Democratic and Republican candidates for Harris County Judge put aside their recent sparring Sunday, finding common ground on flood control, hospital funding, and workforce development during a candidate forum at Congregation Beth Israel. Letitia Plummer and Orlando Sanchez both pledged support for raising $1 million in public and private funding to create at least three new community lighthouses, facilities designed to provide electricity, heating or cooling, food, and medical support when the power grid fails.
The forum, organized by The Metropolitan Organization, included the four main candidates for Harris County Commissioners Court and set ground rules barring candidates from using their response time to campaign or criticize opponents, according to Houston Public Media. The cooperative tone marked a sharp departure from the two candidates' last public encounter, where Hoodline reported a debate collapsed within 10 minutes, and from an earlier October forum where the pair clashed over a license-plate reading camera contract.
Plummer said she had found resources to put the first generator at the Kashmere Gardens Multipurpose Center and said she has prioritized infrastructure resilience and preventing flooding in homes, per the same outlet's report. Sanchez, for his part, said he had contributed leftover Houston City Council budget funds to the Houston Fire Department for external defibrillators and argued that reliable renewable power generation is vital for Houston communities.
Flood Control Pledges Build on 2018 Bond
Both candidates pledged to seek future bond elections for county flood control needs, building on the $2.5 billion flood bond Harris County voters raised in 2018. That bond was designed to leverage matching funds to support more than 180 flood mitigation projects across all 23 local watersheds in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, according to Reduce Flooding.
Sanchez said flooding has become a regional problem rather than one confined to Harris County, and that effective flood control requires cooperation from neighboring counties and federal assistance, the station's report notes. Plummer, who was elected to Houston City Council just after Hurricane Harvey, said she helped vulnerable constituents work with the Texas General Land Office to rebuild homes. She pledged to finish using existing flood bond resources and to communicate transparently with communities about federal and state funding requirements, which she said can lengthen project timelines.
Candidates Back Full Funding for Harris Health
Plummer and Sanchez also pledged support for full funding of Harris Health, which provides expanded preventive, primary, emergency, and hospital care to all county residents. The stakes behind that pledge are significant: although Harris Health holds only 6.6% of all inpatient hospital beds in Harris County, its facilities account for over 20% of the county's total uninsured hospital admissions, according to the Harris Health Strategic Fund. Texas remains one of ten states that has not expanded Medicaid, a factor that compounds demand on the safety-net system.
Plummer, who opened the Strawberry Dental Center and Gulfgate Dental Center as a young dentist, said she treated patients who came into Harris Health. Sanchez said he worked to increase the number of Level I trauma centers in Harris County and said he worked with Harris Health to obtain almost 75% voter approval for related funding, per the Houston Public Media account. That approval echoes the 72.3% voter approval Harris County voters gave in November 2023 to Proposition A, a separate $2.5 billion hospital district bond to build a new Level I-capable trauma center at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and modernize Ben Taub Hospital, as reported by The Bond Buyer.
The county currently has only two adult Level I trauma centers, Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, serving a population approaching 4.8 million, and those centers are on drive-by status about 30% of the time, according to the forum coverage. The Harris Health System notes that American College of Surgeons guidelines recommend one high-level trauma center per 1 million residents, underscoring the capacity gap facing a county approaching five times that benchmark population with just two centers.
Workforce Training and School Closures Round Out Agenda
Both candidates pledged to allocate $500,000 in public and private funding to TMO's Capital IDEA Houston, a long-term workforce development program aimed at helping low-income workers transition to living-wage careers. Capital IDEA Houston, established through organizing led by The Metropolitan Organization, covers 100% of tuition, books, and case management for career programs paying $15 to $20 or more per hour.
Sanchez said he had championed workforce development for decades and argued that for-profit universities financially exploit urban poor students. He requested disclosure of interest, debt, and costs to young people, noting that some students owe $30,000 after dropping out of for-profit universities whose credits are often non-transferable to public institutions.
Plummer said she wanted to focus on public-school education spanning early childhood, middle school, high school, vocational, and apprenticeship pathways, and referenced 12 schools being closed. That figure aligns with state-appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles's February proposal to close or consolidate 12 campuses starting in the 2026–2027 school year, citing long-term enrollment declines and aging facilities, according to K-12 Dive. The district lost 13,208 students, a 7% enrollment decline, between the 2022–2023 and 2024–2025 school years, driven by charter school expansion, birth rate shifts, and reaction to the state takeover that began in June 2023.
The Sunday forum capped a turbulent stretch in the race to succeed Judge Lina Hidalgo, who announced last September that she would not seek a third term, opening the county's top executive post for the first time since 2018. Under Texas law, the Harris County Judge serves as chief executive for county government, presiding over the five-member Commissioners Court and directing emergency management for more than 4.7 million residents. Sanchez previously served 12 years as Harris County Treasurer and six years on Houston City Council, becoming the first Latino immigrant elected to citywide office in Houston.
