The afternoon we spoke with Gina Hinojosa, Oct. 2, she had just pulled into her campaign office’s parking lot from a four-day trip around East Texas, toting a suitcase in the rain.
“We did Nacogdoches, Lufkin,” she later told us. “Corsicana, Crockett,” her assistant piped in. “And we just came from Houston,” Hinojosa finished.
About five minutes later, we were sitting down in the empty East Austin house her campaign has jury-rigged into an office. In the next room, several young campaign workers typed on computers situated on plastic foldout tables.
Hinojosa, who sat across from us in a navy blazer and heels, has proven herself to be the most formidable challenger for the governor’s seat that Gov. Greg Abbott has ever faced.
For context, Abbott became governor of Texas over a decade ago. That year, 2014, he handily beat former Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis with nearly 60% of the vote, then former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in 2018 by 13.3 percentage points. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke was Texas Dems’ next best hope in 2022, when he lost by a narrower 10.9 percentage points.
What is different about Hinojosa, Austin’s representative in the Texas House? The recent Oct. 3 New York Times/Siena and Sept. 23 Marist polls are projecting her ahead of Abbott by three percentage points, though other recent polls still have Abbott in the lead. But four years ago, no major polls predicted O’Rourke would win.
Those poll numbers are also in spite of Abbott outspending Hinojosa 6-to-1 from July to late September, per Texas Tribune reporting, with Abbott having entered the election cycle with over $105 million on hand. Hinojosa had less than $1 million.
We asked Hinojosa: Why is this year different from the previous election cycles? “I am hearing that people want change,” she replied. Hinojosa believes that the boom of data centers across the state has been particularly “eye-opening” for people on all sides of the aisle.
“A lot of Texans – a lot of Republicans and Independents – see that this is an example of a governor doing the bidding of moneyed interests, and leaving the people to fend for themselves,” Hinojosa continued. “My theory of the case is: This is who Greg Abbott is. And it makes my critique of him credible.”
What has surprised Hinojosa on the campaign trail is what she calls “an opportunity to be post-partisan” in Texas right now. People want their government to improve public schools, improve affordability, to ensure that Texans “have a say in our future, rather than having tech giants decide it for us,” she told us.
“Those are not Democratic or Republican issues,” Hinojosa continued. “I do think people are tired of fighting culture wars. That’s my sense of it. And it would be really a wonderful thing if we could come out on the other side of this at a place where we’re all working together to try to make sure Texas is a state that’s by and for the people, and not the billionaires.”
While most of the political spotlight has been shed on Ken Paxton’s and James Talarico’s expensive race for the U.S. Senate seat, Hinojosa has been steadily building up her grassroots support and war chest. On Oct. 5, her campaign reported that Hinojosa has raised over $25 million total, with $13 million in the latest reporting period coming from about 136,000 donors, with about three-quarters donating for the first time.
But prior to that recent boost in funding, her campaign hadn’t seen significant financial backing from national Democratic Party leaders. “I would like more investment from the national Democratic establishment,” Hinojosa told us on Oct. 2. “They fear Texas, because playing in Texas is playing at the high roller’s table. But in 2026, if we’re not playing at the high roller’s table when we have an opportunity of a generation to win, then what are we even doing as Democrats?”
Since our conversation and the recent polls dropped, Democratic leaders around the country have called for the national party to pour more money into Hinojosa’s campaign. Now, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the Democratic Governors Association are each putting at least $1 million into her campaign, The New York Times first reported Oct. 7.
“In Texas, in this governor’s race in 2026, we’ve been dealt a phenomenal hand,” Hinojosa emphasized to us. “We need the national Democratic establishment to understand: This is an opportunity that they can’t let pass by, because we will not have an opportunity like this for likely a generation. That is my pitch to them.”
Hinojosa has further feedback for her party leaders. “Democrats need to unapologetically call out the corporate corruption and influence in politics,” she pressed. “It is a driving force in our politics in this state. It is a driving force behind policy in the state. And until we can see it and say it, we will not have the trust of the voters.”
Our conversation with Hinojosa also took place about two weeks after an Austin man was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Hinojosa said ICE is acting with a “lethal lawlessness” that has now played out in Austin, just as it did in Houston and elsewhere.
“ICE officials shoot first, ask questions later. That’s an environment that puts us all in peril, especially Latinos, because now we know they are racially profiling,” Hinojosa said. “People are angry about that. People are scared about that. People want a governor who stands up for them, who defends their rights, and who defends Texans. And that is the kind of governor I will be.”
