Meet Lina Hidalgo, the woman who runs Harris County
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
- Judge Lina Hidalgo was elected Harris County Judge in 2018 when she was 27 years old.
- She is the first woman and first Latina elected to the county judge office.
- In times of a disaster or emergency, Judge Hidalgo serves as the county's director of emergency management, leading the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management.
- Originally from Colombia and raised in Peru and Mexico, Judge Hidalgo emigrated to the U.S. in 2005.
- Judge Hidalgo attended Houston-area public schools and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in public science the same year she became a U.S. citizen.
- In her first few years as county judge, Hidalgo has run the Houston marathon, guided the city through flooding events and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Before becoming county judge, Hidalgo worked as a Spanish-language interpreter in the Texas Medical Center in Houston in addition to work with a nonprofit promoting freedom of the press.
- Judge Hidalgo presides over Harris County's governing body, the Harris County Commissioners Court. Part administrative, part legislative, part judicial, the court adopts a county budget, sets tax rates as well as building and maintaining infrastructure.
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