👩🏽‍⚖️👨🏾‍⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩🏽‍⚖️ Harris County Commissioners Court

What the #3©k is county government?

When we think of elections, we’re looking at the federal government, sometimes the state government, and only rarely do we think of city government. So what the heck is a county? County government falls somewhere in between the state and city levels (i.e. Governor Abbott, Mayor Turner). Counties are an extension of the state government, assessing and collecting property taxes, administering all elections, and providing other local services. There are 254 counties (and county governments) in Texas.¹

County Commissioners Court

These gorgeous devils run Harris County Commissioners Court

The face of county government. But just as the Texas Railroad Commission has nothing to do with railroads, the Harris County Commissioners Court is more of a catchall administrative body than a traditional court of law. Though the commissioners court’s powers come from the Judicial Department section of The Texas Constitution², the body is a neopolitan swirl of part administrative/executive, part legislative, and part indirectly judicial (through its criminal, civil, probate, appeals, family, juvenile, justice of the peace, county, and district courts — all of which have their own elected judges responsible).

County Judge

We’ll never see County Commissioners Court on our ballot. But we will see County Judge every four years. County Judge is like the “President” of the county.³ In Harris County, Lina Hidalgo serves her second four-year term as Harris County Judge. Hidalgo was re-elected in November 2022.⁴

County Commissioners

We’ll also see one of the four County Commissioners on our ballot staggered every four years. County Commissioner is like a combination of the “Vice President” and “Cabinet” and “Senate” of the county.³ In Harris County⁵:

• Rodney Ellis serves his 2nd term as Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner. Ellis was re-elected in November 2020.⁶
• Adrian Garcia serves his 2nd term as Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner. Garcia was re-elected in November 2022. ⁷
• Tom Ramsey serves his 1st term as Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner. Ramsey was elected in November 2020.⁸
• Lesley Briones serves her 1st term as Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner. Briones was elected in November 2022.⁹

November 2023 Elections

None of the Harris County Commissioners Court members are up for re-election this November. We will see elections for Harris County Precincts 1 and 3 (i.e. Commissioners Ellis and Ramsey) in the midterms after the presidential election next year.

Appendix: Sources

1. Texas Association of Counties - About Texas Counties ↩

2. Texas Legislature Online - The Texas Constitution Article IX Counties Section 1 Creation and Modification of Counties ↩

3. Texas Legislature Online - The Texas Constitution Article V Secs 15 County Court; County Judge | 16 County Courts: Jurisdiction; County Judge Powers, Disqualification of County Judge | Sec 18b Division of counties into precincts; Justices of the Peace and Constables; County Commissioners and County Commissioners Court ↩ ↩²

4. Texas Tribune - Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wins tight race for reelection ↩

5. Harris County ↩

6. Houston Public Media - Incumbent Commissioner Rodney Ellis Wins Precinct 1 Primary ↩

7. Community Impact - Incumbent Adrian Garcia leads by 5 percentage points in Harris County Precinct 2 commissioner race ↩

8. Houston Chronicle - Ramsey wins Harris County Precinct 3 race after Moore concedes ↩

9. Houston Chronicle - Lesley Briones lays out her plan as Harris County’s newest commissioner ↩