Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott in Texas, CNN projected, as a sweeping blue wave reshaped the state during the midterm elections.
Hinojosa, 52, becomes the first Democrat to win the Texas governor’s race since Ann Richards captured the office in 1990.
The contest proved far more competitive than expected for Abbott, who was first elected governor 12 years ago when Texas had been reliably Republican for decades.
Abbott appeared to suffer in the polls alongside fellow Republican Ken Paxton, the attorney general who was running for the Senate against young Democratic state Representative James Talarico. Talarico was projected to win his Senate race just minutes before Hinojosa’s victory was called.
Former President Donald Trump placed the responsibility for Abbott’s defeat squarely on the governor in a post on his Truth Social account.
He wrote: ‘If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost. He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!’
By late last week, Abbott held only a three-point advantage over Hinojosa, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. The same group of surveys showed Talarico with a narrow lead in his Senate contest.
The Texas governor’s race also attracted a flood of campaign spending during its final weeks. Abbott raised $26 million between September 25 and October 24, The Texas Tribune reported.
Democratic nominee for Texas governor, state Representative Gina Hinojosa speaks at a campaign rally in Dallas, Texas on Thursday. Polling showed her in spitting distance of unseating incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Governor Greg Abbott talks to reporters after casting his ballot during the first day of early voting in Del Valle, Texas
Hinojosa generally trailed Talarico by several points, even as he defeated Paxton to turn Texas’ junior Senate seat blue. Still, she held on and defeated Trump-backed Abbott in the governor’s race.
Rather than allowing Abbott’s attacks over culture-war issues to define the campaign, Hinojosa shifted the focus toward personal freedoms. One central issue was her opposition to Flock cameras.
Concerns about the cameras and the lack of regulations governing them have spread across party lines. In Texas, Hinojosa successfully turned that unease into a central campaign issue.
In campaign advertisements and interviews, Hinojosa blamed Abbott for the spread of Flock cameras, citing state funding and the Texas Department of Public Safety’s use of the technology as evidence of his influence.
‘It’s the governor’s agencies that answer to him, who are sending out this money and paying for these Flock cameras across the state,’ Hinojosa said in a September interview with the Tribune prior to Flock’s extensions.
Hinojosa, who was first elected to the Texas House a decade ago and represents part of liberal Austin, also answered the culture-war attacks in a campaign advertisement.
‘They want to run an entire campaign saying I’m too woke. I plan to spend an entire campaign focused on the fact that working people are too broke,’ Hinojosa said in a spot released in September.
‘I’m Gina Hinojosa. My pronouns are mom, Texan and soon-to-be governor,’ she said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott appears at a Texas NCAA college football game ahead of Election Day
A neon sign shows the face of Democratic candidate for Texas governor, state Representative Gina Hinojosa, at Voto Latino’s ‘Ready, Go, Vote,’ campaign rally in Weslaco, Texas, last week
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She also called out Abbott for refusing to debate her.
The Democrat has also criticized Abbott over his support for school vouchers, saying it impacts rural Texas public schools.
Hinojosa’s rise also forced Abbott to pivot on his previous support for data centers.
Abbott called for an audit on proposed data center projects and a pause on connecting them to the state’s electric grid.
Ahead of Election Day, Hinojosa went to court in her capacity as a state legislator in an effort to unredact communications between Abbott and Elon Musk, whose businesses, including SpaceX, are based in the state.
Since backing Trump in the 2024 election and his stint at the top of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has become a boogeyman for Democrats.
‘Greg Abbott is embarrassed that those emails are going to show that he sold us out,’ Hinojosa said on the campaign trail.
Trump has name-dropped Abbott during his recent campaign stops in Texas, but has mainly focused on Paxton’s race, where the prospects looked more dire.
Democratic candidate for Texas governor, state Representative Gina Hinojosa, speaks at Voto Latino’s ‘Ready, Go, Vote,’ campaign rally in Weslaco, Texas, last week
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What does Gina Hinojosa’s shocking win mean for the future of Texas politics and its core values?
Ahead of election day, Abbott traveled to all corners of Texas in an effort to boost turnout.
The tour was entitled ‘Let’s Roll,’ a clever play on the fact that the governor has used a wheelchair since he was in an accident in the 1980s.
His campaign also handed out ‘Governor Hot Wheels’ bumper stickers after Democratic Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett gave him that nickname, which she said was not referring to his disability.
On the trail, Abbott touted an ‘affordability agenda,’ promising policies would bring down the cost of living by more than $4,000 annually per Texas family.
But he also beat up Hinojosa on social issues.
‘She’s promoting young children changing their sex,’ he said at a campaign stop in Beaumont in mid-October. ‘That’s crazy.’
‘She even wanted to allow our public schools to transition the sex of our children behind their parents’ backs,’ he continued.
More recently, Abbott claimed that children under the Democrats were being ‘transgendered’ at school.