This story was originally published by The 19th
AUSTIN, Texas — Gina Hinojosa is set to become the next governor of Texas after voters denied Republican Gov. Greg Abbott a fourth term, a stunning upset by a state legislator who will become the first Latina to hold the Lone Star State’s top job.
Hinojosa mounted a competitive bid against Abbott with a disciplined focus on corruption, which she argued is to blame for soaring prices, declining public schools and the aggressive expansion of data centers. Hinojosa capitalized on the financial strain that pushed voters who had supported President Donald Trump to grow disillusioned with the Republican Party.
“It bothered me that they doubted us,” Hinojosa told a crowd of supporters at an election night event in Austin to uproar. “Now I stand before you humbled and grateful.”
Hinojosa will be the first Texas governor from the Rio Grande Valley, a heavily Latino part of the state, and the third woman to hold the job. Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley, who had swung for Trump over the last two election cycles but saw their communities heavily impacted by the administration’s immigration crackdown, helped power Hinojosa’s win.
“I am a daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, where the people embodied the great work ethic and values of our great state,” she said as supporters shouted “956,” the region’s area code. “No one would have imagined that a little girl from the RGV would stand before you here as the next governor of the greatest state, Texas.”
Hinojosa celebrated a victory that she said “crossed party lines.”
At the Austin gathering, Hinojosa’s supporters relished the seismic victory, a generational win for Democrats who had been locked out of power at the state level as well as for Latinos, who make up a large portion of the state’s residents and who have long lacked equitable representation. Brown signs with the campaign slogan “No Te Dejes” filled the room, and a playlist of Latino hits, including Selena’s “Amor Prohibido,” had teary supporters dancing and swaying after Hinojosa’s speech.
Stephanie Treviño, 39, said Hinojosa’s victory is a win for women and for Latinas in Texas. As a child, Treviño remembers meeting Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, an early memory of a “strong, powerful woman.” Watching Hinojosa’s victory was a “full circle” moment. “To see a Latina go for it is so inspirational. She’s showing the world Latinas can and should lead,” Treviño said. Adding to the significance of the moment is the fact that some of Treviño’s family members worked in a restaurant that was located at the site of Hinojosa’s election night event.
“We’ve always been on the outside,” Treviño said of Texas Latinas. “Not anymore.”
Abbott quickly conceded to Hinojosa. “I love our state. It’s been an honor to serve it. And know that we’re leaving Texas in far better shape than it’s ever been,” Abbott said. Hinojosa said Tuesday night that she spoke to Abbott by phone; he congratulated her and offered to help with the transition, she said.
Abbott, a Republican stalwart in a state that has long favored the party, outspent Hinojosa about eight-to-one. On the campaign trail and in ads, Abbott promised voters he would work to lower taxes, keep out further regulations on the oil industry, protect the border with Mexico and attract more jobs to the state.
In the early days of the general election, Abbott rarely mentioned his opponent. That changed as the race appeared to grow more competitive in the polls. By the final days, Abbott was attacking Hinojosa on a number of fronts, calling her “woke” and accusing her of supporting tax increases as a legislator.
Before the attacks began, Hinojosa had seized on Abbott’s silence to introduce herself to voters, turning her low name recognition into an asset. Hinojosa leaned heavily on her political origin story, telling voters that the threat of closure facing her son’s school prompted her to get involved in politics. Hinojosa wasn’t a stranger to the political world: Her dad was a county judge and former chair of the state party.
Her experience working on public education issues in Austin and in the legislature offered a jumping-off point to connect with conservative voters in Texas, many of whom had grown dismayed by Republicans’ remaking of the K-12 education system.
In Texas, the rollout of a $1 billion school voucher program allowing parents to use public school dollars to cover some of the cost of private schools led to backlash as neighborhood public schools closed or shifted to four-day schedules, while others struggled with persistent teacher shortages. Hinojosa promised to end the voucher program, increase teacher pay and “DOGE” the state’s education agency by ending no-bid contracts to education vendors and curbing the size of the agency. Hinojosa also promised to stop state takeovers of local school districts and has criticized the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.
“I never set out to be a politician, I am a mom who loves children and their teachers and believes in Texas public schools,” Hinojosa said Tuesday night to a cheering crowd. Earlier that day, her final event of the campaign was with a group of more than 50 current and former teachers from the Texas State Teachers Association.
Hinojosa launched her campaign with the slogan, “No te dejes,” which became a staple in her stump speech to voters. “Know your worth and defend it,” is how Hinojosa translated the Spanish saying in a recent interview, though she has a few different variations. In explaining it, Hinojosa says she learned it from her mom, who was born in Mexico and learned it from her mom before that.
Sonya Reyna, 40, grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and says Hinojosa’s victory will be an inspiration for generations of children in the Valley, a place where a lack of opportunity can steal people’s imagination for what’s possible.
“She’s not just a Latina, she’s a Latina from the Valley,” Reyna said. “For many people there, especially first-generation students, the sky is now the limit.”
Ahead of the election, polling in Texas and nationwide showed Latino voters moving away from Republicans, just two years after their rightward shift helped Trump return to the White House. In interviews in the Rio Grande Valley — which saw staggering moves to the right in the last decade — voters who had previously supported Republicans, including Abbott and Trump, cited rising costs, the state of public schools and immigration raids as their reasons for wanting to back Hinojosa.
Hinojosa campaigned alongside James Talarico, the Senate candidate whom polls consistently showed ahead of his opponent, Republican Ken Paxton, and who was expected to help lift down-ballot Democrats in Texas.
During his time in office, Abbott signed into law Texas’ abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country. Investigations into the effects of the ban by ProPublica found it has led to an increase in cases of sepsis, excessive bleeding and ectopic pregnancy deaths. Abbott in 2022 directed the state’s child protective services agency to investigate parents whose teens were receiving gender-affirming care. Abbott also signed a law banning gender-affirming hormone therapies and surgeries.
Hinojosa previously described herself as a progressive, but in the race for governor, said populist was a better fit for the moment. While she previously fought against the state’s stringent abortion restrictions, Hinojosa didn’t emphasize the issue on the campaign trail and said her priority as governor would be to do away with penalties for doctors, rather than attack the ban on abortion. Hinojosa also raised eyebrows with an ad that described her pronouns as “mom, Texan and soon-to-be-governor.” Some saw the ad as minimizing threats to trans rights in the state.
Giulia Walker, 22, said she recently moved back to Texas after graduating from college in Boston. Walker said that Hinojosa’s support for reproductive rights in the state has changed the way she views her life in Texas.
“As a woman, I feel like I’m being represented again. This changes everything,” she said. “It’s just crazy that we have a representative now that speaks compassionately and cares about us. I never thought I would see it.”
Hinojosa said in interviews during the campaign that her focus would be on issues that had overwhelming support among Texans, arguing that “culture war issues” were dividing the state. On Tuesday night, Hinojosa promised she would govern with all Texans in mind.
“Tonight, I make a solemn promise to every single Texan, whether you voted for me or Greg Abbott or felt so betrayed by broken politics that you did not vote at all,” Hinojosa said. “Your government belongs to you, and as your governor, I will never forget it.”
Featured Image: Rep. Gina Hinojosa/Facebook
Written by Mel Leonor Barclay
