertarian candidate Will Martin, who gathered 13.46 percent of the vote. The vote totals were 8,697 for Mueller and 1,353 for Martin.

“I appreciate the confidence the people of Fayette County have shown in this election and I look forward to taking office on Jan. 1.,” Mueller said. “Thank you to everyone who voted.”

Voter turnout in Fayette County was nearly 60 percent.

“I was very surprised at the number of people who voted,” Mueller said. “If you go back to past elections, you can see there were a lot more people who voted in this election than in the past.”

Martin thanked his supporters.

“I have a small circle of friends here in Fayette County and my votes vastly exceeded that amount of people,” Martin said. “I was encouraged to see that many people vote for liberty.

“I hope to see more and more people locally to consider the ideas of libertarianism,” Martin added. “It’s my experience that a lot of Republicans locally, if you sit down and have a cup of coffee with them, they really are libertarians but don’t realize it. I would love to see more people like myself, who voted Republican pretty much my whole life, to sit down and think about the principles of libertarianism.”

Mueller will head up a County government that faces some big facility challenges in coming years. The Commissioners Court recently discussed a possible multi-million dollar project to build a new justice center. The project would include an expanded jail and new district court facilities. The County would likely need to purchase land for such a facility.

In addition, the County has already purchased and refurbished the old Pioneer Bank Building on Main St. in La Grange for use as a courthouse annex. The County Auditor’s Office moved into the building earlier this year, and the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office is poised to move out of the courthouse and into the annex next year.

Such moves take property out of private ownership and off the tax rolls. The additional County buildings could lead to higher maintenance and utility costs for taxpayers. Ever since the County Elections Office moved out of the Courthouse and into the Meadows building several years ago, fewer and fewer citizens ever need to visit the historic Courthouse for business. And that affects the economic climate for commercial properties on the Courthouse square in La Grange.

Mueller said he wishes to discuss those topics with Commissioners and other County leaders before taking office on Jan. 1, but he declined to publicly voice his opinion on the matter before that time. The County Judge race was the only local election on the ballot. In statewide elections, Republican candidates won more than 80 percent of Fayette County votes in each race. Governor Greg Abbott won by 82 percent here (compared to 54.84 percent statewide).

Incumbent Republican Michael McCaul won re-election to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with 83 percent of the vote in Fayette County (compared to 63.27 percent across the district).

Republican Stan Kitzman won his first term in the Texas State House for District 85, which includes Fayette County. He gathered 82.5 percent of the vote in Fayette County, compared to 73.84 percent across the district.

Republican Lois Kolkhorst also won re-election to her seat in the State Senate with 85 percent of the Fayette County vote (compared to 66.17 percent across the district).