Democrat Hinojosa Defeats Texas Gov. Abbott

In a stunning win, Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Texas) defeated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas.

Hinojosa becomes the first Democrat to win the governor’s race in more than 30 years. Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards’s term ended in 1995.

​Polls predicted a tight race, with RealClear Polling averages in late October showing Abbott with a narrow 3.4-point lead over Hinojosa.

On Tuesday in Collin County outside of Dallas, turnout was heavy in the town of Wylie, with a line stretching out the door at 10:30 a.m. local time at one polling location. President Donald Trump won the county with 54 percent in 2024, while Vice President Kamala Harris took nearly 43 percent.

Two voters there, Anthony Peschke and Charles Allen, told The Epoch Times they voted for Abbott. However, Allen said he split his vote, choosing Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the U.S. Senate race.

In deep-red Rockwall County, where people stood in a long line before the polls opened Tuesday, Democrats were part of the turnout.

Cerina Caballero-Scott told The Epoch Times education was important to her. She blamed Abbott for changing special education guidelines in schools. Children with two disabilities, such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, must now take special education classes, which isolates them, she said.

In Dallas County, a traditionally Democratic stronghold, J.Z. Rojas, 20, voted for Democrats due to the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“My Hispanic people mean a lot to me,” she told The Epoch Times. “I think it’s wrong to deport people. A lot of people are mad.”

Abbott campaigned on keeping the Texas–Mexico border secure after hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants flooded into the state during the Biden administration.

Abbott also promised to lower property taxes, continue economic growth, and stop Sharia law. During his tenure, he welcomed trillionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla headquarters to Texas in 2021, followed by SpaceX in 2024.

​“As long as I’m governor, there’s going to be massive economic opportunity in this state because Texas is the magnet now for innovation,” Abbott told The Epoch Times in October.

During the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Abbott pledged to prohibit sharia.

“We are not waiting on Washington, D.C. We will fully ban sharia law in Texas,” he said.

Hinojosa campaigned on giving Texans a $1,500 tax refund from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, a moratorium on data centers, and abolishing school choice—one of Abbott’s key priorities from the last Texas legislative session.

“My plan is to secure the American dream,” she told rallygoers in Fort Worth at the end of October.

Hinojosa told supporters that the dream is out of reach for too many working Texans, promising to put money back into their pockets with the one-time $1,500 payment. She blamed school vouchers for siphoning students away from public schools, which rely on per-pupil funding.

​Hinojosa quickly seized on public sentiment against data centers, saying at the rally that the centers should pay their fair share of electricity costs, a concern for many. Abbott shifted from actively promoting Texas as an AI data center hub to imposing significant restrictions in 2026 as the issue became a political hot potato.

Jeff Burton, a founding partner at Maven Advocacy Partners in Austin and longtime GOP strategist, said Abbott’s previous support for data centers likely hurt him.

​Many rural voters, who tend to vote Republican, came out against data centers.

​“Greg Abbott, just like Josh Shapiro and other governors, [was] promoting data centers for so long that I think that’s really the issue with the grassroots and with some of the voters in Texas as to why these polls are so close,” Burton said.

​Like Abbott, Hinojosa also campaigned on lowering property taxes. Abbott wanted to use sales taxes to eliminate school-district property taxes on homes, while Hinojosa wanted corporations to pay through reduced tax breaks. She accused Abbott of hoarding a surplus in the fund while prioritizing corporate tax breaks and incentives.

​Abbott claimed his opponent supported a state income tax—something she denied. However, in 2019 she voted no on House Joint Resolution 38, which proposed a constitutional amendment strengthening the ban on a state income tax—which Abbott claimed was proof of her position.

​Hinojosa, like other Democrats, bristled at Musk’s support of Republican policies and donations to GOP campaigns.

He gave $5 million directly to Abbott’s campaign in September, according to a recent financial report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. Federal Election Commission records show Musk contributed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund PAC, which has helped Attorney General Ken Paxton in his U.S. Senate race.