Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt urges Lina Hidalgo to resign after Houston rodeo incident
HOUSTON - Texas Senator Paul Bettencourt has called for the resignation of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo after her recent incident at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Bettencourt posted on his Facebook page Friday afternoon about the incident, calling her behavior "bizarre." The Texas Senator first posted about the incident on Thursday on his X account after the Houston rodeo put out a statement to address the situation with Judge Hidalgo.
Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt urges Hidalgo to resign
What they're saying:
In his Facebook post, Bettencourt stated:
Lina Hidalgo made the decision not to run for re-election, and she should make the decision to resign.
County residents do not get 21 free tickets valued at $9,000, plus the use of a free suite at the Rodeo, and then get to go on a tirade because they were told NO in advance about more special perks, so she threw a temper tantrum on the DIRT! Now, the 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has dropped her ex-officio title and association due to her petulant and immature behavior.
Here’s the bigger problem: As County Judge, she is, by #txlege statute, the head of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) for the nation’s 3rd-largest county. We cannot just give the job to Mayor Whitmire if a Category 4 or 5 hurricane barrels down on us this summer, unfortunately!
I watched both former County Judges Robert Eckels and Ed Emmett make tough decisions about area evacuations that can cost lives if not handled properly. By any objective measurement, Lina Hidalgo does not have that same rational decision-making ability. The public would not even know if she would show up for duty, and this is a bipartisan problem for all to recognize!
There needs to be a serious discussion with the Harris County Attorney's Office interim Attorney Jonathan Fombonne and the four members of Commissioners Court, Office of Commissioner Lesley Briones, Precinct 4, Adrian Garcia, Rodney Ellis, and Tom S Ramsey, PE, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner's Office, about Judge Hildalgo’s duties as OEM head.
I will carry any future legislative recommendations for changes in state statute as necessary.
Dig deeper:
According to Texas County Progress, if a county position becomes empty, including that of the county judge, the Commissioners Court will have to vote on who would fill the position next. That person would hold the position until the next general election.
Judge Hidalgo escorted out Houston rodeo
The backstory:
Judge Hidalgo says she tried to access the chute ticket area with another elected official, her two children and the parents of a deceased military member. She says that despite being allowed to enter the area in the past, she was told she couldn’t enter because she didn’t have a wristband.
She claimed that rodeo committee members "grabbed" her, "shoved" her and threatened to arrest her. She says she was then escorted out of the stadium.
MORE: Judge Lina Hidalgo posts recordings from Houston rodeo incident
The judge later shared on social media that the RODEOHOUSTON Executive Committee voted to revoke her status as Ex-Officio Director.
The other side:
In a response on Thursday, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo officials said she had been given wristbands for her and guests to watch three other concerts from the chute seats this rodeo season. They say she was provided with 21 tickets across those three visits, with a value of close to $9,000.
The rodeo says because Tuesday night’s concert was sold out, they notified her team that she would not have wristbands and would not be authorized to access the chute area that evening.
When she would not go back to the suite where she had tickets, she was escorted out, rodeo officials say. They denied her claims of "manhandling."
Judge Hidalgo went back to the rodeo on Thursday to review footage of Tuesday night's incident.
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RODEOHOUSTON full response to Judge Hidalgo claims
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo released a response on Thursday after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo claimed that she was "manhandled" and escorted out of Tuesday night’s Megan Maroney concert.
The Source: Information from this article was gathered from Texas Senator Paul Bettencourt social media accounts. We also pulled information from Judge Hidalgo's social media posts and the statement released by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.