04/11/2019  Tungol Law  America Now, Headline News, Immigration, Politics "She’s 28. She’s an Immigrant. She’s in Charge of Texas’ Most Populous County. Get Used to It."

According to a recent article by Blake Paterson from Texas Observer,
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a 28-year-old political newcomer whose unexpected victory in November put her in charge of governing Texas’ most populous county. Her election solidified a progressive majority on the five-member governing body. She’s pledged to build a “county that works for everyone,” and, three months into her term, she hasn’t wasted any time getting started. One of her first motions after taking office in January was rescinding a rule limiting public input on a given issue to 15 minutes.

Hidalgo is responsible for a portfolio few millennials can rival. Despite its name, the county judge is an executive — not judicial — position, overseeing a payroll of nearly 18,000 people, a burgeoning population of more than 4 million and a $4.8 billion budget. If that isn’t enough, Hidalgo is now also the county’s director of emergency management, responsible for guiding the region through floods and superstorms like Hurricane Harvey.

Few expected Hidalgo to unseat Ed Emmett, a popular, moderate Republican who was widely regarded as a highly effective steward and one of the powerhouses of Houston politics. Just 15 months before winning the election, Hidalgo moved back home to Houston from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she’d been living for the past year working on a graduate degree at Harvard, to take on Emmett.

Though the Senate race between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz dominated headlines, Harris County turning solidly blue was arguably the biggest news of the night. And Hidalgo — a young, progressive, Hispanic immigrant — is now the face of this ostensible New Houston.

But many Houstonians greeted their new county judge with skepticism. Few in the county’s traditional political establishment lined up behind Hidalgo as a candidate, and many downplayed her victory. “Lina won on a Beto-driven wave of straight-ticket voting,” said Paul Simpson, the chair of the Harris County Republican Party. “I didn’t think the county judge was an entry-level position,” he added sarcastically.

She’s certainly an unconventional pick to lead the nation’s third-largest county. She’s never held political office and hadn’t attended a commissioners court hearing before being elected. In one debate, Hidalgo couldn’t name the county auditor. She entered office with dozens of critics who were wary of her inexperience and dubious of her knowledge of the limitations of the job.

Her supporters counter that she’s been prejudged by those who can’t see past her age, gender and ethnicity. After Hidalgo gave a press conference in both Spanish and English, Mark Tice, a commissioner in neighboring Chambers County, wrote online, “English this is not Mexico,” later telling the Houston Chronicle “This is the United States. Speak English,” and calling Hidalgo a “joke.” When pressed, Tice couldn’t explain why Hidalgo was unqualified. “I don’t have [her résumé] in front of me,” he said.

“She was definitely underestimated. She’s young, she’s brown and she’s a she,” said Sarah Slamen, a Democratic political consultant, adding that the county’s traditional “king- and queen-makers” are playing a bit of catch-up.

For more on Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, go to https://www.texasobserver.org/shes-28-shes-an-immigrant-shes-in-charge-of-texas-most-populous-county-get-used-to-it/.

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