ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett, State Representative Brooks Landgraf and Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis were all in attendance for a meeting to address the state of politics in Ector County.
The main topic brought up during the meeting was fighting between candidates, as a physical altercation happened Thursday between Ector County candidates Donna Kelm and Carmen Wilhite.
"I think the biggest one is we have a lot of fights, we have a lot of fight in us here in Ector County," Judge Fawcett said. "But those fights are fighting for solutions, fighting for our children, fighting for our future, fighting for our community. It is not fighting your neighbor. We all want the same thing, we are much closer than we are apart."
The altercation between Kelm and Wilhite happened outside the Ector County Annex. According to officials, the two candidates were talking, when Kelm allegedly touched Wilhite on the arm. Officials also said that was when Wilhite started screaming and pulled Kelm's hair.
"We are just a few days into this primary election and we don't discourage passion, but we do discourage violence," Judge Fawcett said. "There's been a number of altercations many of it is digital some of it at forums, we have seen elevated temperatures in all these. I would be lying if we didn't expect this to some extent- a physical altercation."
Sherrif Griffis and State Representative Landgraf called for candidates to reflect on their actions.
"These campaigns and these elections are not actually about the candidates, they're about the voters, they belong to the voters," Landgraf said. "Violence and intimidation at a polling location...that's not fighting for freedom, that's fighting amongst each other and not doing anything for the benefit of the voters."
Judge Fawcett ended the call to action by saying that while tension is normal during an election, it's important to remember that at the end of the day, we're all neighbors.
"We don't want to see voter apathy increase, we don't want to give people any reason not to show up at the polls," Judge Fawcett said. "We need them to engage. We need all hands on deck in Ector Country."
According to Sheriff Griffis, there is talk of hiring off duty security to work as peace officers at all voting locations across the county because of the altercation.