Mayoral candidates take stage for debate

Published 2:25 pm Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Camp Jack was the site of the Harrison Mayoral Debate on Monday night. Jason Watts, Mitch Magness and Rhonda Watkins all attended the debate. It featured questions submitted from the city’s residents, moderated by the Times, livestreamed by Justin Wilson of Wilson Automotive, and attended by the community.

Despite an online vitriol that has seemed to dog this race, the debate itself had a jovial tone. The candidates were each allotted two minutes to answer questions, with the first person to answer rotating between the three.

Over the course of the 90-minute debate, citizens heard how each candidate views the state of the city, what the future holds, and how things could be improved.

In a simplification of their platforms, Mitch Magness emphasized his breadth of experience in local government and organizations; Rhonda Watkins emphasized the need to be more frugal; Jason Watts highlighted transparency and voter involvement.

In a section of the debate that allowed candidates to ask each other questions, Watts asked his fellow candidates what the first thing they would do as mayor. Magness said the first thing he would do was sit down with the city’s department heads and do a strategic assessment of what they are currently doing. He said he’d ask them what they can do today to benefit the citizens and what was preventing them from doing that.

Watkins said she would hit the ground running and would get out into the community with the department heads to see what needed to be done.

Next, Magness was given an opportunity to ask the other candidates questions. He asked Watts, as a new member of the community, what on his resume would make him fit for the position. Watts said he attended Fort Worth Christian School and made yearly trips to Harrison to visit his grandparents. He attended Southern Methodist University and started his own business after working as a software engineer for Amazon. Watts explained that his current job involving the automation of non-U.S. citizen jobs for various companies meant he had to learn to come in as an outsider, understand dynamic systems and make them better. He said it made him resilient and he believes those skills translate to becoming an effective leader and mayor.

Magness asked Watkins what made Harrison so special. Watkins replied that the people were what made Harrison so special. She referenced their charitable nature and their ability to help those in need. Watkins said being raised in this town made them special. She implied that if either she or Magness won the race, it would benefit the people of Harrison because they had been raised in such a special place.

Watkins said that Magness had asked the question of Watts that she and others had and declined to ask another of either candidate.

The race seems likely to come down to whether voters find Watt’s ideas compelling enough to overcome his label of “newcomer.” Magness and Watkins both have name recognition and a history in local politics, though, depending on how voters feel about their conduct in those positions, that history could be a benefit or a drawback.

The full debate can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@alittlebirdietoldmeharrison or https://www.facebook.com/harrisondailytimes.