--- description: Find out how Lina Hidalgo is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: 2021 TIME100 Next: Lina Hidalgo image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e2200a69e7bee48/698a1718b3fce313490c7aea/time100-next-Lina-Hidalgo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 16, 2021 # Lina Hidalgo by Beto O'Rourke  HOUSTON, TX - JANUARY 28: Harris County Judge, Lina Hidalgo, oversees the Commissioners Court meeting held in downtown Houston, TX, on Tuesday, January 28, 2020\. Hidalgo, a Democrat, defeated the Republican incumbent, Ed Emmett, in the 2018 elections, becoming the first woman and first Latina County Judge elected in Harris County. HOUSTON, TX - JANUARY 28: Harris County Judge, Lina Hidalgo, oversees the Commissioners Court meeting held in downtown Houston, TX, on Tuesday, January 28, 2020\. Hidalgo, a Democrat, defeated the Republican incumbent, Ed Emmett, in the 2018 elections, becoming the first woman and first Latina County Judge elected in Harris County.Brandon Thibodeaux Lina Hidalgo’s persistence, tenacity and intelligence were clear from the moment I met her on the campaign trail in Texas in 2017\. At the time, she was running for Harris County judge, and I was running for the U.S. Senate. I soon realized that she also had an extraordinary level of humility that is rare to find in somebody pursuing public office. At 27, Hidalgo was elected to be the chief executive of a county that has more people in it than in the state of Nevada. Now 29, she is doing an incredible job as judge, as evidenced by her efforts to quickly respond to COVID-19—­Harris County announced a mask mandate in April 2020, but a statewide policy didn’t follow until July—as well as to expand her constituents’ access to the ballot box. Early-voting sites offered by the county nearly tripled last year. It’s hard to imagine a tougher set of circumstances to confront in your first term in office, but she has really distinguished herself and makes us proud—not just as Democrats but as Texans. That’s what leadership looks like. _O’Rourke, a former Congressman from Texas, was a 2020 Demo­cratic presidential candidate_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937694/lina-hidalgo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937694/lina-hidalgo/"},"headline":"Lina Hidalgo","datePublished":"2021-02-16T21:46:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:47:20.108Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937694/lina-hidalgo/","keywords":["list","franchise","TIME 100 Next"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e2200a69e7bee48/698a1718b3fce313490c7aea/time100-next-Lina-Hidalgo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e2200a69e7bee48/698a1718b3fce313490c7aea/time100-next-Lina-Hidalgo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937694/lina-hidalgo/","name":"Lina Hidalgo"}}]}] ```