{"id":202329,"date":"2026-03-13T02:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202329\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T02:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:30:15","slug":"houston-rodeo-leaders-strip-lina-hidalgo-of-board-role-deny-she-was-manhandled-in-concert-dispute-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202329\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston rodeo leaders strip Lina Hidalgo of board role, deny she was \u2018manhandled\u2019 in concert dispute \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Lina<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucio Vasquez \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo fields questions on March 22, 2022.<\/p>\n

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo leaders revoked Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

An executive rodeo committee voted Thursday to revoke Hidalgo\u2019s status as an ex-officio director \u2014 known as a non-voting member of the rodeo\u2019s Board of Directors, a spokesperson for the rodeo confirmed to Houston Public Media.<\/p>\n

A joint statement issued by rodeo president and CEO Chris Boleman and board chairwoman Pat Mann Phillips<\/a> on Thursday disputed Hidalgo\u2019s claims in a since-deleted Facebook post that she was \u201cmanhandled\u201d by security officials as they attempted to escort her out of the chute \u2014 a premium seating area in NRG Stadium that is closest to the rodeo arena and concert stage.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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 \u2014 including J Balvin, Forrest Frank and Luke Bryan \u2014 totaling close to $9,000 in value. <\/p>\n

RELATED: Harris County Judge alleges she was threatened, removed from Houston rodeo concert<\/a><\/p>\n

Tickets for the premium seats run $425 each. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very disappointed in Judge Hidalgo\u2019s actions Tuesday night and since,\u201d according to the statement, which was signed by Boleman and Phillips. \u201cBut 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\u2019s a woman or Hispanic is absolutely false and insulting.\u201d <\/p>\n

After Hidalgo issued a Wednesday evening letter detailing the incident \u2014 in which she says she was physically grabbed and pushed \u2014 she doubled down on social media<\/a> Wednesday by posting additional videos and audio footage of her interaction with rodeo staffers as they escorted her out of the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are blocking me from people who saw what happened, you are not letting me see them,\u201d Hidalgo could be heard saying during the interaction.<\/p>\n

In her letter Wednesday, the county judge said she wanted rodeo leadership \u201cto know that constituents of color and women, like me, deserve to be physically safe and to be treated with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hidalgo, a Democrat who is not seeking a third term<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucio Vasquez \/ Houston Public Media Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo fields questions on March 22, 2022. Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[405,72730,56,58,28002,57,30496,404,66,223,77861],"class_list":{"0":"post-202329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-harris-county","9":"tag-hlsr","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-livestock-show-and-rodeo","13":"tag-houston-news","14":"tag-houston-rodeo","15":"tag-lina-hidalgo","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rodeo-concerts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}