Gina Hinojosa Talks With The San Antonio Observer, Says Frustration Over Affordability, Schools, Utilities And Data Centers Could Fuel A Democratic Breakthrough
Gina Hinojosa and I arrived at the Communications Workers of America building in downtown San Antonio at nearly the same time.
“Are you here for me?” she asked before realizing I was there to interview her.
Then came a quick hello, an easy smile and a firm handshake. Hinojosa was casual and personable as we walked inside to discuss her campaign — it was more like someone arriving for a conversation than a candidate in one of the most closely watched races in Texas.
The handshake, though, was memorable. Firm enough to suggest she would have little to no trouble sitting across a table in Austin and closing a deal.
But before the Democratic nominee for Texas governor can start making deals, she has to pull off something much harder: defeat Gov. Greg Abbott, a three-term Republican incumbent with one of the largest campaign war chests in the country and more than a decade of statewide political infrastructure behind him.
Yet, Hinojosa has not reflected anything close to that disparity.
Several recent polls have put Hinojosa within single digits of Abbott, with some showing a race separated by only a few points. Recent polling has also shown her performing strongly among Black voters, Latinos, younger voters and independents — the coalition she would need to make Texas competitive in November.
In an exclusive interview with the San Antonio Observer, Hinojosa argued that something bigger than campaign money is beginning to shape the race: Texans increasingly believe they are paying more and getting less.
“We gotta get what we pay for,” Hinojosa said. “We all pay big money for this government. It should be working for us.”
Turning Momentum Into Votes
Hinojosa recently took that argument to the national stage, telling MSNBC’s The Weekend that Democrats are seeing momentum even in traditionally Republican parts of Texas.
But enthusiasm still has to become turnout. Asked how she plans to convert tightening polls into votes, Hinojosa pointed to a statewide organizing structure of about 50 staffers across seven regions.
“We make sure that we are going deep, not just wide,” Hinojosa said. “It’s never been done like this before.”
She has also launched Team Texas Public Schools to mobilize educators, parents and school communities.
“Our schools are in crisis,” Hinojosa said. “This election is about saving Texas schools. I think it might be our last best chance.”
If elected, she said her “first order of business” would be replacing Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath with an educator and reassessing the state’s STAAR-based accountability system.
Also Read: 33 Bexar County Schools Receive F Ratings From TEA
“We don’t fear accountability,” Hinojosa said. “I’m a mom. I want accountability for my son’s education. We all do, but we need something that is fair.”
‘Get What We Pay For’: $1,500 Payment to Every Texas Household
But schools are only one part of Hinojosa’s pitch.
Across the country, Democratic voters have recently backed candidates from dramatically different ideological wings of the party. Moderates, progressives and democratic socialists have all found constituencies.
The common denominator may be less ideological than practical, voters simply want their daily lives and cost of living to improve.
Hinojosa knows that same frustration exists in Texas.
“Most people don’t believe that government can do anything to make their lives easier,” she said. “We need to build back that trust.”
Her most immediate proposal is a one-time $1,500 payment to every Texas household, funded by drawing down a portion of the state’s massive reserves.
Hinojosa said she has encountered Texans donating plasma simply to make ends meet. “That’s unacceptable,” she said. “It’s dehumanizing.”
“Texans will do whatever it takes to provide for their families, but it shouldn’t be so hard in the state that is a world economic powerhouse.”
Hinojosa calls the broader financial burden facing Texans the “Greg Abbott corruption tax,” arguing state government increasingly benefits wealthy and corporate interests while ordinary Texans absorb higher costs.
Beyond the $1,500 payment, she said she wants to freeze electricity rates, expand Medicaid to provide health coverage to more Texas children and crack down on insurance companies that deny care after collecting premiums for years.
Related: Gina Hinojosa Wants to Send Every Texas Household a $1,500
“For those of us with health insurance, we pay more, we get less,” she said.
Hinojosa Takes Aim at Abbott Over CPS Energy
That argument becomes especially relevant in San Antonio.
Abbott has recently targeted the structure of municipally owned utilities including CPS Energy and Austin Energy, calling them monopolies and arguing customers should have the ability to choose among competing private electricity providers.
The proposal could fundamentally alter an utility model San Antonio has relied on for generations.
Hinojosa explained it from the beginning.
She pointed to the financial aftermath of Winter Storm Uri and the billions in costs eventually passed down to Texas utility customers.
