Just a decade ago Eric Morris was sitting “quiet as a church mouse” in Chris McDonald’s eighth-grade social studies class.
Since then, McDonald has voted for his former student twice in local elections, most recently for the Tarrant Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Morris, 24, has an unusual background for the appraisal district board. The district sets property appraisals for both commercial and residential property and administers exemptions for tax purposes.
Morris doesn’t own property (he still lives with his parents in Haltom City), works as a pharmacy technician and is finishing college remotely Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Morris said his love for learning drove him to serve in local politics at a young age. He was inspired during a class in college.
“I knew I always wanted to do something more community service-wise, I just didn’t know what that was going to look like throughout high school and starting out in college,” he said. “That was until I took a Texas government class. They really elaborated on city government. And I took an interest.”
He was elected to the Haltom City Council in 2022 when he was 22. He left that post to run for the appraisal district board in early 2024.
McDonald said he wished he had been able to pay more attention to his former student, who he said was “mature beyond his years.”
“He never acted out,” McDonald said. “He was always pleasant. He always had his homework correct and complete.”
McDonald now works in real estate full time and teaches real estate classes. He said Morris’ civic involvement is noble and a rational way to make a change, contrasting it to students who took part in protests during the summer of 2020.
A decade after having him as a student, McDonald stumped for Morris during his run for countywide office, offering advice on running against other candidates and donating to his campaign.
“Anybody who wants to knock a kid for running for office has to examine their motive for knocking the kid,” McDonald said. “You didn’t run, and you don’t have any ideas. If you feel that bad about it, then you should run and do something about it. I’m not concerned with people who just want to complain and do not have a solution to the problem they’re complaining about.”
‘Blue-collar background’
Morris describes his family and upbringing as blue-collar. His mother worked as a substitute teacher for the Birdville school district, and his father is a mechanic for Tyson Foods. He has one younger brother in high school.
“My father, he’s got blue-collar roots,” he said. “He’s a blue-collar guy. And yeah, we’re incredibly proud of that.”
He said his family didn’t get to travel too much, but he fondly remembers family trips to Disney World and Universal Studios; his favorite city outside of Texas is Orlando.
Morris said he parents reaction to him being involved in politics is “mixed.”
“I think they’re more confused as to why — I’ll put it like that. Because obviously, these positions, they don’t pay. You know, it’s called public service for a reason.”
His political, public service journey began in 2020 when he ran for Haltom City Council.
“Nobody knew who I was,” he said. “I didn’t even have signs or anything really going out at the time. What I had was just grassroots style, going, talking to folks, handing out whatever piece of paper I print out.”
Morris earned 31.56% of the vote, falling just short of the runoff election.
He said the pandemic disrupted his campaign, but he was still determined to serve his city.
After losing the race, Morris became a Republican in 2021 and helped Haltom City Council member Don Cooper campaign for his race that year. Cooper is serving his second term in the Place 7 seat.
Cooper said because of the help Morris provided him he decided to helped Morris campaign for the Place 4 spot the following year. Morris won the election for Place 4 in 2022 with 60.43% of the vote.
Council members were skeptical about Morris’s age, Cooper recalled, but he never saw it as an issue.
“Eric’s a fine young man, and we we need good people in politics and age shouldn’t be a huge factor,” Cooper said.
During his tenure on the City Council, Morris said his proudest accomplishment was helping to bring New Jersey-based H Mart — the largest Asian grocery chain in the country — to the city.
Sad to see him leave the City Council, Cooper still helped Morris campaign for the appraisal district board, going door to door to speak with voters. He said he was impressed by how Morris listened residents’ thoughts on his campaign and their skepticism about his age.
Morris said he learned during his time on City Council how to deal with the age issue.
“A lot of people, they assume because you’re in your early 20s, you can’t handle this kind of position, so you can’t really produce much, there’s not much you could bring to the table. Clearly, that’s not the case,” he said.
The appraisal district board
On July 1, Morris was sworn in with two other newly elected members of to the Tarrant Appraisal District Board of Directors after he won nearly 54% of the vote in the May 5 election. They are the first elected members after a state law expanded appraisal district boards to include elected representatives.
Morris embraces the fact that he’s not a property owner and believes he can be an advocate for others like him.
An elected official he declined to name told him the fact that he wasn’t a property owner was the perfect reason for him to run, he said.
“One person told me, they even went so far as to say, ‘I know you don’t own property I think that’s exactly why you should run because I don’t have to worry about you changing policies in a way that benefits your business,’” Morris recalled. “’You know, we don’t have to worry about you doing anything like that. You’ve got no skin in the game.’”
Members of the Tarrant Appraisal District Board —both elected and appointed — are not paid for their service.
Morris also received a key endorsement that set him apart from other candidates: One from County Judge Tim O’Hare, who also endorsed the other two candidates who were elected.
Morris said he met O’Hare when he was campaigning for county judge and that the two have held a working relationship since. O’Hare took office in 2023.
“I’ve built a relationship with him throughout the election, and also as a council member, you know, we deal with the county for a variety of issues every once in a while,” he said.
O’Hare did not respond to a request to comment.
“I chose TAD because I wanted to make sure that TAD has solid leadership moving forward,” Morris said. “For a volunteer position like the Board of Directors, it can be difficult to find good and qualified leaders to serve in this kind of a role. I’m trying to fix the problems that TAD faces.”
O’Hare also endorsed Callie Rigney, the former mayor pro tem of Colleyville, and Matt Bryant, a real estate agent and former president of the Southlake Carroll school board.
Bryant owns over 20 properties including five in Haltom City, according to appraisal district records.
The trio campaigned on plans to move appraisals to every three years and cap residential appraisal Increases at 5%, according to the political action committee Tarrant Taxpayer Advocates , which spent $70,000 on the race .
Their promises are on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
While the trio share political donors and endorsements, there is a key difference in their backgrounds: the affluence of the suburbs they come from.
The average listing price of a home for sale in Colleyville is over $1 million and in Southlake it is just under $2 million.
In Haltom City , it’s $280,000.
“We’re a blue-collar community, which we’re proud of,” Morris said. “That’s a part of our Identity. Of course, it does come with its downsides in terms of representation, unfortunately. So that is one of the reasons why I got involved, to do the things that I do, because I know that doing this is one of the No. 1 ways to get Haltom City on the map.”
That sentiment resonates with McDonald, who said his former student’s story aligns with many people from Haltom City.
He also believes Morris’ hometown gives him an edge, noting that many of the “kids” from Southlake where he offices out of often operate with a sense of “entitlement.”
“If you’re from around here, you have to earn it, nobody’s going to hand it to you,” McDonald said.
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