Opponent says Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins wore blackface in 1983 college trespass

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins speaks during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas on July 15, 2022. (Credit: Kylie Cooper/The Texas Tribune)

DALLAS — When Clay Jenkins and two friends stormed the apartment of female Baylor University classmates in 1983, they laughed it off as a prank. The women described it as a terrifying moment, and Jenkins and his friends were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

In the years since, Jenkins has climbed to be one of the most prominent Democrats in Texas as Dallas County judge, and the story of the college “panty raid” has surfaced in at least one prior published report. But in the waning days of his 2022 reelection campaign, a new detail of the story has emerged: One of the women told police that Jenkins and his friends “had on dark oil type or paint or dark makeup on their faces to make them look like Black people,” according to a Waco police report.