Letitia Plummer never doubted she would win her runoff race to become the Democratic nominee to lead Harris County, the state’s largest.
Everyone else did.
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Plummer, a former at-large member of the Houston City Council, bested Annise Parker, the city’s former mayor and a decades-long fixture in local Democratic politics, in a stunning upset. Plummer’s win on Tuesday was propelled by voters’ desire for new voices and apathy among older white Democrats led to the upset of a longtime Houston politician in the race for Harris County judge, political experts say.
Plummer, a Houston dentist and the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council, secured 51.1% of the vote during the Tuesday runoff to defeat Parker. Plummer’s victory positions her as the Democrats’ nominee to replace outgoing Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Plummer will now face her Republican opponent, Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez, in November for a chance to become the first African American county judge in Harris County history.
Plummer, 55, said she was inspired to run for county judge after hearing the complaints of residents who come into her dentist’s office. Serving others runs in her family as her grandfather made history as the first Black judge in Texas, and when she heard others crying out for change, Plummer said she couldn’t ignore it.
“Most of the work we did on this campaign stems from us hearing our communities shouting from the rooftops to fix the problems,” she said. “I actually give a crap about what happens to my community. It’s the only reason I am doing this because I was comfortable at my practice. But I can’t unsee or unhear these things, so I decided to do something.”
Lack of voter motivation
Political experts call Plummer’s victory a stunning reversal from March, when Parker came within 4 points of securing the nomination outright. It also came in the face of a massive fundraising disparity: Parker raised more than $1 million during the campaign, seven times Plummer’s $130,000, according to campaign reports.
“None of our predicted turnout models had Plummer winning,” said Mark Jones, professor of political science at Rice University. “We weren’t expecting it to be as high as March, but the turnout in older white neighborhoods, who usually vote hell or high water in any election, was anemic.”
Jones said Parker received only 33% of the votes she had in March. He said it’s unclear whether white Democratic voters lacked interest in these specific campaigns or simply lacked motivation to go out and vote after the holiday weekend, but it was occurring statewide.
“Plummer has always been the preferred vote among Black voters, but if Parker had at least average turnout among her usually loyal white Democratic voters, she would have won,” said Jones.
Renée Cross, senior executive director of Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, said Plummer also benefited from strong Black voter turnout driven by a runoff between U.S. Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green in the 18th Congressional District, where voters chose the younger option.
Cross said Plummer’s age probably ended up playing in her favor because voters this year appear to be looking for fresh voices in office. Parker, 70, spent 18 years in elected office at City Hall, winning a seat on Houston City Council in 1998 and eventually serving six years as mayor, until she was term-limited out in 2016.
“I think some of the generational dynamics we saw in play out in the Congressional District 18 race also went over to the county judge’s race,” Cross said, referring to the 38-year-old Menefee’s decisive win over the 78-year-old Green.
Plummer was elected to the Houston City Council as an at-large member in 2019 after she unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 22nd Congressional District.
During her time on the city council, Plummer made several failed attempts at progressive policies, including eliminating vacant positions in the police department to shift money from cadet training to reform initiatives such as de-escalation training and the creation of a mental health unit.
“I think there are more similarities between Judge Hidalgo and me than differences when it comes to looking at the human infrastructure,” Plummer said.”How we govern what we do may be different, but she cares about people, and I am going to do the same.”
Plummer said political experts might call it an upset, but she describes it as a groundswell of support, even though she didn’t have her opponent’s funding or endorsements.
“I just wasn’t scared of her,” she said. “All the polls looked at how much money we were raising, saying there is no way we can win, but it was palatable for us because we were on the ground. When you are on the 12th floor of some building looking at a computer, you can’t feel that, but we did.”
Both candidates emphasized issues such as public safety, infrastructure and disaster preparedness. Parker, however, offered a vision for “fiscal responsibility” and a county government more strictly focused on its core traditional roles, while Plummer positioned herself to the left.
She said it was her willingness to take on Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and the Trump administration that resonated with voters.
“I believe (Parker’s) idea of no silly fights in this current perspective doesn’t work. We want to create, consolidate, and collaborate, but we also have to understand that we are fighting for our lives,” Plummer said. “The governor is overreaching in ways that you shouldn’t be doing, and you need someone to show that courage.”
Two different approaches
Hidalgo, a progressive Democrat whose surprise election victory gave her party control of county government for the first time in decades, decided to keep her promise to serve only two terms, which she made when she first ran in 2018. As county executive, she steered Harris County government into areas typically outside the county’s purview, like childcare and poverty, with a mix of success and disaster.
Parker offered voters a different approach. In December, just after the primary field was set, Hidalgo laid into Parker, charging that she “doesn’t represent our values” as part of a scathing social media post. The outgoing judge also bashed Parker for her alliance with Kim Ogg, the former Democratic district attorney who sparred with Hidalgo and other Democratic leaders before losing her 2024 primary in a landslide.
“Annise Parker is Kim Ogg 2.0,” Hidalgo wrote, alleging that she would “follow [Houston Mayor] John Whitmire’s playbook, capitulating to Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.” Parker told the Houston Chronicle her record “speaks for itself” and she was “running to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, not to engage in Democratic infighting.”
While Jones said Plummer might be the preferred opponent for Sanchez due to her lack of experience and Muslim faith, he believes it’s not enough to offset the current negative sentiment toward the Trump administration.
“Unless Trump’s approval rating drastically changes between now and November, I don’t see Harris County flipping. I think the goal now is not to win Harris County but to lose it by as small a margin as possible, to where it doesn’t boost Democrats further,” he said.
Some of Plummer’s main policies include supporting the Harris County Flood Control District, addressing mental health access in the region, fixing the county jail and addressing healthcare issues through partnerships.
In recent years, Hidalgo has faced scrutiny from other Democrats over her behavior, which has even led to her being formally admonished by the commissioners court, a first for a Harris County Judge.
If Hidalgo had sought a third term, many political experts believed she would have faced stiff competition from Parker, who made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ leader of a large American city.
“I think people are looking for that newer attitude that Plummer brought. She is a breath of fresh air,” Hidalgo said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.
Abbott has vowed to spend heavily to flip Harris County, and Plummer is expecting a well-funded attack on her campaign and her faith. However, she believes she has already proven that money doesn’t win campaigns, and if anything, a political attack on religion will backfire in a diverse region of Harris County.
“I watched how Zohran Mamdani handled (attacks on his faith) and saw what happened to him, so I know what is coming,” Plummer said. “I’ve dealt with this my entire life. I’m ready for all of it because it’s just a distraction. We’re going to focus, and we’re going to win.”