Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo fields questions on March 22, 2022.
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo leaders revoked Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s leadership role after a dispute in which she said she was threatened with arrest, shoved by security personnel and escorted out of a rodeo concert.
An executive rodeo committee voted Thursday to revoke Hidalgo’s status as an ex-officio director — known as a non-voting member of the rodeo’s Board of Directors, a spokesperson for the rodeo confirmed to Houston Public Media.
A joint statement issued by rodeo president and CEO Chris Boleman and board chairwoman Pat Mann Phillips on Thursday disputed Hidalgo’s claims in a since-deleted Facebook post that she was “manhandled” by security officials as they attempted to escort her out of the chute — a premium seating area in NRG Stadium that is closest to the rodeo arena and concert stage.
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Rodeo officials said she attempted to access the chute area for a sold-out Megan Moroney concert with several guests, including two children, without valid credentials on Tuesday night. The incident escalated when Hidalgo refused to go back to her designated seat inside of a stadium suite.
Hidalgo is the only local elected official to request exclusive seats at the rodeo this year, according to the statement. Rodeo officials said she was previously provided with 21 chute tickets to attend concerts at the rodeo this year — including J Balvin, Forrest Frank and Luke Bryan — totaling close to $9,000 in value.
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Tickets for the premium seats run $425 each.
“We are very disappointed in Judge Hidalgo’s actions Tuesday night and since,” according to the statement, which was signed by Boleman and Phillips. “But we must enforce the same access policies for everyone. The Judge is the only elected official to request, even demand, these seats night after night. As chairwoman of the board, the idea that she was treated this way because she’s a woman or Hispanic is absolutely false and insulting.”
After Hidalgo issued a Wednesday evening letter detailing the incident — in which she says she was physically grabbed and pushed — she doubled down on social media Wednesday by posting additional videos and audio footage of her interaction with rodeo staffers as they escorted her out of the stadium.
“You are blocking me from people who saw what happened, you are not letting me see them,” Hidalgo could be heard saying during the interaction.
In her letter Wednesday, the county judge said she wanted rodeo leadership “to know that constituents of color and women, like me, deserve to be physically safe and to be treated with dignity.”
Hidalgo, a Democrat who is not seeking a third term this year, serves as the top executive for the Harris County government. The county owns NRG Stadium and the surrounding NRG Park and leases the property to the rodeo for its annual event.