During the storm, Hinojosa said, gas suppliers were able to reap enormous profits as prices skyrocketed.
“Greg Abbott let them get away with it,” she said.
Hinojosa contrasted that with CPS Energy, which challenged some of the storm-related natural gas charges in court.
“Your electric company that is owned by the people of San Antonio said no,” she said. “And they went to court to say this is not right. This is price gouging. Our consumers should not have to pay this.”
CPS Energy ultimately lost its legal fight over some of those costs. Hinojosa said Abbott’s current push for competition is not primarily about protecting consumers.
Related: Governor Abbott Pushes to Open CPS Energy and Other Municipal Utilities to Private Competition
“What Greg Abbott is trying to do is he’s trying to protect himself from people being angry at him because of their electricity bills going up,” Hinojosa said.
“He’s trying to make sure that his friends can make more money off of our electricity.”
Then she put it more directly, “That’s all about enriching his donors.”
The Data Center Fight in Texas and Nationwide
Hinojosa makes a similar argument about another issue rapidly reshaping Texas politics, data centers. The massive facilities needed to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing are expanding across Texas, bringing investment while raising concerns over electricity demand, water consumption, infrastructure costs and tax incentives.
Hinojosa has made opposition to Texas’ largely unrestricted data-center expansion a centerpiece of her campaign.
“All these data centers are now in Texas because Greg Abbott gave them the richest tax breaks in the country,” she said.
She argues Texans will ultimately bear the cost of building the infrastructure necessary to power them. Hinojosa called for a moratorium and a special legislative session to establish statewide protections. Abbott has since ordered audits of new data-center projects seeking connections to the Texas power grid, but Hinojosa argues the action comes only after growing voter backlash.
Her campaign has also accused Abbott of accepting roughly $20 million from donors with major interests in data centers, a figure Hinojosa repeated during the interview.
“Again, another example of the Greg Abbott corruption tax,” she said. “Taxpayers are footing the bill for the building of these data centers. That’s how bad it is in Texas.”
Black Support Has to Become Black Turnout
For Democrats, however, dissatisfaction with rising costs and Trump-ally Abbott means little if their voters do not show up.
That is particularly true among Black Texans. A recent Texas Southern University statewide poll put numbers behind that coalition where Hinojosa led Abbott 74%–15% among Black likely voters, 55%–41% among Latino likely voters and 53%–30% among independents. But Texas Democrats have repeatedly learned that overwhelming support does not guarantee the turnout levels necessary to win statewide. Hence, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico pledge of $25 million toward Black voter outreach.
Asked how she plans to reach Black Texans, Hinojosa said the campaign made Black engagement a priority from its earliest days.
“We early on made sure to reach out to Black media, Black influencers,” Hinojosa said, adding that her campaign has also engaged Black pastors and community leaders.
The goal, she said, was to ensure “that our agenda reflected the interest and concerns of Black Texans.”
But she acknowledged that winning requires more.
“We have to do better in every group in order to win,” Hinojosa said. That includes rural voters, independents and Latinos — particularly after President Donald Trump’s gains with Latino Texans.
Hinojosa, who is from the Rio Grande Valley, said her campaign deliberately launched there. “What the polling is showing is that what we’re doing is working,” she said. “It is resonating.”
“People want change. They are tired of politics as usual. Nobody can afford it anymore.”
Can Hinojosa Actually Pull It Off?
Although Abbott still holds major advantages with incumbency, name recognition and decades of Republican infrastructure in Texas. He also has yet to agree to a debate with Hinojosa, limiting any opportunities for voters to see the two candidates side by side.
But recent elections have shown that traditional advantages do not always guarantee conventional outcomes. Democratic socialists have gained ground, while some Trump-backed candidates have lost primaries, reflecting an electorate increasingly willing to break from party expectations.
Hinojosa is betting that same frustration can produce something Texas Democrats have not achieved in a generation: a statewide victory.
“The American dream I grew up with — that if you work hard, you could have a good life — that’s out of reach for too many working Texans,” she said.
Whether Hinojosa can turn that frustration into a historic statewide victory remains to be seen. But if she does, she would become Texas’ first Latina governor and the first woman elected governor since Ann Richards in 1990 — a breakthrough that would make this election historic well beyond party politics.
For the transcript of the San Antonio Observer and Gina Hinojosa interview, click here.
