The unlikely winner of a 2018 election, Lina Hidalgo, was the catalyst for fellow Democrats aiming to transform Texas blue. Her triumph, along with her youth and immigrant roots, rendered herself a frequent subject of controversy that escalated as she campaigned actively in Harris County, including Houston, against COVID-19.

Hidalgo, the 29-year-old top state official in Harris County, Texas, has now been facing a deadly pandemic and complaints over how well she's managed to control it, after being challenged by major chemical fires and a series of catastrophic floods.

Hidalgo's mandate was that all county inhabitants wear masks or suffer penalties of up to $1,000 received critiques which were further reinforced when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick labeled it as the "the ultimate government overreach."

Hidalgo has been prosecuted, targeted in social media, and even called out by other members of the Texas county who carried out mask-wearing directives.

Critics of Hidalgo say she has violated her agenda on civil liberties and constitutional rights. Even  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott - who's sanctions for failure to comply during the pandemic also held fines and prison time - supersedes Hidalgo 's directives.

However, Hidalgo claimed that she is concentrating on her goal amid the controversy which is to avoid what occurred in many other countries and cities to happen in Houston where "the virus was winning."

"I didn't want that to be our fate, as well," Hidalgo stated. "What we did is we tried to do things better [and] recognize that if we do the exact same thing they did, at the exact same time they did it, then we're just going to end up in the same place."

Moreover, Hidalgo prolonged the stay-at -home directive to June 10 last Thursday which is consistent with the governor's reopening of Texas that provides measures for businesses to help their employees. As expected, Hidalgo, who is a native speaker of Spanish, first announced in English and then in Spanish.

Check these out:

"There just wasn't testing available"

Hidalgo mentioned her approach for coronavirus started with analyzing what has been unfolding in other nations, studying how South Korea controlled the virus by tracing and screening.

"I didn't want to shut down the economy. I would have liked to have a containment approach," she stated. "There just wasn't testing available."

Mindful that more incidents may arise when the State reopened, Hidalgo is not ready to claim victory.   She stated she fears that perhaps Abbott is proceeding too soon, but by distributing 300 coronavirus tracers the county is evolving to monitor people who do have the infection and with whom they have had contact. This would encourage those individuals to quarantine themselves so they can "choke off the virus." 

"The best I can do now is to stay centered and focused on getting my community through this crisis from a health standpoint and an economic standpoint," she said. "People are trying to knock me off my game. That's what they want. I can't let them do that for the sake of the community. My job is to keep them safe."