Unfiltered: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo at West University and Bayou Blue Democrats joint meeting. Source, John Barrett

When I came back to Houston in 2018, after living in the Boston area for many years and a year abroad in South Asia, I made sure to register to vote and happily cast my lot for Lina Hidalgo, a young woman who was ready to take on the Republican machine and the business-as-usual approach to governance in the nation’s third most populous city. 

It would be a mistake to gloss over what the County has accomplished under her guidance and it is more than a little startling that upon thinking about it, her career is in many ways just beginning.

Born in Colombia, Judge Hidalgo spent her youth in Peru and Mexico before her family moved to Houston when she was fifteen. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in political science in 2013. That year., Lina became a U.S. citizen.(1)

She received received the Omidyar Network Postgraduate Fellowship "to work with an international organization”(2), Internews Network, in Thailand.(3).

She returned to Houston to work as a medical interpreter at the Texas Medical Center simultaneously volunteering at the Texas Civil Rights Project. She was pursuing a joint Master of Public Policy and Juris Doctor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and New York University’s. School of Law. (1)

I mention her background for a number of reasons. At a time when immigrants are in the sites of the regime in Washington and their acolytes at the state level, Judge Hidalgo stands as a rebuke to the contributions to this country that immigrants make. Similarly, when Republicans are pushing misogynist policies that practically verge on keeping women at home, barefoot and pregnant, we see in Harris County and Houston, a substantial number of women Judges and civic leaders (some of whom were in attendance Wednesday night). At a time when it is critical to hear from younger voices in politics, Judge Hidalgo began serving as Harris County Judge a little before she turned 28. In other words, it is not a stretch to say that Lina Hidalgo is an inspiration. 

If her tenure was merely a showpiece for immigrants, women, and young people, she would likely have not made it two terms. That she has accomplished remarkable benchmarks in those terms are the accomplishments that voters are going to look to.

She oversaw responses to floods, fires, and hurricanes and the winter storm the took 246 lives in Texas(4). She mandated masking up in Harris County during COVID, and predictably drew fire from the right at the local and state legislature levels. Governor Greg Abbott rebutted municipal government mandates to shore up this life-saving measure.(5) Homelessness in Harris County has been reduced by 20% (6) under her administration and leadership, and there’s more that we will get to soon enough.

To wit, after opening announcements and meeting current representatives and citizens who are announcing their candidacies (and I really do want to spend some time talking to them at some point and providing an overview of these exceptional folks), Judge Hidalgo took the stage and was refreshingly off the cuff.

Lina led with how perplexing she found it that people would vote - and honestly, these are not her words, but from my notes - against their best interests. She pointed out that in the last election, the Republican Party mounted a $25 million dollar campaign to unseat her (to the $5 million that went into her campaign) and how this reflected the power of grassroots movements. She emphasized the importance of becoming a sustaining member in the Harris County Democrat Party, that this is where she found her support and gave her the tools for pursuing the race. She and the other judges present also underscored how important investment in judicial races is, given the persistent attacks on Democrat judges is and she pointed out, how these attacks are built on lies (she did not mince words). She pointed out that Crime Stoppers is supposed to be a non-partisan organization but is firmly beholden to the deep pockets of the Republican Party. The GOP has been pushing the narrative that Democrat judges are soft on crime. This is a result of the much-needed bail reform (which Republicans are rolling back) that would staunch the crippling onus put on people picked up for minor infractions. (7, 8)

Judge Hidalgo chose four areas of her tenure to date to recount before opening up the floor to questions.

Harris County passed the most comprehensive ethics reform in fifty years. Yes, that’s 50 years. Since the seventies, no records were kept of protocols to follow covering conflicts of interest, audits, or other mechanisms for ensuring transparency and holding to clearly defined ethics for judges.

The establishment of the Workforce Training Program, for trade apprentices to ‘learn as you earn”, budgeted at $15 million that covers sixteen classes of trades like plumbing, pipe-fitting, etc.

Improved flood control under Proposition A that saw results after Hurricane Beryl last year. Neighborhoods prone to heavy flooding saw far less than in previous years. Note that the County Judge is also Harris County’s Director of Emergency Management, leading the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. (9)

Early Childhood Education: currently, Judge Hidalgo is working on making the system more efficient with a $149 million budget, the largest in the country. It is worth reviewing the initiatives under way already to see how her emphasis on childhood development in general is paying off (https://cjo.harriscountytx.gov/childhood-development).

Judge Hidalgo opened up the floor and the first question was from a woman who admitted that she voted for then-incumbent Ed Emmett, but that her party left her and she voted for Lina in 2022. She asked what Judge Hidalgo thought of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman’s struggles with mental health in light of her own. Judge Hidalgo sidestepped addressing the first part, but was candid about her own mental health struggles with depression and anxiety. As she said, she just felt how she was feeling was to be expected, but that suicidal ideation was a flag that emphasized that she needed help. She used her case as an example of where support for mental health by insurers fails most Americans. Large employers are lobbying and fairly successfully, for pulling back mental health parity regulations. Judge Hidalgo noted that mental health coverage should be considered “like physical health”. She noted that even with coverage from her insurance program provided by the county, she was still on the hook for seventy thousand dollars.