Full Interview Transcript: Gina Hinojosa With The San Antonio Observer
Editor’s Note: The opening question begins slightly after the start of the recorded interview. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, grammar and readability while preserving the substance of the conversation.
San Antonio Observer: Well, first off, we’ve been following your campaign, and we know that there is a lot of momentum behind you. It’s a dead heat, and you were recently on MSNBC’s The Weekend talking about that.
The biggest thing, especially outside of your race and James Talarico’s race, is: How do you turn that support into turnout in November? We’re coming toward the end now. What’s the plan to turn that momentum into turnout?
Hinojosa: So we have strong volunteer efforts. We have staff now — 50 staff members for my campaign across the whole state.
We divided the state up into seven regions, and we make sure that we are going deep, not just wide. It’s never been done like this before.
Usually, it’s one headquarters and staff out in the field. We’re not doing it that way. Out of respect for the diversity and size of this state, we have seven regions of the state where we have full campaign teams.
We launched Team Texas Public Schools, which is our turnout effort for volunteers to get their school communities to vote in November — really, to vote to save Texas schools.
Our schools are in crisis. We have over 170 schools shutting down. We have teachers who have left in droves. We have the highest rate of teachers leaving the profession that we’ve ever had in Texas.
We have over 150 school districts operating four days a week because they cannot afford to operate five days a week.
Schools are in crisis, and Texas public schools are part of who we are. It’s part of our identity. It is Friday night lights. It is the largest employer in many of our counties.
And so this election is about saving Texas schools. I think it might be our last best chance.
TeamTexasPublicSchools.com is the effort to get out the vote there. And for people who want to volunteer for our campaign and for whom schools are not their top issue, but they care about something else, they can go to GinaForTexas.com.
San Antonio Observer: Well, speaking of schools, Bexar County recently had 33 schools graded an F by the Texas Education Agency.
For the parents and the people going before their school boards, in layman’s terms, should you be elected, what are the first few things you would do? Because, as you mentioned, there is a lot happening in education.
Hinojosa: So my first order of business will be to fire Mike Morath, who’s the Texas Education Agency commissioner.
We need to have an educator in that position. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath is a tech entrepreneur. It’s just not the right fit.
And so we need a new commissioner. We need to put our schools back on track.
The STAAR test is what our accountability system relies upon. We know it’s deeply flawed. We know that, at this point, they’re using AI to grade written answers to tests, and we know that when school districts ask for a rescore, it comes out all different.
So nobody trusts the STAAR test. I don’t trust the STAAR test. It is rigged.
The agency — Governor Abbott’s state agency — waits until the kids take the test, then looks at the results and then decides what grade they want to give it.
We need a fair assessment of our kids and their achievement.
We need real accountability. We need an objective, outside look into our schools to see how our kids are performing compared to other states.
We don’t fear accountability. I’m a mom. I want accountability for my son’s education. We all do. But we need something that is fair and that is not based on a flawed STAAR test.
San Antonio Observer: So, speaking of change, affordability has been one of the biggest issues in this race.
For Democratic voters — and even moderates, independents and Republicans — they’re looking for their daily lives to change. They’re looking for somebody to get past the identity politics and social issues and go back to the daily issues.
What is your vision in terms of affordability and everyday life for Texans?
Hinojosa: Most people don’t believe that government can do anything to make their lives easier.
I don’t blame them. I don’t trust government. So we need to build back that trust.
It is a matter of: We’ve got to get what we pay for. We all pay big money for this government. It should be working for us.
We have to start by — and my plan is — sending every Texas household $1,500.
That is money that is being hoarded in Austin right now. We’ve never had so much money. We have $27 billion.
I would take it back down to historic levels, $10 billion, and send a check to every Texas household because right now Texas families are struggling like I’ve never seen before.
I keep running across Texans who are giving plasma to get money to pay their bills. As a second job, they give blood. They donate blood.
That’s unacceptable. It’s dehumanizing. People shouldn’t have to do that.
They do it because Texans will do whatever it takes to provide for their families. But it shouldn’t be so hard in a state that is a world economic powerhouse, and the people of Texas built that power.
I’m running to take it back.
We start with $1,500. That is a one-time check to help stabilize and to help show government can do something.
Secondly — and, by the way, I call it the Greg Abbott corruption tax — because what I see in the Texas House is that we’re paying more into a system working against us.
It is working for the moneyed interests. There are more and more contracts. Greg Abbott’s given a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to his donors.
That’s corruption, plain and simple.
