A Texas judge shocked a public meeting after shouting over other elected officials while speaking at breakneck speed.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, 34, attempted to put forward a proposal to raise taxes to fund free childcare and early education in a November ballot in the county.
Thursday’s meeting quickly descended into chaos when Hidalgo marched a group of children and their parents into Commissioners Court and acted erratically.
The judge, who earned a reported $190,000 in 2023, talked over her colleagues and spoke at an extreme pace, sometimes even shouting into her microphone.
At one point Hidalgo, who spoke with Vogue about her mental health struggles earlier this year, called out for all of the children to count to three.
‘We need three votes so we can put this on the ballot’, she could be heard screaming at the children.
A video of the meeting then cuts to Commissioner Lesley Briones who is in the process of thanking members for coming to the meeting.
Briones was mid sentence when Hidalgo shouted over her, calling for the children in the meeting to approach the panel of lawmakers.
‘Kids come on down, lets see if she says yes or no. Come on down over here,’ Hidalgo shouts over Briones.
Clearly angered by the move, Briones tells her: ‘Judge Hidalgo, part of education is respect,’ before she is again interrupted.
Again, Hidalgo continues to interrupt Briones as she calls the idea by the judge ‘half baked.’
Other commissioners can be heard calling out to Judge Hidalgo to stop, as she continues to ramble over them.
One of them says: ‘Judge we need to have one person speaking at a time,’ but she continues anyway – again calling on the children to speak out.
At one point Hidalgo covered her face with two placards she had positioned behind her to show data backing her proposal.
Briones made the point that she was not against the proposal, but wanted to ‘do it right’. After other commissioners refused to back the move Hidalgo called a recess.
If the judge’s proposal was approved, homeowners in the county would have paid an extra $10 a year for every $100,000 of home valuation.
The funding would have propped up the Early REACH Program in the county which had previously been backed with Covid-19 relief funds.
Following the heated exchanges the motion failed and the commissioners voted to have her censured for her antics.
According to KHOU11, a censure is a formal statement of disapproval but has no actual bearing on her position.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia and Briones both released statements following the meeting and condemned her behavior.
Garcia said: ‘It’s beyond frustrating to yet again witness Judge Hidalgo’s disruptive behavior at Commissioners Court today.
‘We must hold ourselves to the highest standards. It was particularly offensive to witness her trying to use children as props for her political agenda.’
Briones added: ‘I was disappointed to witness Judge Hidalgo’s disruptive behavior at Commissioners Court today; it distracted from the serious issues before us.
‘As colleagues, we may disagree, but fundamental respect and decorum are non-negotiable.
‘The democratic process is built on civil debate, and as elected leaders we must hold ourselves to the highest standards.’
The lone Republican commissioner in the county Tom Ramsey posted to his X saying: ‘Wow’ after the meeting.
After the proposal was declined, Hidalgo said: ‘I’m so disappointed that they wouldn’t even let us ask the voters.
‘Obviously, it’s children. I can’t explain it, but I’m really proud of all of these kids, families.
‘It breaks my heart that they’re going to lose their early childhood education, their parents’ work.’
In her Vogue piece Hidalgo said she struggled with clinical depression and anxiety in the lead up to her engagement to now husband David in August 2023.
Hidalgo said therapy helped her accept two conflicting feelings at once and be able to feel joy over her relationship while also holding space for sadness.
Hidalgo and David met over a decade ago while volunteering for the Texas Civil Rights Project in 2014.