More than 80 percent of Mealer's contributions were spent on advertising, while Hidalgo spent more than 87 percent, according to a report from Community Impact. Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared at a rally Tuesday supporting Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo . In the first post-redistricting election members are divided into two classes; one class shall serve a 2-year term and the other class shall serve a 4-year term. Registered Voters as of February 27, 2023 Total 412,899. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo hugs U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia after being reelected for a second term on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 in Houston. November 8, 2022 (General) Hidalgo. Texas GOP may censure Tony Gonzales over gay marriage, gun votes, Rep. Joaquin Castro's health plan points to a new Texas trend, Rep. Joaquin Castro diagnosed with cancer, undergoes surgery, Texas House Speaker appoints committee for gun legislation, Santa Fe families still denied video, records from 2018 shooting. For the latest and best fromChron,sign up for our daily newsletter here. Democratic incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo will serve another term as county judge for Texas' most populous county after . Hidalgo County Clerk. 5 Deputy Corporal Charles Galloway. See also: Municipal elections in Harris County, Texas (2022) General election. Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria said some paper ballots got wrinkled and jammed, but most votes would be counted on time. Candidate for Harris County Judge Alexandra del Moral Mealer poses for a photo Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, at the Houston Chronicle offices in Houston. Mealer's tough-on-crime campaign also spotlighted these accusations, framing the 31-year-old incumbent as an adversary of local law enforcement. Members shall draw lots to determine who serves which terms. 05/09/2022 01:51 PM EDT. Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer, Gary Fountain/Contributor. We'll ask them about immigration and the border, climate-fueled flooding, broadband internet, and more. HARRIS COUNTY ELECTION UPDATES: Mealer concedes county judge race to Hidalgo. This Houston rodeo food vendor wants you to eat his rattlesnake, Astros GM Dana Brown has more praise team's top prospect, Heres how you can watch 'Daisy Jones and the Six', Proposed Texas bill gives tax cuts to heterosexual families only, These bites won big at the Houston rodeo's foodie awards. Dan Patrick, as well as her fellow commissioners Jack Cagle and Tom Ramsey. Following a challenging Election Night in Harris County plagued by delays and closings of multiple polling locations, voting tallies showed Hidalgo holding onto an unofficial lead of less than two points over Mealer, a West Point graduate and ex-Army captain. Democratic incumbent Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Republican Alexandra del Moral Mealer addressed voters in Houston. HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas (ValleyCentral) - The race for Hidalgo County Judge has two candidates on the Republican ticket, something that is rare in the Rio Grande Valley. Fellow Democrat Adrian Garcia also secured another term as Precinct 2 commissioner, defeating Republican Jack Morman, who held the seat before Garcia won it four years ago. Mealer has focused her campaign on crime and public safety spending, arguing Hidalgo has failed to devote enough funding to county law enforcement amid a rise in violent crime. But the ad could have said "Mealer refuses to oppose Abbott's extreme abortion ban," or even "Texas Republicans support Abbott's extreme abortion ban. Taken on September 7, 2022. "She does seem to evoke strong emotions in either party. Its rattlesnake season in Texas. Republicans and prominent business leaders in Harris County made unseating Hidalgo a priority. So, I think it's actually harmful to spend a lot of time talking about issues that aren't in your control," Mealer said. The two emerged as victors in a nine-person primary election last month, with Mealer capturing 29 percent to Martinez's 26 percent. Dozens of supporters for Alexandra del Moral Mealer, the Republican candidate challenging Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, packed the room at the Sept. 13 meeting of Commissioners Court, each wearing "Alex's Army" T-shirts and loudly scoffing when Hidalgo spoke. Campaign Finance Reports. Tax Rates. "They do that to get you talking about everything but Harris County. MLB legend makes surprise appearance at Astros' Spring Training, Houston is ugly, and I've never felt more at home, Texas A&M upset win clears path for UH to snag top overall seed, Oops! said Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official of Harris County, Texas, after news broke last week that 30 truckloads of contaminated firefighting water were arriving each day to Deer Park, a suburb of Houston. Onward! 2022 Wave elections; "We believe and we stick to our values and that's what we brought to county government," Hidalgo told supporters at the Sam Houston Hotel late Tuesday, appearing with fellow Democrats Garcia and Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis. The request to keep the polling sites open late was made by the Texas Organizing Project, Texas Civil Rights Project and the ACLU of Texas. Hidalgo County Elections Department administers the polling locations in the early voting period. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo gives a speech at the Harris County Democratic Party headquarters after being reelected for a second term on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 in Houston. Oct. 12, 2022. ", Before closing out her speech, Hidalgo turned attention to any who don't believe she won her reelection fair and square. Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, a Democrat, held a wider lead: 105,653 votes (52.56 percent) to Republican Jack Morman's 95,363 (47.44 percent), according to the unofficial vote count. The County Judge is the presiding officer of the county commissioners court and the head of emergency management. Oct 25, 2022 - News. Democrats thought their 3-2 majority on the Court would make this an easy task and they . Turnout overall was down 10 percent, but de Leon noted it still marked the second-highest turnout for a midterm election here. First Day to Apply for a Ballot by Mail. A native of San Francisco, he graduated from Northwestern University in 2017 with degrees in journalism and political science, and has interned for the Tampa Bay Times, Washington Post and Fortune magazine. Hidalgo touts among her . Hidalgo and other Democrats hoped that firewall would help them stave off challenges in a race where their contests appear in the latter pages of a drawn-out ballot. (Steve Gonzales, Staff photographer) / Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner before they gave a joint press conference about growing Monkeypox infections in July 2022. No candidate in those two races had the majority needed to win outright on election night. Are insane ticket costs pricing Astros fans out of Opening Day? Republican challenger Alexandra del Moral Mealer has conceded her bid to unseat Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, with unofficial results show her trailing by just shy of 16,000 votes. A sixth criminal judge, Jason Luong of the 185th district court, also trailed in his election but appeared headed for a runoff. He initially joined the paper through the Hearst Journalism Fellowship program after covering the same beats for the San Antonio Express-News. She has evolved into a savvy, hard-nosed, driven candidate, and she has been incredibly successful in raising the funds necessary to compete with Lina Hidalgo. Mealer is hoping to kneecap Hidalgos rising political career just four years after the Democrat unseated Republican Ed Emmett in her first-ever run for political office, completing a Democratic takeover of the nations third-largest county. "While we did not accomplish our goal of changing leadership in Harris County, we were successful in elevating the profile of critical issues like the need to appropriately resource our law enforcement and criminal justice system, as well as the desire to eliminate corruption and increase transparency in local government," Mealer said in a statement on social media. Harris County commissioner candidate Lesley Briones introduces gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke during a rally outside of the West Gray Recreational Area on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 in Houston. challenging Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, The key state and local races that your vote will decide in the November 8 midterm election, 1,000 additional law enforcement officers. defeat of Republican challenger Alex Mealer in Tuesday's Harris County judge election. She assumed office on January 1, 2019. Harris County judgeLina Hidalgotalks to her supporters at a primaries election night party, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Houston. He joined the Hearst Austin bureau in 2021 after nearly three years as a City Hall reporter for the Chronicle and a prior stint covering Bexar County for the Express-News. They asked the federal government for additional vaccine doses due to rising, but still relatively small, numbers of cases. First elected to the position in 2018 after narrowly defeating her Republican opponent and former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Hidalgo is the first woman and Latina to hold the office. That message helped Mealer rake in millions in campaign cash, with six-figure support in the last month from the likes of Gallery Furniture owner Jim Mattress Mack McIngvale and energy executive David Modesett, among others. You can't just look the other way on so many issues.". Campaign finance reports received by the Harris County Office of the Elections Administrator on July 15 show $2.88M in total contributions between Feb. 20-June 30 to the two candidates for Harris . And the pandemic is deepened inequality and exacerbated existing divisions. Election mishaps and conflicting court rulings introduced a degree of uncertainty about when the results would become official. The board praised her plans to combat violent crime in the county and promises to clear a backlog of criminal cases at the courthouse. Hidalgo also addressed the millions in campaign contributions her opponent garnered from "far right, Trump mega-donors," while campaigning for office. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. The national environment a key factor in the outcome of the county judge race, political experts say now appears to be shifting back in favor of Republicans. LUPE is a nonprofit organization that helps the community organize for and win a better quality of life. . Join us on Facebook Live and YouTube Live tonight, Friday, February 4th at 5 pm. A native Houstonian, Jen graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and earned a master's degree from University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs. This Houston rodeo food vendor wants you to eat his rattlesnake, Astros GM Dana Brown has more praise team's top prospect, Heres how you can watch 'Daisy Jones and the Six', Proposed Texas bill gives tax cuts to heterosexual families only, These bites won big at the Houston rodeo's foodie awards. A strong gender gap exists in the vote for county judge, with Hidalgo holding a 12% lead over del Moral Mealer among women (52% to 40%), while del Moral Mealer . Moreover, Patrick confronted Hidalgo at the event and accused her of defunding the police despite increasing the law enforcement budget since 2019. "To the extent we work on these issues that affect us all, all of us will do better. Editor's note: This article has been updated to include responses submitted by Alexandra del Moral Mealer. What does the data say? Incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo is running for re-election after securing a historic - and surprising - win in 2018. Former Army Capt. Hidalgo's ethics argument also been blunted by the felony indictment of three current and former aides on charges of misuse of official information and tampering. Hidalgo reported having $2 million in her campaign account, giving her a slight edge over Mealers $1.7 million cash on hand. Sort of. Dylan McGuinness covers City Hall and local politics for the Houston Chronicle. The Early Voting results were reported shortly after the polls closed, Election Day results will be reported, and the remainder of the reconciliation process will continue over the next few days, as we prioritize accuracy over speed, Longorias office said in a statement. That means our county judge must be ready to lead our community through these challenges and toward a thriving future. 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