HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — The race for Harris County Judge is one of the most closely watched races this cycle.
The race pins current Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo against Alex Mealer, a Republican endorsed by Senator Ted Cruz.
Judge Hidalgo surprised many by being elected as the first woman judge and defeating a Republican incumbent. She is connecting Mealer and former President Donald Trump closely together.
Harris County is a place where former President Trump lost by 13 points.
“Someone running on let’s purge the rolls and 'I don’t believe Trump lost.' That’s scary to me, that’s scary to me win or lose,” Hidalgo said.
In a now-deleted YouTube video, Hidalgo’s campaign screen captured an image with Trump over the shoulder of Mealer.
“I wanted to tag the person she did the interview with, Doc Green. I couldn’t tag him because he’s been banned from Twitter,” Hidalgo said.
Mealer is responding in a statement said:
“Lina Hidalgo is desperate to avoid discussing the critical issues facing Harris County residents due to her extensive record of failures. Although she spends most of her weekends outside of Harris County, namely to fundraise in D.C., she is not running for national office, and she is not running against Trump. She is running against a wife, mom, combat veteran, Hispanic, West Pointer and Harvard JD/MBA that she routinely disrespects by name calling, photoshopping and intentionally misquoting. Lina - you raised your hand and said you wanted to lead this County, stop talking to your national donors and get up on stage with me and defend your policies to the voters of Harris County.”
Hildago, who opened a 10-point lead in recent polling, is accusing Mealer of being an election denier and is questioning whether she would respect the voting wishes of Harris County.
She’s pointing out a campaign platform that’s since been deleted by Mealer, detailing her plans to “clean voter rolls”.
“My biggest concern is on the certification of the votes. I want people to participate whether they vote for me or not. It’s okay, you may agree you may disagree, but the democracy depends on participation,” Hidalgo said.
“In terms of elections in Harris County, I fully support returning elections back to our elected officials, regardless of their political affiliation. We have two Democratic women in office that had their duties stripped away from them by Lina Hidalgo - they were elected by the people and answerable to the people of Harris County. I look forward to returning those duties back to their offices. Please see my stance on elections on my website and note that our County Tax Assessor, Ann Harris Bennett, has voiced similar concerns. The process of keeping voter rolls updated for relocations and deaths is an ongoing effort that is a primary responsibility of the county," said Mealer. “I have full faith in our elected officials and their ability to run a secure, transparent and efficient election and will without question certify the election results as long as our County Clerk and County Tax Assessor testify to the integrity of the process and are the ones administering the election.”