(TEXAS) — One of the Texas Democrats who attempted to block Republican efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade is looking to bring that fighting spirit to the governor’s mansion.
Austin-area state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, on Tuesday launched a bid to unseat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa told ABC News she believes Texas voters desire a spirited, fresh candidate to take on Abbott, who is running for a fourth term.
“I think Americans are done with politics as usual and are interested in shaking off labels and just wanting to see something real,” she said. “I’m as real as you get — a mom who got mad [who] ran for office.”
A former Austin ISD school board president, Hinojosa will center education, and campaigning on behalf of Texas public schools, in her bid. Hinojosa was elected to the statehouse in 2016.
“After 10 years, I now understand where our money is going and our money is going to vendor contracts and to enrich the billionaire class and not to the needs of Texans,” she said.
Hinojosa was part of the first wave of legislators who, this summer, left the state to deny their Republican counterparts a quorum, which brought the Abbott-backed special session to implement new GOP-favored congressional maps to a screeching halt.
The quorum break kicked off a national redistricting saga; high-profile Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hosted these lawmakers to protest the maps.
Pritzker took on an outsized role in the showdown, helping coordinate the travel and lodging of dozens of state lawmakers as they camped out in Illinois and ran out the clock. Former President Barack Obama even called into their Illinois’ encampment and offered support.
Texas Republicans did eventually pass new congressional maps after establishing a second special session, though Texas Democrats, Hinojosa among them, heralded their collective action as a win. Newsom and California Democrats, in turn, launched their own effort to pass blue-leaning maps, bringing the issue to voters on a proposition this November.
Hinojosa said her involvement in the quorum break “opened my eyes” that voters are ready for a fight.
“I can run for governor because I have faith in Texans that they will have my back and that they are in this with me. That quorum break did expand my understanding of where Texans, where voters are today in 2025 when it comes to what they want to see their leaders doing,” she said.
But Hinojosa, a self-described populist, has a lot of ground to gain. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994. And Texas’ Latino population has been slowly edging toward Trump over the last few elections. Trump led former President Joe Biden by 6 points in the state in 2020 — and the gulf grew in 2024, when trounced former Vice President Kamala Harris by 14 points.
She must also edge out serious Democratic challengers in the primary. Andrew White, the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, is also running. And she faces the potential of more well-known Democrats jumping into the fray. (Though Hinojosa says both Rep. Joaquin Castro and former congressman Beto O’Rourke have told her they’ve ruled out a gubernatorial run.)
Despite it all, she feels she can navigate these challenges. And is making a bet that Texas voters feel the same.
“People want change. I’m the candidate of change. Greg Abbott is the candidate of status quo, of the insider club enriching themselves with our taxpayer dollars. So, I feel very good about being a candidate that represents the desires and what Texans want to see in a leader,” Hinojosa said.
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