When we asked Hinojosa what the campaign trail across the state has taught her, her answer was swift: the way people are struggling across Texas right now. “I’m not sure everybody understands – these are not normal times,” Hinojosa said with feeling.
“When I come across Texans who are having to donate plasma as a second job, two to three times a week – that to me is maybe the starkest example of how much even middle-class Texans are hurting right now,” Hinojosa continued. “The responsibility that we have as government, to ensure that this economy is working for the people who built it … is something that I have come to understand the full urgency and magnitude of.”
Before she ever took a seat at the Texas House, and long before she dreamed of a gubernatorial run, Hinojosa was a trustee on Austin ISD’s school board from 2012-2016, and was the board’s president in 2015.
Right now, AISD is waiting on an intervention decision from the Texas Education Agency. Per TEA’s accountability system, which is dictated by the Legislature, the district can be taken over by the state. If that happens, Austin could lose local control of its school district, just as Houston and Fort Worth have. The state would replace locally elected trustees with state-appointed managers, and install a new superintendent.
If Hinojosa is elected governor in November, she has repeatedly promised to change that system. On day one, Hinojosa has publicly declared that she’ll fire the current commissioner of education, Mike Morath, who has executed a record number of state takeovers since he assumed the role in 2016.
“It is so sad what has happened to our public schools under Greg Abbott, and I do not think our public schools will survive four more years of Greg Abbott,” Hinojosa contended. “He has done so much damage. Schools are shutting down. Schools are at four days a week. Teachers have left the profession, on and on.”
We asked Hinojosa how she plans to reform the accountability system while still ensuring that districts are providing their students with a quality education. Hinojosa began her answer by referring to state Rep. Brad Buckley’s initial 2025 bill that would have eliminated the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam – a bill she spoke in favor of.
“It would have instead used an objective, nationally norm-referenced test that would have been created outside of the Texas Education Agency – that’s why I call it objective. And it would have measured growth within a school year. It would have given local school districts credit for the innovative things they’re doing locally,” Hinojosa said.
Right now, the TEA uniformly created the STAAR tests, administers them, and decides where to cut off passing, Hinojosa emphasized.
“There’s not an objective standard by which teachers are aiming for, students are aiming for – nobody really knows,” Hinojosa continued. “And it is so high-stakes that it just creates this anxiety and fear within our schools that has killed the joy of learning. It’s taking the place of a rich learning environment that Austin and AISD schools had been known for.”
Hinojosa had a message for Austin’s current and soon-to-be-elected school board trustees.
“They should know the fix is in. That it was always [TEA’s] intention to take over Austin ISD, and it is the intention of this governor to take over our local school districts across the state,” Hinojosa said. “They want to control the contracts – the money that local communities right now control, that local electeds right now control. It’s a follow-the-money issue.”
Arati Singh, an AISD trustee since 2018 and former board president, will be vacating her seat that’s up for election in November. If Hinojosa wins the governorship, Singh wrote to the Chronicle, she could influence or directly address problems that go far beyond state takeover.
To name a few on Singh’s list: increasing funding for public schools; lowering property taxes and ensuring taxes collected for public education go to public schools; ensuring that children have fully certified teachers and feel safe in their classrooms due to reasonable gun regulations; regulating AI use in the classroom; and making sure that public school curriculum “reflects the rich values, histories, and cultures of all Texans.”
Hinojosa could possibly end the voucher program, “which would ensure that taxpayers are paying for public schools, not private schools that have no STAAR testing requirements and that can turn away students for any reason,” Singh continued.
It’s also possible that Hinojosa could prevent AISD from being taken over by the state, multiple public school advocates have told the Chronicle. Singh contends that state takeover of local school districts amounts to “taxation without representation.”
“It is absurd that AISD, the highest payer into recapture and a major contributor to the state’s $27 billion Rainy Day fund, could have their elected school board replaced by a governor-appointed board of managers who might have no connection with the community and would not be accountable to AISD families,” Singh wrote.
Singh also echoed Hinojosa’s criticism of the STAAR exam – the primary tool used to evaluate Texas students, schools, and districts. “A Gina victory would mean our children are treated as full humans rather than a test score,” Singh continued. “A one-day test that is graded (often incorrectly) by AI is not a valid assessment. A test that is administered in English to a non-English speaker in middle school is not a valid assessment. A test administered to an 8-year-old entirely online, regardless of their keyboarding skills … is not a valid assessment.”
