Mansfield has questioned school board candidate’s eligibility for months, records show
Mansfield school district employees and board members were aware for months that Place 2 candidate Angel Hidalgo was possibly ineligible to run for the seat, according to texts and emails obtained by the Star-Telegram through a records request.
Hidalgo, a Spanish instructor at Tarrant County College, is running against Jandel Crutchfield, an associate professor of social work at UT Arlington.
The election is May 4. Early voting starts April 22.
Residents and parents have expressed concerns that Hidalgo does not live in the district and is not qualified to run because he has not been registered at the same voting address for over six months — the duration of time required to run for school board. The district said in a statement Friday that it is still reviewing his eligibility.
Last week the district said it was unable to determine Hidalgo’s eligibility but could not remove him from the ballot because the Feb. 23 deadline to do so had passed. The district said in the same statement that Crutchfield was eligible to run.
Records obtained by the Star-Telegram show there was doubt about Hidalgo’s eligibility before that date.
Hidalgo has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
In a text exchange on Feb. 7 with school board member Desiree Thomas, board president Courtney Lackey Wilson said it appeared Hidalgo was not registered to vote in Tarrant County.
Voter registration records reviewed by the Star-Telegram show that Hidalgo was registered to vote in Dallas County until Feb. 25, when he changed his voting address to one in Tarrant County.
But questions about whether to leave Hidalgo off the ballot swirled well past the February deadline to remove him.
On March 19, a Tarrant County elections administration worker asked the district in an email if it had decided whether to keep Hidalgo on the ballot. Alicia Heimbigner, coordinator of school board services, told the elections office that the district would like to leave Hidalgo on the ballot.
That same day, Hidalgo informed district attorney Mike Leasor in an email that a campaign staffer had noticed Hidalgo had not registered to vote at his Arlington address after he moved from Dallas County in September 2022. That prompted him to update his address, Hidalgo told Leasor.
On March 23, Leasor emailed Troy Harvard, Tarrant County assistant elections administrator, because Hidalgo did not appear on the sample ballot. Harvard replied that the ballot had been updated and Hidalgo was placed on it. He said Hidalgo was left off because of an “oversight issue.”
Harvard could not be immediately reached for comment.
The initial records request was filed by Clayton Waters, who has two children in the district and whose wife used to work in the district. The Star-Telegram filed its request after hearing from Waters about his request.
Waters told the Star-Telegram in an interview Friday that he submitted the request because he wanted transparency about “who was pulling the strings” and who would shape his children’s education.
