I have three things to say about this.
Judge Lina Hidalgo
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called on Democratic voters to reject former Mayor Annise Parker in a post made on Facebook Tuesday.
Hidalgo labeled Parker, who announced in June her intent to run for Harris County judge, “Kim Ogg 2.0” in a subsequent post made on X. She said Parker, who was the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, would “follow John Whitmire’s playbook” in capitulating to President Donald Trump.
“Harris County simply can’t afford another power player who treats the role like a political chessboard. Another individual who runs on the Democratic ticket and governs as a Republican,” Hidalgo wrote. “Today, I want to send a clear message to Democratic primary voters in Harris County: Annise Parker doesn’t represent our values.”
Hidalgo did not explicitly endorse another candidate, but went on to list a number of alleged grievances she believed Democratic voters were not aware of. She accused Parker of inviting the state takeover of HISD, and failing the party by endorsing former District Attorney Kim Ogg and refusing to support her 2022 campaign for reelection.
Parker said in a statement that her focus was on fighting attacks from the Trump administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — not partisan squabbling.
“My record of public service — stable, responsible, drama-free leadership — speaks for itself. These questions have all been asked and answered,” Parker said. “I’m running to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, not to engage in Democratic infighting.”
Parker previously told the Houston Chronicle in a live interview that her 2022 endorsement of Ogg was part of her mandate as CEO and president of the Victory Fund, a political action committee that funds LGBTQ+ candidates. She added that, since losing the 2024 Democratic primary to District Attorney Sean Teare, she thought Ogg had “lost her mind a little bit and gone hard right.”
Although Hidalgo did not support the HISD takeover, she was among the few Houston-area Democrats to support the district’s failed bond proposal, which voters rejected in 2024.
Parker told the Houston Chronicle in an interview that her initial support for the takeover was based on what she saw as a “completely dysfunctional” school board overseeing a district her children attended.
“My kids went to HISD, my grandchildren are in HISD now. At the time, I was speaking as a frustrated parent,” Parker said. “We had a completely dysfunctional board. I do believe that, in extremely limited circumstances, state intervention in schools can be necessary, but it should be surgical. You go in, you hit the reset button and you try to bring the community together. But the state took a bad situation and made it worse, and they need to exit now and have a new elected board step in to bring things back to balance.”
1. There are certainly people who didn’t like that Annise Parker had anything to do with Kim Ogg in 2024, regardless of her explanation. I expect that to be brought up in the primary, as may be the other things Judge Hidalgo lists. I don’t know how they’ll resonate but Parker is an experienced campaigner, I’m sure she’ll be able to respond.
2. It should be noted that Parker announced her intention to run for Harris County Judge a long time before Judge Hidalgo announced her intent to step down at the end of this term. Everyone else who at least flirted with the idea of running made it contingent on Hidalgo not running. One suspects there might be some lingering animus because of that.
3. We can fight all we like in the primary. That’s what primaries are for. I would just like to gently remind everyone about who we really need to be fighting after the primaries are over. Indeed, I would not-so-gently suggest that our fighting in the primary should be first and foremost about how we will engage in the bigger fight that we need to have.