Texas politics is heating up as State Representative Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat and longtime public education advocate, officially announced her candidacy for governor on October 15, 2025. In a campaign video released that morning and a website that went live the previous evening, Hinojosa made her intentions clear: she’s running to unseat Republican Governor Greg Abbott and become the first Democratic governor in Texas in three decades.
Hinojosa’s announcement wasn’t just another political formality. She chose to launch her campaign in Brownsville, her hometown in the Rio Grande Valley, with a rally at the Historic Alonso building scheduled for 6:30 p.m. that evening. This location was no accident. Brownsville sits at the heart of a region where Democrats are eager to reclaim ground after recent Republican gains among Latino voters. In her campaign video, Hinojosa invoked her roots and family history, saying, “No Te Dejes. Fight back. That’s the lesson my grandmother taught me growing up right here in the Valley.” She added, “In my hardest fights, I hear her voice tell me, ‘No te dejes.’”
Hinojosa, a 51-year-old Latina attorney, has built her career on public service and education policy. She started out as a labor lawyer and entered politics in 2012 when her son’s school faced closure due to budget cuts. “When my son’s school was threatened for closure, I got mad. I was just a mad mom and I ran for the school board and won,” she told Nexstar. That victory led her to the Austin Independent School District board, where she eventually served as president. In 2016, she was elected to the Texas House, representing District 49, and has held the seat since 2017. Her current term runs through January 2027.
Education remains the cornerstone of Hinojosa’s campaign. She’s been an outspoken critic of Governor Abbott’s push for private school vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs), which use public funds to help families pay for private schooling. Hinojosa has labeled the voucher proposal a “scam” and argues that such policies divert much-needed resources from public schools. “The big issue that I found there is the state’s not giving public schools the money that they should, the money that we pay into for property taxes,” she said. Her opposition to ESAs is deeply personal and political, echoing the concerns of many Texas families worried about the future of neighborhood schools.
In her campaign launch, Hinojosa didn’t mince words about who she believes is to blame for Texas’s challenges. “Our fight right now is against the billionaires and the corporations who are driving up prices, closing our neighborhood schools, and cheating Texans out of basic healthcare,” she said in her video. “That’s who Greg Abbott works for. I’m running for governor to work for you.” She criticized Abbott for accepting a multi-million-dollar donation from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania GOP megadonor and pro-school voucher advocate. “So long as we have a governor that can be bought, we won’t have the Texas that we deserve,” she said.
Hinojosa’s campaign is also focusing on affordability and healthcare, two pressing issues for many Texans. She pointed out that Texas has an uninsured rate twice the national average and argued that accepting federal funds would allow the state to provide health insurance to over a million more people. “We know that many Texans, too many Texans, can’t afford basic health care. For instance, in Texas, our uninsured rate is two times the national average. We can fix this. We can put over a million more Texans on health insurance if we simply accept those federal funds that Texans have already paid to the federal government to cover our health insurance,” Hinojosa explained to Nexstar.
Her campaign launch comes at a time when Abbott’s popularity appears to be waning. According to an August 2025 poll by The Texas Politics Project, only 40% of respondents approved of Abbott’s performance, while 50% disapproved. Despite this, Abbott remains a formidable opponent. He’s seeking a fourth term, and as of July 2025, he had a campaign war chest exceeding $87 million. Political science professor Jeronimo Cortina told local media, “Governor Abbott just needs to keep doing what he has been doing. He has been a very good campaigner. He has a huge war chest, and he’s very supported.” Still, Cortina noted that public dissatisfaction with the state’s direction could create an opening for a Democratic challenger.
The Democratic primary is shaping up to be crowded and competitive. Hinojosa faces several rivals, including Houston businessman Andrew White (son of former Gov. Mark White), rancher and retired firefighter Bobby Cole, Bay City Councilman Benjamin Flores, retired U.S. Marine Nick Pappas, and teacher Meagan Tehseldar. Each candidate brings a distinct perspective. White, for instance, has positioned himself as a problem-solver focused on schools, hospitals, and infrastructure, saying, “Our politics is really messed up. So as governor, I’ll be focused on the things that really matter to Texans.” Cole, meanwhile, is running as a political outsider championing working-class and rural Texans, advocating for rural healthcare, legalizing marijuana, and raising the minimum wage.
Hinojosa’s candidacy is historic in more ways than one. If elected, she would be the first Democrat to govern Texas since Ann Richards left office in 1995 and the first Mexican-American governor since the early 1800s. Political consultant Joel Montfort told local outlets, “If Hinojosa can connect with Hispanic voters in Texas, she may be able to reverse the recent trend of Hispanics moving rightward in our state. That will be key to her chances of pulling off a victory against a very tough candidate in [Gov. Greg] Abbott.”
However, Hinojosa and her fellow Democrats face significant hurdles. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, and recent elections have seen Republicans making inroads with Latino voters. In 2018, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Lupe Valdez won just 53% of the Hispanic vote, and in 2024, Donald Trump carried the Latino vote in Texas, even as his national support among Latinos declined. Max Moll, a principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs, cautioned, “I think we would be foolish to homogenize the Hispanic or Latino vote into one particular voting bloc, which I think is why Democrats have lost some of that support over the years. Certainly having a Hispanic surname helps. That’s not everything.”
Abbott’s campaign wasted no time in responding to Hinojosa’s announcement. In a statement, Abbott’s campaign manager Kim Snyder said, “Time and again, Gina Hinojosa chooses woke, extreme ideologies over the safety and security of Texas families. Texans deserve a Governor who will continue to secure the border, fight for safer communities, and uphold family values—not someone who supports failed, radical policies that hurt hardworking Texans.”
Hinojosa, for her part, remains undeterred. She’s betting that Texans are ready for a change—one that puts public schools, affordable healthcare, and working families at the center of state policy. The coming months will reveal whether her message can break through in a state where political tides have been slow to shift, but where, as she says, “No te dejes—don’t let them get you down.”
