Hidalgo wins as Dems narrowly gain more control over county

The Hidalgo campaign declined to specify which officials she was addressing.

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Hidalgo also addressed critics during the election cycle who accused the Democrats on Commissioners Court of defunding police, including what she called “unscrupulous politicians of both parties.”

She called out Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Democrat, without naming her directly.

“This person who is supposed to represent justice in this county more than once said with a straight face ‘stop the defunding’ knowing full well that the budget had increased,” Hidalgo said. 

The district attorney’s office responded with a statement it attributed to Ogg: “In fiscal year 2021, our budget was $94,280,000, and at the end of the year $4,900,441 was taken from our account. That was the beginning of the defunding of the DA’s office.”

Despite being significantly out-funded by Republican newcomer Alexandra del Moral Mealer, Hidalgo emerged from early voting ahead of her opponent and narrowly maintained that lead throughout the night as votes were counted. The final unofficial tally, released just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, put Hidalgo in front of Mealer by slightly more than 17,000 votes, or 50.8 percent of the nearly 1.1 million votes cast. That was a narrower margin of victory than her surprise election in 2018, when the then-27-year-old ousted popular Republican Ed Emmett.

Mealer tweeted her concession around 9:30 a.m. 

“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. “This campaign was always about good government and I am hopeful that we have played a role encouraging that going forward.”

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Hidalgo acknowledged her opponent’s hard-fought campaign, much of which centered on crime, blaming policies championed by Hidalgo for rising numbers of homicides the past two years, and accusing the first-term judge of corruption, mostly related to a controversial COVID vaccination outreach contract that resulted in indictments against three of her aides.

Since July 1, Mealer raised more than $8.5 million, much of it from large donors like Gallery Furniture owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, an early supporter of her campaign. Hidalgo, who has refused to accept campaign contributions from county vendors, raised $2.4 million in that period.

“She had almost $10 million in the bank and she had a U.S. senator and she had a furniture salesman,” Hidalgo said in her speech, taking a swipe at McIngvale who ran several campaign ads in support of Mealer.

“I want to thank Alex Mealer for running a hard fought campaign,” Hidalgo said. “I want to thank her for her concession. And I want to thank her again for her service to our country.” 

Surrounded by union leaders and Democratic party elected officials, Hidalgo thanked her supporters for helping her block walk, raise money and host campaign events.

Much of her speech was of a celebratory nature, citing past accomplishments with current Commissioner Court colleagues Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia.

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“We have done so much from the very first meeting,” Hidalgo said, citing countywide voting as one example of successes while she has been in office. “We did that at the first meeting in 2019.”

Garcia also was reelected Tuesday, fending off a challenge from Jack Morman, whom he ousted from the Precinct 2 commissioner post four years ago. 

In the other race involving Commissioners Court Tuesday, former county court at law judge Lesley Briones narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Jack Cagle in Precinct 4.

Briones’ victory gives the Democrats a 4-1 majority on the court, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey the lone Republican remaining.

That majority should prove crucial to the Democrats plans to fund an expanded version of county government championed by Hidalgo and her colleagues.

State law requires a quorum of at least four members of Commissioners Court to be present to set the county’s property tax rate. Cagle and Ramsey used that law to block the Democrats from setting a property tax rate during a nearly two-month standoff over spending.

The pair skipped six straight court meetings, denying Hidalgo, Ellis and Garcia the ability to even consider a tax rate. Because the court was not able to vote on a rate by the end of October, the county automatically defaulted to what is known as the “no new revenue rate,” the levy that produces the same amount of revenue as the previous year. The county will receive an additional $45 million beyond that from property added to the tax rolls since last year.

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Ogg and some constables placed the blame for a tight budget on a change in county policy that eliminated so-called “rollover funds.”  

In the past, county departments could “roll over” their unspent budget from one year to the next. The county did away with the unusual budgeting technique after Hidalgo was elected in 2018, instead adopted more traditional budgeting practices.

Doing away with rollover funds amounted to defunding, Ogg argued, complaining the court had “siphoned away” unspent funds over the last four years.

During the same time period, the department’s adopted budget has increased. In fiscal year 2019 — the last budget passed by the Republican-controlled court before it flipped to a Democrat majority — the district attorney’s office budget was $82.9 million. The department’s budget has risen each year since then, with Democrats proposing a $104.7 million budget for 2023.

Garcia won with a more comfortable margin of about 5 percentage points, but Briones’ edge over Cagle was narrower. 

Morman posted a statement on Facebook Wednesday thanking his family and supporters.

“Thanks again to everyone. I have made some lifelong friendships throughout this journey that I will forever cherish,” Morman wrote.

As of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Cagle had not conceded his race.