With her first year in office completed, 28-year-old Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is already concentrating her efforts on policy promises she intends to fulfill throughout all of 2020.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Hidalgo said she is focusing on initiatives to improve early childhood development and will continue to broaden county government.

“We’ve begun to transform the way we do things in the county,” Hidalgo said. “The county used to be in this box that was just about roads and bridges. Now, we’ve seen and we’ve shown it can be about environmental investment. It can be about criminal justice reform. It can be about voting access.”

Hidalgo spoke with the Chronicle on how focusing on children in their adolescent and teenage ages can produce many positive effects on society, such as lowering crime rates and school suspensions.

The Colombia-born Hidalgo secured her victory unseated former three-term county judge Ed Emmett in the November 2018 election. Upon taking office, she expanded government efforts for a "cleaner" Harris County by increasing the amount of pollution control and opening new positions in the fire marshal’s office, in addition to addressing protection against potential flooding and reforming the criminal justice system.

Despite taking criticism from several state politicians and residents over her relative youth and inexperience, Hidalgo had a successful first term. Her actions in pollution control were in response to chemical fires blazing across Harris County for more than 60 hours due to a petroleum product tank farm igniting at Deer Parks’ Intercontinental Terminals Co.

Hidalgo attended a holiday toys for kids event at the George R. Brown Convention Center in December 2019. She could be seen greeting families of multiple cultural backgrounds while taking photographs with them.

Her efforts in office landed her on Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30" list in December 2019.

Hidalgo is unsure whether she will file for re-election in 2022.