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What This Democrat’s Surge in Texas Says About the Midterms

Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”
Duration
43m
Broadcast on
24 Oct 2026
Audio Format
other

Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”

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We are facing almost existential crisis in this country because tech giants are having their way with us. I'm Zuzu Garcia Navarro and today I'm interviewing Democratic candidate for Texas Governor Gina Inahosa. I'm Gina Inahosa. My pronouns are mom, Texan, and soon-to-be governor. Inahosa, who is a state representative and Greg Abbott, the Republican incumbent, appear to be in a dead heat. If she wins, she'd be the first Latino person to ever hold the office and the first Democrat since the 1990s. If she loses, Abbott will head back for a historic fourth term. All eyes are on Texas during these midterms because Democrat James Tallarico and Republican Ken Paxton's race could determine control of the Senate. But Democrats have tried and failed for years to gain a foothold in Texas. So what makes Inahosa think she can break the losing streak and what is her argument to voters who may have supported Abbott in the past? We should say we reached out to Governor Abbott, who declined our request for an interview. Here's my conversation with Representative Gina Inahosa. But first a quick message. If you're not a subscriber, we have some news for you. You can now explore the times for free without a paywall during your first month in the New York Times app. Just download the app and we hope you enjoy it. Now on to the interview.
Welcome Gina Inahosa to the interview. It's so great to have you. Thank you, Lulu. First day of early vote here in Texas. I know. I saw you voted this morning. How was it? Was it busy, enthusiastic? What was the vibe? It, yes. All of the above, we've hit several spots already here in central Texas. And in fact, we just came from San Marcos, where we went to Texas State. And there were so many students who were excited about voting. I've heard great stories. So yeah, people are pumped. Turnouts high across the state. I read that before you decided to run for governor, you were thinking of running for state comptroller, which is a slightly less visible role in the state. What was it like to see your name on the ballot for governor? It's almost surreal. I never planned to do this. I never planned to run for anything. Really? I just tried to mind my own business, Lulu. And somehow I ended up running for governor. I started really on this path, on this journey, when I ran for school board, because they tried to shut down my son's school. My son, Mateo, was in kindergarten. And he was at the most perfect school by our home. And when I learned they wanted to shut it down, I just got mad. And I ran for the school board. And I won. And it was part of a citywide community effort to save our schools. And we did. But then I understood that the financial pressures to shut down our neighborhood schools were coming from the state. The state takes more and more of our money and doesn't give it back to our schools. And so I ran for the Texas House. And that's where I've been for 10 years. And my primary fight has been for public schools. Originally, you're right. I was going to run for comptroller because that's where the voucher program was going to be administered. School vouchers that take money from our public schools to give to private schools. And I thought, well, I'll fight vouchers at the comptroller's office. But nobody wanted to run against Greg Abbott. And I just decided we had to. We had to try. You know, I was told by a Texas reporter that in some ways you ran for governor a position last held by your party in 1995 by another woman and Richards as a sort of sacrificial lamb because it was the longest of long shots. You had no real chance, but basically some Democrat had to do it. And so it might as well be you. Did you see it that way too when you did it? No, Lulu, I wouldn't have given up a year of my life away from my family to be on the road all across the state to be a sacrificial lamb. No, I'm running to win. It is not an easy endeavor to do this. And it took everything out of me from this last year. You know, what strikes me when you say you didn't run as a sacrificial lamb is that the Democratic party didn't seem to think that you could get as, you know, as close as you've gotten and that you could win. I mean, your campaign hasn't been supported by national Democratic leadership until recently. You've been vastly outspent by the Abbott campaign, but you know, cut to today. And the polls suggest that you and Abbott are sort of neck and neck. And I am just sort of wondering, what do you think changed?

Transcription truncated.

Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”