Republican Darrell Hale is leading the Collin County commissioner race against the Democrat

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Collin County Pct. 3 Commissioner Darrell Hale leads Democratic challenger Yvette Johnson to retain her seat, making it unlikely that Johnson will break the all-Republican court.

Hale leads Johnson 61.9% to 38.1%, according to unofficials election results posted by Collin County’s website, out of a total of 102,039 early voting and mail-in ballots cast for the seat.

Hale’s seat was the only contested commissioner position on the ballot in the county this election. Commissioners of the Court have authority over county administrative servicesincluding public works which maintain and build county roads; health services; facilities; and the county budget.

The court consists of four commissioners and county judge Chris Hill. Court members serve staggered four-year terms without term limits.

Area 3 is the largest of the county’s geographical areas four commissioner offices. That includes residents of McKinney, Anna, Melissa, Blue Ridge, Farmersville, Princeton, Weston, Van Alstyne and other municipalities.

Hale was elected in November 2018. He filled the unexpired term of Hill, who was elected county judge. In 2020, Hale beat Democratic challenger Dianne Mayo with nearly 61% of the vote.

Hale said he would continue to address transportation issues in the county in his next term.

“Planning for continued growth and mobility,” Hale said, “will be what I will focus on.”

Hale believes the county’s infrastructure is in a good position, but he wants to see more roads and highways to accommodate a growing population. He is interested in studying the potential for a new east-west highway in the northern end of the county.

“We deal with the issues of growth and expansion, I think, fairly adequately,” Hale said. “Our county roads and bridges are the envy of other counties in the state.”

Hale pointed to highway infrastructure such as Spur 399, US 380 and US 75. He said the county is keeping up with the infrastructure with expansions to the jail and others projectssuch as new facilities for the county medical examiner and health department.

Hale, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran, has been in the county since the late 90s and lives in McKinney.

Johnson, who works in cybersecurity and has lived in the county for about 20 years, hoped to break up an all-conservative court. If elected, she would also have been the only person of color on the field.

Her goal was to represent the people of her community in the best possible way by listening to the voters, Johnson said before the election.

“You need diversity to do that,” Johnson said. “You have to have diversity in everything you do to best serve a diverse county.”