A Republican candidate is asking Texas officials to block his Democratic opponent from taking office after her election victory brought renewed scrutiny of her felony record. Alan Blaylock challenged Ericka Lomick’s eligibility for Texas House District 93 on November 13th. Lomick maintains that her eligibility has been restored and says she intends to serve.
The dispute follows an unusual campaign in Tarrant County, where Lomick suspended her bid in September amid questions about whether she could legally hold office. Her name remained on the ballot because the deadline for removal had passed. She subsequently received the most votes in both the election for a full term and the special election for the departing lawmaker’s remaining term.
The criminal case dates to 2011, when Lomick pleaded guilty in North Carolina to mortgage-fraud conspiracy, bank fraud and money-laundering conspiracy. She received a 63-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution. Federal prosecutors filed a lien for that amount in 2024.
The Texas Tribune reported that Blaylock’s lawyers submitted their challenge to Secretary of State Robert Howden. Blaylock issued a statement Friday. “The people of House District 93 deserve a representative who can serve,” he said.
The request seeks to stop certificates of election from being issued for either term, according to the submission obtained by The Dallas Express, which reported additional details of the challenge. Blaylock’s attorney, James E. “Trey” Trainor III, argues that public records conclusively establish ineligibility under the state’s election law. He requested an answer by noon November 16th, ahead of the November 17th deadline for the special election’s state canvass. The Monday response time was the attorney’s requested deadline.
A 2019 Texas attorney general’s opinion explains that completing a felony sentence can restore voting eligibility without restoring eligibility to hold public office. The opinion identifies a pardon or release from the relevant legal disabilities as the routes recognized by the officeholding statute. It addressed a request from Webb County’s attorney about a candidate who maintained that completing probation and regaining voting rights also restored his ability to hold office.
The opinion also describes a process for restoring civil rights following certain federal convictions or convictions under another country’s laws. An eligible person can apply for restoration, with the governor issuing a certificate if the request is granted. The certificate restores the Texas civil rights lost through the conviction, subject to any exceptions specified in it. That process doesn’t happen automatically when a sentence ends.
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See CBS Texas’ report on the disputed election here:
Lomick says she’s obtained the necessary release from the disabilities resulting from her conviction. In a November 12th statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quoted in the reporting, she asserted that she was eligible to serve. “I am fully qualified to take the office to which I was elected,” she said. Her statement didn’t identify the legal mechanism supporting that assertion, leaving that issue disputed as Blaylock’s attorneys pressed for state action.
Trainor separately contacted Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare and county commissioners about preserving records connected to the two contests. He requested that officials retain ballots, returns, candidate filings and communications, and note the pending eligibility challenge in their minutes. His email distinguished that request from an effort to stop the county’s vote-count certification. “We therefore do not ask the Court to delay the canvass, change any count, or rule on Ms. Lomick’s eligibility,” he wrote.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.