HOUSTON — For the first time since 2011, Harris County Precinct 4 will have a new commissioner representing them after Democrat challenger Lesley Briones defeated Republican incumbent Jack Cagle in the 2022 election.
With Briones' election, there will now be a four-to-one Democratic majority on the Commissioners Court.
"It's not been since the 70s that democrats had a super majority on Commissioners Court," said reelected Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Lesley García Mitchell Briones previously served as judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4. She is a Harvard graduate and graduated from Yale Law School.
"I look forward to bringing my negotiation, mediation and kind of black robe, judicial experience to keeping an open mind and to serving everybody," Briones said.
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Briones grew up along the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, according to her website. She is the daughter of teachers, who also returned to the border to teach after graduating from Harvard with honors.
Being a teacher and seeing what injustices students faced is what influenced Briones to become a lawyer, according to her campaign site.
While at Yale Law School, Briones led the Latino Law Students’ public service initiatives and provided pro-bono assistance to victims of domestic abuse and juvenile offenders.
After becoming a lawyer, she returned to Texas to practice law at Vinson & Elkins LLP. She then served as the general counsel and chief operating officer of the Laura & John Arnold Foundation.
Briones then went on to become the judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4.
Briones also serves as the president and co-founder of Texas Latinx Judges and is a Houston co-chair of the National Association of Women Judges. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
Briones and her husband Adán live in Houston with their three daughters.