Gina Hinojosa gains ground in Texas governor’s race as Democratic leaders push for more campaign funding

When Republican Greg Abbott was re-elected governor of Texas in 2022, his margin over opponent Beto O’Rourke was nearly 11 percentage points. Less than a month before the midterm elections, however, polls no longer show him with a comfortable lead. Survey averages put Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa just over two points behind and rapidly closing the gap, raising alarm among Democrats over the need to boost campaign funding in the final stretch.

“There’s been not enough attention on her race,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, told The New York Times on Tuesday, adding he might contribute $1 million to support her campaign. He had already donated $200,000 at the outset of her run.

Pritzker’s appeal is not the first to highlight the limited support Hinojosa’s campaign has received from the Democratic Party, which until recently had written her off the race. A month ago, more than two dozen Latino Democratic leaders — including Texas representatives Sylvia García, Veronica Escobar and Joaquin Castro — sent a letter to the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) asking it to make a “serious investment” of $10 million in Hinojosa’s campaign. They warned that the contest was tightening.

“Hinojosa would be the first Latino ever elected as Governor of Texas,” reads the letter, first reported by Axios and uploaded on DocumentCloud. “No other candidate in recent history has come this close to winning the governor’s mansion in Texas [...] but unfortunately she has done so without real investment from DGA. That must change.”

The daughter of a prominent Texas Democrat, Hinojosa was born and raised in border communities in the Rio Grande Valley. A lawyer by training, she says on her campaign website that she entered politics by accident, after fighting to keep her son’s school from being closed when the state threatened to cut its funding. She won that battle and, in 2015, became president of the Austin school district’s parent advisory board. A year later, she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, a position she has held ever since.

Running under the slogan “Fight Back,” Hinojosa has campaigned on education issues that resonate with parents across the state. Above all, however, she has pledged to take on what she describes as the corruption fostered by the Abbott administration, as well as the rapid expansion of data centers in Texas. She has also promised to lower property taxes and reduce the cost of living, public services and healthcare.

More funding

An influx of campaign cash could influence the outcome in favor of the Democratic state lawmaker. With 27 days to go before the midterm elections, Hinojosa has just over $4 million on hand, according to the campaign finance report filed on October 5 with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term as governor, began his reelection campaign with more than $100 million and, according to campaign finance filings, still has more than $17 million at his disposal.

Hinojosa has sought to turn that financial disadvantage into a political argument, contrasting her campaign’s funding base with Abbott’s. She says that while the governor’s effort has been bankrolled by billionaire donors, hers has been built on support from “working Texans.” In a statement released on October 5, her campaign said its latest filing showed 248,000 contributions from more than 136,000 unique donors, with 74% of contributors giving to her campaign for the first time.

According to NBC News, Latino leaders, including members of Congress, met with the DGA on Wednesday amid growing tension over which races the group should prioritize. One of the main topics, three sources told the network, was Hinojosa’s campaign. This time, they were pushing for a $3 million investment.

The possibility of defeat

When it comes to Texas races, some political analysts have said the race will be decided when the polls close.

Abbott has never lost a gubernatorial election. Since first winning the office in 2014, he has defeated every Democrat who has challenged him. But the gap between the Republican governor and his opponents has narrowed with each election cycle, and the forecasts have never been this close.

In 2014, Abbott won the governorship for the first time, defeating state senator Wendy Davis with 59.3% of the vote to her 38.9%. Four years later, in the 2018 midterms, he beat former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez by 55.8% to 42.5%. In 2022, former congressman Beto O’Rourke trimmed Abbott’s margin slightly, though not by as much as many observers had anticipated. The Republican secured reelection with 54.8% of the vote, compared with 43.8% for O’Rourke.

Abbott debated each of his previous challengers. This time, however, his campaign has not publicly agreed to a face-to-face debate with Hinojosa, despite repeated calls from the Democratic candidate for the two to meet on stage.

In 2026, the political and economic climate is different. While Abbott remains one of the Republican Party’s most established figures in Texas, analysts say U.S. President Donald Trump’s influence on the campaign may be dragging down candidates from his own party.

Jerónimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston, says elections in Texas are becoming increasingly competitive for candidates of both parties and that voters are now testing the economic promises Trump made during his 2024 campaign. “There is a disconnect between the promise and the reality, and that is making this election even more competitive,” he says.

Abbott has not publicly commented on Trump’s dominant presence on the campaign trail, but he did choose not to accompany the president during his campaign stop in San Antonio on Wednesday, citing previously scheduled events elsewhere in the state. Democrats argued that the decision reflected growing concern within the governor’s campaign as an unexpectedly competitive race enters its final stretch.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition