Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during the Harris County State of the County luncheon in Houston, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.
Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said her Democratic colleagues on Commissioners Court have abandoned the principles that swept them into office as part of the 2018 Blue Wave, and called on voters to scrutinize the court’s recent decisions in a scathing post made to Substack.
The fusillade is the latest in an ongoing dispute between Hidalgo and her fellow Democrats that emerged after the party achieved a 4-1 supermajority on the court in 2023, and has produced bitter arguments between the county judge and two of her colleagues. The animosity shows no signs of abating as Hidalgo, who did not seek reelection this year, enters her final months in office.
Hidalgo said a combination of questionable relationships between her Democratic colleagues, their campaign donors and the contracts they approve, coupled with recent raises for county law enforcement and subsequent cuts to programs in other departments, are part of the court’s backslide into practices she said were common under the its pre-2019 Republican majority.
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“Here we are again but this time, sadly, under the Democratic label,” Hidalgo wrote on Substack. “Members of Commissioners Court have campaign coffers so large there are no primaries to speak of. Blatant pay to play with No-Bid contracts awarded to donors. Catastrophic budgetary decisions with little public awareness.”
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Pay to play, or exchanging government contracts for campaign contributions, is illegal. Commissioners have repeatedly said they are not corrupt.
The bulk of Hidalgo’s criticisms were directed toward Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Lesley Briones, both moderate Democrats who are up for reelection this year and with whom Hidalgo has clashed over funding for law enforcement and other initiatives.
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None of Hidalgo’s fellow Democrats responded to a request for comment. The Harris County Democratic Party also did not respond.
The post was the first made to Hidalgo’s newly created Substack, which she launched in late July. She first publicly shared the page in a Facebook post Monday.
Hidalgo said waning public interest in county government — fueled in part by decisions made by her colleagues that she said disenfranchised residents — prompted her to seek out a platform she could use to directly engage with the public.
“I worry about people’s apathy in politics,” Hidalgo said in an interview Tuesday. “I think we shoot ourselves in the foot when we embody the exact things people don’t like about politics.”
Hidalgo pointed to votes on key issues, such as large county law enforcement raises approved last year and the renewal of the county’s contract with surveillance camera firm Flock Safety, that she felt were rushed and lacking in public engagement and discussion.
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Hidalgo said lackluster efforts to engage with residents on important topics could erode Democrats’ chances of maintaining the 4-1 majority they have held on court since 2023.
But Carroll Robinson, an associate professor at Texas Southern University and former Houston City Council member, said Democrats will keep their gains on Commissioners Court in November.
A 2022 redistricting effort spearheaded by the court’s Democratic majority makes it an uphill battle for Republican challengers, and neither Briones nor Garcia faced a primary opponent this cycle. Voters also have moved away from the progressive platform that saw Democrats gain seats across government in 2018, he said.
“You don’t hear progressives talking about defunding the police like you did a decade ago,” Robinson said. “Even when we talk about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, people want …reform that brings accountability, not total elimination.”
Robinson said the infighting between Hidalgo and her fellow commissioners has been bubbling for years along with similar intraparty disputes at higher levels of government.
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“The county judge has been having an ongoing, very vigorous debate with her colleagues for probably close to two years,” Robinson said. “We’ve seen this kind of thing at the federal and state levels among Democrats, and that will probably continue.”
Safe seats change incentives
Transparency was one of Hidalgo’s campaign pillars — she said one factor that led her to first seek her office in 2018 was the “good old boys” culture that she said dominated the court under Republicans. County government was built on handshakes and backroom deals, making it frustrating for the public to engage with, Hidalgo said.
Although Hidalgo feels the court is now more transparent and easier for residents to interact with, she feels her colleagues have slipped into the old way of doing things, and worries that the public could see those improvements whittled away.
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“The districts are relatively safe, so I don’t know that there’s an incentive for there to be change right now in terms of the positions of the court,” she said.
Hidalgo’s Substack post also touted her narrow 2022 reelection, something which she framed as achieving “without taking contractor money.”
Although Hidalgo is the only court member to take an outspoken stance against Harris County’s longstanding practice of commissioners allowing contractors to fuel their political campaigns, Robinson said she benefited directly and indirectly from her colleagues’ campaign spending.
“She’s the beneficiary of the other commissioners investing in her re-election,” Robinson said. “Not only through transfers to her campaign, but actually using their money to put boots on the ground and help turnout Democratic voters.”
Ellis provided a $100,000 loan to Hidalgo’s campaign during her 2022 reelection bid, and Garcia contributed $10,000 in early November 2022.
Hidalgo will leave office Jan. 1. She previously said she does not have immediate plans to seek another office, but did not rule out running again in the future.