She also emphasized that she believes it is important to talk about this and is happy to do so. She pointed out the 988 hotline, which is a full mental health resource, not just for suicide; Lina emphasized that if you’re having a panic attack, suffering from any kind of mental health emergency, to call the hotline. 

When asked what are three topics that are often little-discussed, Judge Hidalgo pointed to the 20% reduction in homelessness during COVID, her push for increased salaries for law enforcement, and her on-going for pay raises for sheriffs, which was part of the 2022 budget that Republicans boycotted, and she returned to the repeated attacks on Democrat judges (and these days, it may even extend to Republican judges who are seen as insufficiently loyal to the party line). All of these should be brought up in conversation, and amplified. To that end, I will certainly doing so on this platform myself.

There was a last question about how to get younger people involved and in fact, a younger person spoke up and emphasized that her peers are ready to step up (and if you do make it to any Harris County Democrat meeting, you might be inspired by how many younger people are throwing their hats in the ring). To be sure, more young people are feeling the pinch of an economy in a downward spiral, a polity besieged by conflicting narratives surrounding immigration, gender relations, and domestic policies that are, at best, dreadful. 

That said, the evening ended on a positive note with Judge Hidalgo’s forward-looking remarks and I left thinking that I’ve seen the face of what the future could be, both for the county and possibly the state. Judge Hidalgo seems certain that at some point the pendulum will swing back in Texas, and the country. I think we all hope so, but there is a lot of work ahead.

Afterword

The ethics reform point no doubt would ring with a sense of irony for those convinced that Judge Hidalgo was dealing in bid rigging four years ago. Admittedly, it is a dark cloud that lingers over her office, but no smoking gun was actually found to buttress then-DA’s claim that Judge Hidalgo or her staff that were indicted had, in fact, given pride of place to Elevate Strategies during the pandemic. I would recommend the Houston Public Media cited below for a comprehensive and thorough reporting of the issue. Were the charges politically motivated by DA Kim Ogg? It is hard to assume that they were not, but this is one of those cases where the overall controversy may well have led to a narrower margin of victory for Judge Hidalgo in the 2022 election.(9, 10) Ogg has found herself in hot water more recently for similar charges. (11)

Notes;

1. Wikipedia.
2. Beges-Thysen.
3. Collier.
4. Texas Health and Human Services.
5. Fechter.
6. Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge. “About Lina.”
7. Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge. “Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice Reform.”
8. Texas Express.
9. DeBenedetto and Vasquez.
10. Snyder.
11. Saavedra.

Bibliography/Additional Resources

ARPA-Justice and Safety Court Backlog. Harris County Office of County Administration. https://oca.harriscountytx.gov/ARPA/ARPA-Justice-and-Safety/court-backlog. Retrieved May 16, 2025

Beges-Thysen, Sarina. “CDDR student receives Stanford award for top thesis.” Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law/Freeman Spogli Institute. https://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/news/cddrl_student_receives_stanford_award_for_top_thesis_20130614. June 14, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Collier, Kiah.  “Harris County’s first Latina county judge takes the helm.” The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/08/harris-county-first-latina-county-judge-lina-hidalgo/. January 8, 2029. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

DeBenedetto, Paul and Vasquez, Lucio. “Lina Hidalgo accuses DA Kim Ogg of election year politics in COVID outreach contract investigation.” Houston Public Media. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2022/05/17/425201/lina-hidalgo-accuses-da-kim-ogg-of-election-year-politics-in-covid-outreach-contract-investigation/. May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

Fechter, Joshua. "Texas Supreme Court says Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID ban on local mask rules was lawful.” The Texas Tribune. June 30, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Lina Hidalgo Harris County Judge homepage. “About Lina.” https://linahidalgo.com/about/. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

________________________________________. “Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice Reform.” https://cjo.harriscountytx.gov/Criminal-Juvenile-Justice-Reform. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Saavedra, Ninfa. "Charges dropped: Ex-Harris County official alleges former DA Kim Ogg targeted her with a personal, political vendetta.” Click2Houston. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/05/09/charges-dropped-ex-harris-county-official-alleges-former-da-kim-ogg-targeted-her-with-a-personal-political-vendetta/. May 9, 2025. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Snyder, Mike. “Lina Hidalgo Aides Are Accused of Steering a Contract to an Ally. Internal Communications Paint a Murkier Picture.” Texas Monthly. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/lina-hidalgo-aides-vaccine-outreach-contract/. March 29, 2022. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Texas Express. “Texas senate passes bill to crack down on Harris County Bail Laws.” https://www.texasexpres.com/2025/02/20/texas-senate-passes-bill-to-crack-down-on-harris-county-bail-laws/. February 20, 2025. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Texas Health and Human Services. “February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths - Texas.” https://www.dshs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/news/updates/SMOC_FebWinterStorm_MortalitySurvReport_12-30-21.pdf. Retrieved May 16, 2025.

Wikipedia. “Lina Hidalgo.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Hidalgo. Retrieved May 16, 2025.