Andrew Schneider/Hosuton Public Media
Candidates running for Harris County offices appeared before The Metropolitan Organization on October 4, 2026. From left to right: Letitia Plummer (D candidate for Harris County judge), Orlando Sanchez (R candidate for Harris County judge), Adrian Garcia (D Harris County commissioner for Precinct 2), Richard Vega (R candidate for Harris County commissioner for Precinct 2).
The Democratic and Republican candidates for Harris County judge seemed to find common ground on a range of issues Sunday during a forum organized by The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) at Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel.
Former Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer, the Democratic candidate, and former Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez, the Republican candidate, and the four main candidates for Harris County Commissioners Court, responded to a series of questions posed by representatives of various churches and synagogues. The forum had strict conditions that no candidate was allowed to use response time to campaign or to criticize his or her opponent.
Plummer and Sanchez each pledged to support raising $1 million in public and private funding to create at least three new “community lighthouses” — building on a program TMO now operates to create community hubs that provide electricity, heating or cooling, food, and medical support when the power grid fails.
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“I actually am the city council member that found the resources necessary to put the first generator at Kashmere Gardens Multipurpose Center,” Plummer said. “Resilience is my primary priority, making sure the infrastructure is managed within our areas, so that every time it rains, you do not flood in your homes, and we are prepared for disaster.”
Orlando Sanchez similarly reminded audience members that, when he was on Houston City Council, he regularly contributed leftover funds from his budget to the Houston Fire Department for external defibrillators.
“I think that everyone is well aware that not everyone can afford private generators in the home,” Sanchez said. “So, it is absolutely vital for this community to have power generation — reliable, renewable power generation — in these areas around the city of Houston.”
Both Sanchez and Plummer then pledged to seek future bond elections to address county flood control needs once the $2.5 billion raised in the 2018 bond election is spent.
“It is important to recognize that the flooding problem is no longer a Harris County problem. It has become a regional problem,” Sanchez said. “I moved to Houston in 1961 as an immigrant. We didn’t have a problem with flooding, but as we build more and more in surrounding counties, we have to rely now on cooperation from other counties and assistance from the federal government.”
Plummer noted that she was first elected to Houston City Council just after Hurricane Harvey, and she said she helped many of her most vulnerable constituents to work with the Texas General Land Office to rebuild their homes.
“I will be diligent in ensuring that we finish [using] the [existing] bond resources,” Plummer said, “but we don’t only do that. We also communicate and be transparent with our communities to understand that when we’re using federal and state dollars, there are often times different requirements which take a longer time to make happen.”
Next, Plummer and Sanchez both pledged to support full funding for Harris Health to provide expanded preventive, primary, emergency, and hospital care to all county residents.
“Harris Health has a very special part in my heart,” Plummer said. “As a very young dentist, I opened up Strawberry Dental Center and Gulfgate Dental Center. And so, I treated the patients that came into Harris Health. It is critical. It is a catch-all because our governor has not expanded Medicaid, which means we have to make sure that we take care of folks that don’t have insurance.”
Sanchez pointed to his past work to increase the number of level-one trauma centers in Harris County.
“We’re the third largest county in the United States,” Sanchez said. “We only have two level-one trauma centers, and generally, 30% of the time, they’re on drive-by status, which means they’re at capacity, and they cannot attend to you. So, I was happy to work with Harris Health to ensure that we had almost a 75% voter approval.”
Lastly, both candidates for county judge pledged to allocate $500,000 in public and private funding to support TMO’s Capital IDEA Houston, a long-term workforce development program aimed at helping low-income workers transition to careers that provide a living wage. Sanchez said this was an issue he’d championed for decades.
“For [profit] universities are taking advantage financially of our urban poor,” Sanchez said. “All I’m asking is that they disclose the amount of interest, the debt, and the cost to young people, who after they find out they owe $30,000, drop out. They are non-transferable credits to public institutions, and they are doomed to financial disasters.”
Plummer said she wanted to focus on public-school education, pointing to 12 schools she said are being closed.
“Really understanding how the early childhood, middle school, high school, and how that leans into what you need to have in terms of vocational apprenticeship programs, etc. … it’s important to be able to do that, because if we take care of you, and we give you a level of education, then you will be able to take care of your families and thrive,” Plummer said.