Texas judge who tried to access VIP area at Houston rodeo concert claims racism, sexism at playFox News By Louis Casiano 3/12/2026
A Texas judge said she was manhandled while attending a concert at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this week after staffers refused to let her access a VIP area and escorted her out of the venue. The judge questioned whether she was the victim of racism or sexism despite being given $9,000 in freebies.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she and five guests — another elected official, the official's children and the parents of a U.S. Air Force sergeant who recently died — attended a Megan Moroney concert at the popular rodeo show Tuesday.
However, the group was barred from the venue's premium floor access area — the ticket area known as "the dirt" — because they had not paid the $425 per head price tag for wristbands and the show was sold out, the rodeo said in response to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Hildalgo said she had previously been allowed on the floor access area without a wristband "based on the county's relationship with the rodeo." She said she assumed the area was "friends of rodeo leaders or for rodeo leaders or such."
The judge said she then asked if her guests could be let into the area before she was grabbed, shoved and threatened with arrest.
"I understand the rodeo committee members have a job to do," Hidalgo wrote in a scathing letter to rodeo board Chairwoman Pat Phillips and rodeo President Chris Boleman.
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