Ken Zarifis, president of AISD’s union, Education Austin, believes that Hinojosa would bring a new “caring, informed” attitude toward educators to the governorship. “Now, we know we have a different, difficult world,” Zarifis added. “Laws are still in place. This [takeover] law is still in place. But how you interpret the law, how you implement the law – that will be effective.”
Hinojosa recalled that early in her campaign, she had a conversation with a Republican school district superintendent. Hinojosa had asked him if he was going to support her run for governor publicly.
“He looked at me with eyes of almost disbelief, and he said, ‘Of course I will. You’re our last chance to save Texas public schools,’” Hinojosa said. “And when he said that, it struck me. Because as I stopped to think about it, I realized he was right – that this governor has been hellbent on destroying public schools, and has done more damage than anyone. Our schools are barely holding on. And with the governor having four more years to assault public schools, I think it’s very unlikely that public schools, as we know them, exist afterwards.”
When Hinojosa first ran for school board, her son – now 21 years old – was a kindergartner in AISD, she told us. “I don’t want it to be that my oldest son received the best of what Austin ISD had to offer,” Hinojosa said.
“We should want to preserve and grow what it meant to be an urban community with strong public schools, because we were unique in that way. We were unique in this country in that way,” Hinojosa continued. “I was very fortunate to be able to take advantage of such a rich public school environment for my family, but it should be the norm, not the exception.”
The day before she spoke with the Chronicle, Hinojosa’s campaign hosted a Spanish-language town hall in Houston. At that event, one of the attendees handed Hinojosa a note.
“They wrote out, ‘Hi Gina, my son is autistic in Houston ISD. Please don’t forget us,’” Hinojosa recounted. “That kind of hope for my campaign reminds me that this is not my campaign. This campaign belongs to so many people who have put their hopes and dreams in it. I feel that responsibility, and it makes me work harder.”
Hinojosa gave up her presidency of the AISD school board to represent the heart of Austin, District 49, at the Texas House. She has been Austin’s progressive voice at the state level for nearly a decade, since January 2017.
But if Hinojosa becomes a Democratic governor that must work with a likely Republican-majority Texas House and Senate, will she be able to deliver for Texans?
Hinojosa argued in response to the question that she can, and will. “That’s my track record: getting things done, working with Republicans. My agenda is not a Democratic agenda. My agenda is an economic populist agenda,” she asserted.
Her strategy, if elected governor, already has concrete pillars. “Republicans have been saying forever they want to shrink government. I say put your money where your mouth is,” Hinojosa contended. “There’s $27 billion in the Rainy Day fund – we’ve never had so much money. To get back down to historic levels of $10 billion, send the rest to Texas families: $1,500 for every Texas household.”
“I say freeze electricity rates, because they have skyrocketed under Greg Abbott,” she continued. “Make sure corporations, industry, the data centers are paying their fair share. You hear echoes of that on the campaign trail; it is a priority of mine.”
Hinojosa promised to ban “bad-faith” health insurance claim denials. “Republicans say they champion the agenda of Texas children, and I’ve yet to hear any of them come out ensuring every Texas child has quality healthcare,” Hinojosa said. “I had somebody introduce me at the Texas Democratic Convention who told her story of paying into health insurance for years, only to have them deny her chemo treatment. I heard a [similar] story a month later, and that’s how bad it’s gotten.”
Who is Hinojosa as a legislator? To help answer that question, we got on the phone with one of her colleagues, state Rep. Christian Manuel. He’s a Beaumont-area Democrat, but admits he’s a more conservative voter at the Texas House than Hinojosa, reflecting his deeply purple East Texas constituency.
Manuel also authored a successful bipartisan bill with Hinojosa and two Republicans – House Bill 1188 – which ensures that more information about services and local benefits is given to parents of children with special education needs.
We asked the representative if Hinojosa collaborates well across the aisle. He paused for a brief moment. “I’ll say yes,” Manuel replied. “But she still has her standards and what she believes in, so she will work with someone to try to make a bad deal better. But she is someone who is always going to fight for her morals and her values.”
Manuel later characterized her as “fiery, but not disrespectful,” remembering when Hinojosa debated her Republican colleagues on Texas private school vouchers in 2023.
“She tried to get them to understand that public education needed more funding,” Manuel recalled. “She just basically was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to move on this one.’ … I should say that she’s someone who can be worked with, but if it’s outside of her morals and her values, she will not move on that. Her morals are not movable. Her standards are not movable.”
