{"id":202871,"date":"2026-03-13T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202871\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:30:07","slug":"texas-judge-lina-hidalgo-claims-racism-sexism-at-houston-rodeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202871\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas judge Lina Hidalgo claims racism, sexism at Houston rodeo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas judge said she was manhandled while attending a concert at the\u00a0Houston Livestock Show\u00a0and Rodeo<\/a> this week after staffers refused to let her access a VIP area and escorted her out of the venue. <\/p>\n

The judge questioned whether she was the victim of racism or sexism despite being given $9,000 in freebies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she and five guests \u2014 another elected official, the official\u2019s children and the parents of a US Air Force sergeant who recently died \u2014 attended a Megan Moroney concert<\/a> at the popular rodeo show Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the group was barred from the venue\u2019s premium floor access area \u2014 the ticket area known as \u201cthe dirt\u201d \u2014 because they had not paid the $425 per head price tag for wristbands and the show was sold out, the rodeo said in response to a Fox News Digital request for comment.<\/p>\n

Hildalgo said she had previously been allowed on the floor access area without a wristband \u201cbased on the county\u2019s relationship with the rodeo.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said she assumed the area was \u201cfriends of rodeo leaders or for rodeo leaders or such.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said she then asked if her guests could be let into the area before she was grabbed, shoved and threatened\u00a0with arrest<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the rodeo committee members have a job to do,\u201d Hidalgo wrote in a scathing letter to rodeo board Chairwoman Pat Phillips and rodeo President Chris Boleman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she was manhandled at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this week. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The rodeo said Hidalgo\u2019s group had not paid the $425 per head price tag for wristbands and the show was sold out. Lina Hidalgo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to keep thousands of people safe at the largest rodeo in the world. I did not want to prevent the committee members from doing their jobs, nor was I trying to take advantage of \u2018privileges\u2019 or call in favors. I was not even interested in seeing the concert. I was only interested in helping community members enjoy an important event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodeo officials said Hidalgo was asked several times to return to the county suite where she was seated previously. <\/p>\n

She was then asked to leave and was escorted out of the venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were numerous law enforcement officers who were present and none saw any physical harm, including \u2018manhandling,\u2019\u201d Phillips and Boleman said in a joint letter addressing the matter. \u201cUltimately, when she would not go back to her designated seats in the suite, she was escorted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodeo officials said Hidalgo requested and was given $9,000 in floor access tickets for herself and her guests for three previous nights for concerts to see J Balvin,\u00a0Dwight Yoakam\u00a0and Luke Bryan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very disappointed in Judge Hidalgo\u2019s actions Tuesday night and since,\u201d Phillips and Boleman said. \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

In a letter Wednesday to Phillips and Boleman, the judge said she has \u201cnever accepted anything inappropriately or used my role to personally enrich myself even though many others have.\u201d<\/p>\n

She further questioned the treatment she would have received had she been a \u201cmale county executive\u201d before claiming that white men have \u201cfelt emboldened to treat others, particularly Hispanics, with physical force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelby Pierson carries an American flag at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 2. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t travel without my passport anymore,\u201d she wrote. \u201cMany of us do, especially those of us who are not white-passing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Hidalgo.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Houston Police Officers\u2019 Union\u00a0posted an illustration on its Facebook page of a law enforcement officer escorting a woman by her arm as she says, \u201cI\u2019m the County Judge.\u201d The union said the image was satire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On her Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> pages, Hidalgo shared videos of her leaving the concert venue from her vantage point and audio recordings with rodeo staffers.<\/p>\n

Hidalgo questioned whether she was the victim of racism or sexism. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about a wristband or a ticket or a concert,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is about the mentality of some people and the way they treat others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is how they treat me \u2014 by virtue of my position the Ex-Officio Director of the rodeo, landlord, because NRG stadium belongs to Harris County and leases to the rodeo, how do they treat everybody else?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Harris County\u00a0judge, Hidalgo serves as its chief executive and presiding officer of the Commissioners Court, the county\u2019s governing body, managing a budget over $4 billion.<\/p>\n

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