Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeats Texas Governor Greg Abbott in stunning upset | Texas

In a seismic political upheaval that would have seemed improbable only weeks ago, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, breaking the Republican hold on Texas’ highest and most powerful executive office.

Hinojosa’s historic victory — she will be the state’s first-ever Latino governor — ended Abbott’s bid for an unprecedented fourth term and gave Democrats their most significant victory in the state in a generation.

“We shocked the world tonight,” Hinojosa told a crowd of cheering supporters after the race was called. “We showed that anything is possible.”

It’s an extraordinary reversal of fortune for Democrats in the Lone Star State, one that has long frustrated the party’s hopes for a political comeback. No Democrat has won the Texas governor’s seat since 1990, when voters elected Ann Richards.

Democrat James Talarico was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton will be replaced by Democrat Nathan Johnson.

But since then, Democrats have struggled to convert a growing urban population and changing demographics into statewide victories. Even high-profile challenges, notably from Beto O’Rourke who sought to unseat Abbott in 2022, ended in defeat.

Hinojosa, a five-term state representative from Austin, entered the gubernatorial race without much fanfare after other prominent Democrats declined to run against Abbott, a staunch Donald Trump ally with a formidable fundraising operation and a history of cozying up to his Democratic rivals.

At first, Hinojosa’s candidacy was considered the longest of the attempts, overshadowed by Talarico’s campaign, which attracted much more national attention and enthusiasm. But Hinojosa has gradually worked his way into the race, with some polls showing the race neck and neck.

“It never bothered me that they doubted me. It bothered me that they doubted us,” Hinojosa said in his victory speech. “Hundreds and millions of attack ads, taken down again and again. But Texas, my faith in you has never wavered.”

She said Abbott called her to congratulate her and made her a “generous offer” to help her with the transition. “Now I stand before you, humbled and grateful, and in awe of the incredible grace and power of God and Texas,” she added.

In his election night speech, Abbott announced to his supporters that he had conceded, prompting a brief moment of stunned silence from the crowd. “You all helped me be your governor for 12 years – thank you very much,” he said, adding that he was proud to have made Texas the “home of business.”

“Please know that we are leaving Texas in much better shape than it has ever been.”

A former Austin school board president, Hinojosa said public education was the issue that drew her to the race, but her campaign has broadened to focus on issues of affordability and her opposition to the expansion of large-scale data centers. Under Abbott, Texas has become one of the nation’s leading states for data center construction.

Abbott, who retained a significant financial advantage, sought to portray Hinojosa as too “woke” for Texas, attacking her in Trumpian terms as “gender-bending Hinojosa.”

Hinojosa countered culture war attacks against her with an ad declaring her pronouns: “Mom, Texan and soon to be governor.”

She sought to capitalize on growing frustration with Trump’s presidency, courting traditionally Republican constituencies with a populist economic message.

Hinojosa grew up along the U.S.-Mexico border. His mother was an immigrant from Mexico, and his father served for several years as chairman of the state Democratic Party. His sister, Xochitl Hinojosa, is a longtime Democratic activist who previously served as a Justice Department spokesperson.

Abbott has been a staunch conservative throughout his three terms leading the nation’s second-most populous state. In 2021, he enacted one of the most extreme abortion bans in the United States and supported regulations preventing providers from prescribing abortion-inducing medications more than seven weeks into the pregnancy. He also called the largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights group in the United States a “terrorist organization” and fought aggressively to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.

During Trump’s second term, he was a vocal supporter of the president’s anti-immigration agenda, threatening to defund several Texas cities in an effort to force their police departments to support enforcement of federal immigration laws. Minnesota’s attorney general also sued the Texas governor earlier this year after the governor refused to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent facing criminal charges.

Trump responded to the wave of poor results Tuesday evening with a social media post on his Truth Social platform to deflect blame.

“I wasn’t on the ballot and if I was we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” said the president, who had repeatedly asked his supporters to “pretend I was on the list.”

The president then directly attacked Abbott, saying that if he had not “become a RINO (Republican in name only) in the last six months of his political life, he would not have lost.” In the latter part of the campaign, Abbott had kept his distance from Trump, who held several rallies in the state.

“He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!” Trump added, months after endorsing him as an “outstanding governor and man.”