The County Judge Race Is Keough Against Graf. Both Answered the Same Five Questions.
By P.J. Carver · September 15, 2026
The seat that runs Commissioners Court is on the ballot in seven weeks. One man has held it since 2019 and wants a third term. The other has never held office and says the county needs a published financial plan before it does anything else.
The county judge does not sit in a courtroom. He presides over Commissioners Court, the five-member body that adopted a $546.8 million budget on September 8 and set the county tax rate at 38.60 cents. He is one vote of five on that court and the only one elected countywide. The seat is on the November 3 ballot.
Mark Keough, a Republican, has held it since January 2019. Before that he represented House District 15 in the Texas House for two sessions, and before that he ran car dealerships. He won the March 3 primary over Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack by 1,519 votes, 38,632 to 37,113, which is 51 percent to 49. James Graf, a Democrat, was unopposed in his primary. He describes four decades in finance and management, including 15 years as a public-company chief executive or chief financial officer. Neither has run against the other before. If it feels like Keough was just on a ballot, he was: the March vote was the primary, which only picked the Republican nominee. November is the general election, which fills the seat for four years. Same office, one election cycle, two rounds.
Community Impact put the same five questions to both men and published the answers Monday. We have set them side by side, in each candidate's own words where quoted, at the same column width. The order is alphabetical.
Democrat
James Graf
The top issue. "Conservative fiscal responsibility requires longer term financial planning as we grow to a million residents, to protect taxpayers, public safety, critical services and our way of life."
On growth. The county should "consider and disclose long-term financial, tax, traffic and resource impact of development projects seeking approvals, concessions and county infrastructure." The word doing the work there is disclose: he is asking for the math on a development to be public before the court acts on it.
On the budget and the tax rate. "I would focus on no new revenues beyond growth and inflation. Exceptions may be special voter-approved capital projects." Read plainly, that is a ceiling: the county's take rises with new construction and with prices, and not otherwise, unless voters approve a specific project.
On the courthouse and the jail. "We need a safe modern courthouse and jail to ensure public safety, and can't kick the can on this any longer."
First priority in office. "Publish an interactive long-term county financial plan, as a guide for decision-making, budgeting and accountability."
Source: Community Impact's September 14, 2026 candidate questionnaire; the candidate's site is mocojudge.com.
Republican · Incumbent
Mark Keough
The top issue. "Managing rapid growth without sacrificing the safety, mobility, affordability and quality of life that brought families here."
On growth. "We must plan ahead, not chase growth after it arrives." He says he will keep the county's mobility projects moving.
On the budget and the tax rate. "My approach is fiscal discipline and honesty about trade-offs. We must fund core responsibilities first." His record on this is a week old: he voted yes on September 8 for the 38.60-cent rate, which sits above the no-new-revenue rate of 37.06 cents and below the voter-approval rate, and which the county's own impact statement puts at about $30 a year more for the median homestead.
On the courthouse and the jail. "I will not support rushing taxpayers into an overpriced project." Major debt, he says, "should be clearly justified."
First priority in office. "My priority is preserving the quality of life Montgomery County families expect; safe neighborhoods, reliable roads."
Source: Community Impact's September 14, 2026 candidate questionnaire; the candidate's site is markkeough.org. The September 8 vote and rate figures are from our Issue 35 report and the county's taxpayer impact statement.
What the two columns share is more than the campaigns would admit. Both men reach for the phrase fiscal discipline. Both say a courthouse and a jail are needed; one leads with not overpaying for them, the other with not waiting. Both say growth has to be planned ahead of, not behind. The daylight is in what each would do first. Keough names roads and neighborhoods, which is the job as it has been done. Graf names a published long-term financial plan and a cap on revenue growth, which is the job done differently.
There is one more difference that is not in the questionnaire. Keough won his own primary by two points against a sitting justice of the peace, which means about half of the Republicans who voted in March preferred someone else. Whether they come back in November is the arithmetic of this race, and nobody's answer to a questionnaire settles it.
You decide.
The Standard does not endorse. The dates that matter:
- Monday, October 5 is the last day to register to vote, or to update an address, for this election. The county elections office is at elections.mctx.org; the state's application is at votetexas.gov, in English and Spanish.
- October 19 through 30 is early voting. The sites post at elections.mctx.org.
- Tuesday, November 3 is Election Day. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Both campaigns publish more than five answers. Read the sites. Then read the county budget, which is the document the winner will actually spend the next four years inside.
Editor's note on format. We ran this as a two-column piece because it is an election, which is the purest form of a community decision where reasonable people disagree. Each column carries the candidate's own words from the same questionnaire, with the same five questions, at the same width, and the one piece of context we added, the incumbent's September 8 vote, is a matter of public record. The paper has no position on the race. This piece carries a stable pen-name byline, per our ethics policy, which protects reporters on the politics beat; the reporting is real, the name is changed.
Sources: Community Impact's September 14, 2026 candidate questionnaire for Montgomery County judge (both candidates' backgrounds and answers, the early voting and registration dates, the poll hours); Community Impact's March 3, 2026 primary results report (the vote totals, the margin, Wayne Mack's office, Keough's tenure and legislative service); Ballotpedia's listing for the November 3, 2026 general election (the two candidates and parties); our September 11, 2026 report on the county's 2026-27 budget and tax rate at /montgomery-county-budget-2027-tax-rate-vote/. Corrections to editor@themagnoliastandard.news.