At so many Texas events, one of the songs you’ll hear—you can’t escape, actually—is “The Eyes of Texas.” Heck! It’s the official spirit song for the state’s flagship university, the University of Texas or ‘UT-Austin’ as Texans call it.
But the song has turned into a metaphor for one ‘UT-Austin’ alum who just might become the state government’s first Latina CEO. Democratic state representative Gina Hinojosa is in a neck-and-neck battle with three-term Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
National polls show Hinojosa is running even with Abbott, even slightly ahead in a few polls in a race that not only ‘the eyes of Texas’ are watching, but the entire country is, as well.
Hinojosa recently visited Denver and was hosted by former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar. The visit, a fundraiser, is all part of the effort to blunt the cash advantage enjoyed by Abbott who, in a number of official filings, is sitting on as much as $100 million. The trip was also a chance to introduce herself to an audience that might only get the chance to see her on television, where the veteran Texas state legislator is getting plenty of ‘face time.’
Her visit, a whirlwind—her flight to Denver was delayed—made it difficult to spend the time she had intended to spend. But the woman ‘who would be governor,’ nonetheless made a strong impression among both political activists as well as the simply politically curious.
“Obviously she is a very strong, smart woman,” said Los Angeles expatriate and former Englewood police officer Leticia Castillo who lent a hand at the fundraiser. “(She’s) a great role model for Latina women. Hopefully she will inspire other Latina women to take on bigger roles in the government. She was impressive.”
As Hinojosa has traveled, but especially among Texas Democrats tired of what is a Republican chokehold on the state, she has fought off the political headwinds and found herself riding a current of momentum.
“She is showing Texas that money alone cannot anymore buy the future of a state ready for a change,” said Texas political activist Kate Vale, whose family has been involved in state politics for decades. “Gina Hinojosa has accomplished something remarkable.” Vale says overcoming a “10-to-1” cash advantage with only grassroots energy to “make a 12-year incumbent fight for his political life,” is history in the making.
Taking advantage of ‘earned media,’ appearances that cost no money but provide potentially valuable opportunities to pitch her candidacy, Hinojosa was recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” There, she did not waste the chance to make her argument on term limits, certainly term-limiting Abbott who, if he wins, will have served in office for sixteen years.
“People want change,” Hinojosa told MTP’s Kristen Welker. It’s a message that has captured center stage, not only in Texas, but nationally. It also doesn’t hurt to remind voters about ‘legacy’ politicians when food and fuel, gasoline and diesel, are spiking. And then, there’s a war no one counted on. All are impacting ‘kitchen table’ politics.
“People are very angry about the economy,” Hinojosa said, repeating a line that is central in nearly every campaign stop she makes. “The economy is what it is, (and) Greg Abbott’s record is what it is.”
Hinojosa’s message, one she has carried across Texas, to national television audiences and to supporters who gathered recently in Denver echoes James Carville’s iconic, “It’s the economy, stupid,” that worked successfully for Bill Clinton a generation before.
Texans, she said, have the most uninsured people and the most uninsured children in the country. Narrowing her attack, Hinojosa also added, “people cannot afford to pay their bills.” It’s a lament that also ripples well beyond the Lone Star State.
Whatever message Hinojosa is sharing, it appears it’s also reaching Abbott. While he is as dependable as anyone when there’s a face-time opportunity to be seen with Trump, he recently had a ‘previous commitment’ when Trump visited San Antonio. It was his third Texas visit in a matter of weeks.
Hinojosa has the chance to become Texas’s first Democratic Governor since Anne Richards held the office in 1995. Richards was a one-term governor. She was unseated by former President George W. Bush who served until resigning to assume the presidency. Abbott has served in office since 2015.
That a woman—a Latina—would even be threatening Texas’ political establishment only weeks before the election is as shocking to Republicans as it is satisfying to Democrats. Abbott, after all, has won three consecutive races, each by double digits!
But polls, in Texas and nationwide, show a race to the wire. Younger voters along with Latino and African-Americans are tilting heavily toward Hinojosa, women, too.
Polls show nearly two thirds of voters under age 30 are in the Hinojosa category; 58 percent in ages 30-55 are, as well. But Abbott captures more than 60 percent of voters age 60 and older by a 61-36 margin.
Besides the economy—no small thing—something else moving Texas voters are Trump’s immigration policies. And Hinojosa has made sure to include her views on ICE and its tactics at nearly every stop.
“I want a secure border,” she told her MTP audience. “But what is happening with ICE raids is making us less secure, not more.” ICE, she said, has implemented a policy of “shooting first and asking questions later.”
In Houston, an immigrant home builder was fatally shot by ICE on his way to work last July. On September 20th, ICE shot 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan man who had a valid work permit who legally entered the country. He remains in ICE detention.
The 53-year-old Hinojosa was born in the Texas border town of Brownsville. She graduated from the University of Texas-Austin and earned her law degree from George Washington University Law School. Besides serving in the Texas legislature, where she sits next to another high-profile Democrat shaking the political grounds in Texas and nationally, James Talarico, Hinojosa practices civil rights and labor law. Prior to the legislature, she also served as a board member of the Austin Independent School District Board.
Hinojosa is married and is the mother of two sons.
