Gina Hinojosa wins Texas governor's race, unseating Abbott
The Democrat from Brownsville, on the Tamaulipas border, will be the first from her party to lead Texas since 1995. Greg Abbott called to congratulate her.
Gina Hinojosa won the Texas governor's race and will be the first Democrat to hold the office since Ann Richards left it in 1995. Republican Greg Abbott called her to concede, Hinojosa said in her victory speech on Tuesday night.
Abbott had been governor since 2015 and was seeking a fourth term. Projections came in late Tuesday, with Hinojosa well ahead in the partial count. The percentages moved with each update, from about 57% in some tallies to about 53% in later ones, so the final margin is not yet set.
Hinojosa was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, the border region of South Texas, and launched her campaign in Brownsville, across from Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. "I am a daughter of the Rio Grande Valley," she said. A civil rights and labor lawyer, she chaired the Austin school board and has served in the state House since 2016.
She speaks fluent Spanish, and her campaign ran bilingual ads and community meetings. Her platform centered on public schools, the cost of living and opposition to Abbott's school vouchers. Latinos make up about a third of the Texas electorate.
Abbott never debated her. He skipped the event Hinojosa invited him to in October. His agenda was conservative on immigration, abortion, education and border security.
For Mexico, the change matters at the border. Texas' governor sets state security and immigration operations and handles relations with neighboring Mexican states: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila and Chihuahua. Hinojosa has not yet said what she will do on those issues.
She takes office in January 2027.
