Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa defeated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, ending three decades of Republican control of the governor’s office in the nation’s largest red state. NBC News projected the win, reporting that Hinojosa had wrested the governorship from Republicans for the first time since 1995 and would become the state’s first Hispanic governor.
The Associated Press, reporting from Austin, described Hinojosa as the first Democrat elected governor of Texas since 1990 and the first to hold the office since Ann Richards in the 1990s. Abbott, a three-term incumbent seeking a record fourth term, lost to a challenger who began the race with little money and little name recognition.
Gina Hinojosa Promises a Mandate for Change
In her victory speech, Hinojosa said Abbott had called to congratulate her, and she told supporters that Texas was headed for a sharp turn.
“I want to say something to the powerful people who have gotten very comfortable running this state,” Hinojosa said, according to NBC News. “The voters have delivered a mandate for change, and it is change they will get.”
At her victory party in Austin, she returned to the doubts that trailed her campaign. “It never bothered me that they doubted me. It bothered me that they doubted us,” she told the crowd, per the AP. “Texas, my faith in you never wavered.” She also said “your life can be bigger than your dreams,” describing her upbringing on the Texas-Mexico border, and declared: “Texas will bow down to no one.”
Abbott conceded and said he had called Hinojosa and pledged to help her transition into office. “Leading this state has been the greatest honor I’ve ever had,” Abbott told supporters, the AP reported.
A $180 Million Campaign That Came Up Short
Abbott’s campaign had spent $180 million since last year in what was thought to be a safe path to a fourth term, according to the AP, which also reported that billionaire Elon Musk had spent tens of millions of dollars to back Republicans. NBC News reported that Abbott outspent Hinojosa by tens of millions of dollars.
Abbott, who first took office in 2015, had won each of his previous races by double digits. Hinojosa launched her campaign last year when bigger-name Democrats seemed uneager to enter the field, and the AP reported she did not have significant support from the national party. From the start she accused Abbott of prioritizing the wealthy over everyday people and failing to bring down costs. One of her earliest pledges was a one-time $1,500 payment to each of the state’s nearly 32 million residents, which she called a “Corruption Tax Refund” and said would come from Texas’ emergency savings fund.
Data Centers Became a Defining Issue in the Texas Governor Race
Opposition to artificial intelligence server warehouses was central to the Texas governor race. NBC News reported that Texas is home to over 500 data centers, the second-most of any state, and that Abbott faced friction with rural voters who had reliably backed him in the past over his earlier support for the facilities.
Hinojosa charged in ads that Abbott was “doing the bidding of his billionaire donors” and that he was “selling out Texas” by supporting data center construction. Abbott responded to public anger with a temporary moratorium, ordering the state in September to stop approving data center permits while an audit was conducted of the facilities’ effect on Texas’ electrical grid.
The backlash is not confined to Texas. Public comment files on proposed projects have run overwhelmingly against them, as documented in reporting on data center public comments, and researchers have warned about the sector’s power demand in analyses of AI data centers and climate progress.
Culture-War Attacks and a Debate That Never Happened
Abbott hammered Hinojosa as “radical,” using campaign ads to target her past support for transgender female athletes and gender-affirming care for minors and calling her “Gender Bender Gina,” NBC News reported. He also said she wanted to raise taxes and painted her as a threat to Texans’ way of life.
Hinojosa answered in an ad: “They want to run an entire campaign saying that I’m too woke. I plan to spend an entire campaign focused on the fact that working people are too broke.” She added: “That’s the difference. I’m Gina Hinojosa. My pronouns are mom, Texan and soon-to-be governor.”
Once a vice chair of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus and a defender of transgender rights, she worked to shed the progressive label, presenting herself as a populist and running ads featuring Republican voters who said they would support her. Voters never saw the two candidates debate; Hinojosa criticized Abbott for not responding to debate invitations and staged a debate outside the Governor’s Mansion in mid-October.
Schools and the Rio Grande Valley Shaped Her Platform
Hinojosa was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and worked as a civil rights and labor lawyer before entering politics. NBC News reported she was elected to the state House in 2016; the AP described her as a state legislator from a liberal Austin district since 2017. She has credited her effort to stop her son’s elementary school from closing because of state budget cuts as her inspiration to seek elected office.
She pledged over the summer that one of her first actions as governor would be to fire the state’s education commissioner, citing declining student performances across Texas. A fluent Spanish speaker, she courted Latino voters — about one-third of the state’s electorate — with bilingual TV ads and town hall meetings in Spanish.
Talarico Wins Senate Seat as Trump Blames Abbott
Hinojosa’s win came alongside Democrat James Talarico’s victory over Republican Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, the AP reported, describing an “electrifying night for Democrats in Texas.” President Donald Trump blamed Abbott for the loss, accusing one of his staunchest supporters of becoming a “RINO,” or Republican in name only, in the last months of the race. “He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!” Trump posted on social media, according to the AP.
Both outlets tied the result to a worsening national environment for Republicans and to demographic change in Texas, which Trump carried by double digits two years ago. The AP noted the defeat will set off alarms for a party that depends on winning Texas to maintain a path to the White House. Full accounts are available from NBC News and the Associated Press via U.S. News. Gina Hinojosa, 52, becomes the first Latina governor of Texas, leading a Capitol that over the last decade passed one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws and increasingly aggressive immigration crackdowns.