Hinojosa also spoke with the Chronicle about that moment, when the Texas House ultimately defeated Abbott’s proposal to create private school vouchers in 2023. It would later pass in 2025, however, and the program launched this fall.
“We did it with very strong alliances with rural Republicans who support their public schools. I felt the power of transcending the partisan divide and what we could accomplish when we came together,” Hinojosa told us. “That gave me a hope about Texas, a hope about politics that I carry with me to this day. It is why I have extended an olive branch to Republicans who have been against me, to say, ‘you’re welcome in this campaign.’”
Manuel has worked in the Texas Capitol since 2004, first as a legislative staffer before succeeding his former boss in 2023. His first impression of Hinojosa as a staffer, even before he became her colleague, was that she was an “excessive over-worker.”
“I hate saying this because I know how this could turn out,” he laughed. “Sometimes I used to go, ‘Oh my gosh, if I worked for her, I’d be here until 1 o’clock in the morning when everyone was home at 8 o’clock.’ She’s just an excessively hard worker.”
As a legislator, Hinojosa has written a lot of bills, and the vast majority of them never went anywhere. We asked Manuel why. “That’s easy,” Manuel replied quickly. “A lot of her legislation hasn’t passed because she hasn’t placated or folded to do what some people have told her to do, but did what her constituency has asked her to do.”
Manuel explained that Texas House legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike, will often file bills knowing that they likely won’t cross the finish line, or even get a hearing. It’s about starting a bipartisan conversation about the issue, he said.
“[Hinojosa] more wanted to be able to have a conversation about [them] … that’s how we end up getting different bills passed at any given time,” Manuel said. “I will say, to her credit, she’s been effective at that. Even when sometimes people have punished her and she hasn’t gotten her bills passed.”
With Hinojosa as governor, Manuel believes the dynamic of the state’s government would completely transform. “It would force the legislative machine to say … we have to find a way to come to some form of compromise,” he said.
Though Hinojosa would likely be working with a Republican-majority House and Senate, she would hold veto power and influence, Manuel emphasized. For instance, another redistricting of Texas congressional districts would be “absolutely, 100%” off the table for the next four years. “[Redistricting] has weaponized a process that’s supposed to be fair,” Manuel said.
In Manuel’s own East Texas constituency where he’s running unopposed for reelection, political attitudes in deep-red communities feel different this year, he told us.
“That has been very interesting to me, to hear people say, ‘I guess I may just be voting for a Democrat for the first time in my life,’ or, ‘I may just not vote in the governor’s race because … I can’t see myself voting for a Republican that’s going to go with data centers,” Manuel said. “And these are people who don’t vote blue. … I think either way, win or lose, I think we’re going to see a much closer election number than we’ve seen before.”
Manuel remembers when East Texas first elected Abbott in 2014, and then reelected him for second and third terms. For many years, his community saw Abbott as a moderate Republican, someone who would “keep Texas balanced” and “push back on the extremes,” he recalled.
“[Hinojosa] wants to talk about bread-and-butter issues, and [Abbott] used to be someone who was like that. But he has gone from … running as a moderate Republican who was just about getting work done to someone unrecognizable,” Manuel said somberly. “He has shown that he will just fold, and that he will use the Texas governorship to try to run for president.”
Manuel noted that O’Rourke didn’t have Hinojosa’s poll numbers in 2022, but this year, “we’re seeing similar polls” for other Democratic candidates running for state-level offices and congressional seats as well.
“There’s this saying: When people go too far to the right, people swing to the left. When people go too far to the left, they swing to the right,” Manuel continued. “Republicans have gone so far right. They have started these culture wars, these purity wars that have become dog whistles for different groups. People are now saying, ‘This isn’t where we thought things were going.’”
Texas is not the same state today as it was in 1994 – the last year we elected a Democrat to statewide office, Manuel acknowledged. “But the pendulum always swings.”
In our conversation, Hinojosa echoed proof of that phenomenon. As she’s crisscrossed the state, the kitchen table issues that Texans care about right now are not Republican talking points. “They are universals, and in that sense, it does feel like we have an opportunity – if we seize it – to create a post-partisan reality here in Texas and hopefully beyond,” Hinojosa told us.
This November is about “deciding whether this is going to be a Texas that is by and for the people, or corporate-interest billionaires,” Hinojosa pressed. “And in that fight, 99% of us are all in the same boat.”
This article appears in October 16 • 2026.
