Ed Emmett

Residents would benefit from a leader who truly has the ability to serve as a convener and consensus builder, a politician who can transcend partisan divides.

In fact, that's the sort of county judge Harris County once had in Ed Emmett.

There was no question he really was a moderate Republican.

You could see it in his personal disposition, his openness to the LGBTQ community, and how he broke from his party on policy issues such as Medicaid expansion and local control.

This isn't a new idea.

Back in 2017, former county judge Ed Emmett, a Republican, proposed letting Harris County levy its own sales tax, and even write ordinances as a way to properly govern the unincorporated county.

Formally incorporating the region into its own cities would basically accomplish the same goal, but without giving new authority to the county.

Of course, like so much public policy, it wouldn't be a simple process.

In fact, a lot of people stayed out of that race because they were playing games with, who was it? I forget his name right now.

Ed Emmett.

Ed Emmett, yeah.

You know, there was some sort of a thing there with Ed Emmett.

The people apparently, Democrats were probably thinking he was unbeatable.

And Lena went in there and she took him down.

Oh, I think it is.

Uh, I remember in 2018 when Ed Emmett was running for re-election, and he said he was voting for the Democrat in the race, uh, for lieutenant governor.

He was not voting for Dan Patrick.

Pretty regularly, we can talk to people who say, "Down ballot, I'm not voting for this judge who's on my party or that judge because they're a bad judge, and I think the other person does good work." We regularly used to see people crossing over.