HOUSTON, Texas – In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo encouraged the democratic party to not vote for former Mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, who announced she was running for the judge’s position.
In the lengthy social media post, Hidalgo labelled Parker, who announced her run for the judge’s position in June, as a Kim Ogg 2.0. She said Parker, the first openly gay mayor of Houston, would “follow John Whitmire’s playbook, capitulating to Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.”
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“Today, I want to send a clear message to Democratic primary voters in Harris County: Annise Parker doesn’t represent our values. This is not politically convenient for me to speak against a known political player in our County. But I have found that too many Democratic voters don’t know this... Annise Parker heartily endorsed and hosted fundraisers for Kim Ogg. Even after it was clear that there was no substance behind her attacks on county employees, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” Hidalgo said in the post.
In recent years, Hidalgo received scrutiny from former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Democrat who frequently feuded with Hidalgo and the court’s other Democrats. Three of Hidalgo’s staffers were accused in an indictment of steering an $11 million contract for a vaccine outreach campaign to a political consulting firm headed by a Democratic strategist. Hidalgo defended the staffers and criticized the indictments as politically motivated.
Shortly before leaving office last year, Ogg handed the case over to Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office subsequently dismissed two of the cases. The third was resolved in a pretrial intervention deal after the staffer agreed to perform community service.
In September, Hidalgo announced that she would not seek reelection after unseating longtime incumbent Republican Ed Emmett in 2019 at the age of 27.
Although Hidalgo did not endorse another candidate after calling out Parker, she listed several reasons why she believe Democrat voters should not vote for Parker. She accused Parker of inviting TEA to take over ISD, failing the party by endorsing Kim Ogg and refusing to support Hidalgo in her 2022 campaign for reelection.
Parker released the following statement:
“My record of public service – stable, responsible, drama-free leadership – speaks for itself. These questions have all been asked and answered. I’m running to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, not to engage in Democratic infighting.”
The Democrats running for Harris County Judge in 2026 are Annise Parker and Letitia Plummer, city council member for Position 4.
The Republicans running for the position are Matthew Salazar, Aliza Dutt, Warren Howell, Oscar Gonzales, Marty Lancton, Orlando Sanchez, and George Zeos.