Texas House Rep. Gina Hinojosa is the latest Democrat to enter the race to be the state’s next governor. She made the announcement on social media Wednesday morning and will follow up with a campaign kickoff event this evening in Brownsville, the border town where she was born and raised.
In her announcement video, she took aim at Gov. Greg Abbott and said Texans need to fight back against the Republican’s leadership of the Lone Star State.
“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,” Hinojosa said.
The state lawmaker, who has represented the Texas House’s 49th district since 2017, began her political career in 2012 as a Austin ISD School Board member. Now, with Wednesday’s announcement, she’s hoping to be the first Democrat to lead the state since former Gov. Ann Richards, who left office in 1995.
A Democrat has not been elected to a statewide office in Texas in more than three decades. But if successful, Hinojosa would also be the first Mexican-American to hold the position since the early 1800s – something experts say could be seen as an advantage.
“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,” said political consultant Joel Montfort. “That will be key to her chances of pulling off a victory against a very tough candidate in [Gov. Greg] Abbott.”
Of course, Hinojosa won’t be the only Democrat trying to unseat Abbott, the three-term Republican incumbent. Houston businessman Andrew White, son of the late Democratic governor Mark White, will be on the primary ballot with her. Other candidates include Bobby Cole, a rancher and retired firefighter, and Benjamin Flores, a city council member in Bay City.
“Rep. Hinojosa has been in the Texas Legislature since 2017 and has a very productive track record, having authored almost 100 bills,” Montfort said. “She has the most experience in state legislation of any Democrat to run for governor in recent history. This will likely give her an edge in the primary against Andrew White, who has no prior experience in government.”
Two of the biggest difficulties facing Hinojosa — or any Democratic candidate for governor in Texas are likely to face — are the interlocked challenges of fundraising and building name recognition statewide. As of July, Abbott was sitting on a campaign fund in excess of $87 million.
“Governor Abbott just needs to keep doing what he has been doing,” said Jeronimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “He has been a very good campaigner. He has a huge war chest, and he's very supported.”Still, Cortina said there could be an opening for a Democratic candidate in 2026.“When you look at public opinion polls, a lot of people do not necessarily agree [with Abbott] in terms of how the state is moving or the direction of the state. So, she may have an opportunity.”
One question Hinojosa’s candidacy raises is whether Texas Democrats can recapture some of the Hispanic support they lost in recent election cycles. In 2018, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won just 53% of the Hispanic vote as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, falling far short of the percentage of the vote she needed to prevail over Abbott. President Donald Trump also carried the Latino vote in Texas in 2024, although his support among Latinos has fallen off nationwide since, according to multiple polls.
“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,” said Max Moll, a principal with Cornerstone Government Affairs, a bipartisan government consulting firm. “Certainly having a Hispanic surname helps. That's not everything.”