So that’s what that’s about. But we also have to fix the system.
We have to freeze electricity rates and make sure corporations are paying their fair share when it comes to energy.
Right now, they are not, and you and I are subsidizing them. That shouldn’t happen.
We need to also make sure that every Texas child has health care. We have the most kids in the whole country with no health insurance, and that’s unacceptable.
So we ensure every Texas child has quality health care by expanding Medicaid.
Those are dollars you and I have already paid into the federal system. They’re being used in California to pay for health insurance for children in California. We take that money back for our own kids.
And for those of us with health insurance, we pay more and get less.
We need to rein in those health insurance companies that are charging us more but making it harder to see the doctors, get the medication we need and get the procedures we need.
I’ve come across people who, for instance, have been paying insurance for years, and now they have cancer and they can’t get the insurance companies to pay for their chemo treatments.
It’s outrageous, and it should be illegal.
So my plan is to rein in those bad-faith denials, rein in the health insurance companies so that we get what we pay for.
San Antonio Observer: And speaking of health care, what about the subsidies people recently lost under Obamacare? Are you able to assist with any of that in terms of health care?
Hinojosa: Expanding Medicaid will help us fill that gap that is now bigger after what happened.
San Antonio Observer: Moving on to a big topic of data centers, energy, and Abbott’s donors, there’s a lot going on lately.
And even here in San Antonio — and in Austin — you have Austin Energy and CPS Energy. Abbott has called those municipally owned utilities monopolies and argued they need more competition.
What do you think about that? And more broadly, what about data centers? Should you be elected, how do you plan to address those concerns considering how prevalent they’re becoming across Texas?
Hinojosa: So, in San Antonio, what has happened is during Winter Storm Uri — and this happened actually to all of us — gas companies withheld the gas that the grid needed to operate during that freeze until they could make billions in record profits.
Greg Abbott let them get away with it, and we are all now paying at least $40 or more a month on our electricity bill.
Greg Abbott received a million-dollar campaign contribution from one of those gas company CEOs after he let that happen.
Again, another example of the Greg Abbott corruption tax.
Your electric company, which is owned by the people of San Antonio, said no.
And they went to court to say, “This is not right. This is price gouging. We shouldn’t have to pay this. Our consumers should not have to pay this.”
Well, they lost in court. So now what is going to happen is that the people in San Antonio are going to have to foot that bill too.
So you’re about to see your electricity prices skyrocket.
That’s terrible. That is terrible, what is happening. People cannot afford to pay more.
What Greg Abbott is trying to do is protect himself from people being angry at him because of their electricity bills going up, and he’s trying to make sure that his friends can make more money off of our electricity.
Look, that’s all about enriching his donors. That’s all that guarantees.
And when it comes to data centers, it’s a similar tune, right?
We know that all these data centers are now in Texas because Greg Abbott gave them the richest tax breaks in the country.
And we know that our electricity bills will go up at least $600 a year to pay for all that infrastructure.
We know there are no rules when it comes to data centers, and that needs to stop.
I’ve called on the governor to call a special session, have a moratorium and have a special session that begins today so that we can come and pass laws to protect Texans.
Greg Abbott refuses to do it.
He’s received $20 million from these data center interests.
And, again, another example of the Greg Abbott corruption tax.
By the way, you and I and taxpayers are footing the bill for the building of these data centers.
That’s how bad it is in Texas. That is the corrupt reality under Governor Abbott.
San Antonio Observer: And so now that you’re in your final stretch and you have a few months left, first off, as a Black media outlet, I want to ask about Black voters.
James Talarico pledged $25 million toward Black voter outreach. We all know your war chest isn’t as large as Abbott’s.
So what is your plan not only for Black voters and other minority communities, but also for undecided voters who could help you make up those last few points?
Hinojosa: Well, look, we need to make sure we’re outreaching to minority groups and, just like you said, all groups, right?
Early on, we made sure to reach out to Black media, Black influencers when we first launched this campaign, and also Black pastors and Black leaders, making sure that our agenda reflected the interests and concerns of Black Texans.
I’m proud that we’ve been mindful of that from the very beginning, and I am extremely humbled that people have welcomed me and given me their input so that we can build an agenda that reflects everybody’s desires.
But we have to do better in every group in order to win.
To your point, we have to do better in rural Texas. We have to do better with independents. We have to do better with Latinos.
We know that Trump won Latinos last year, and I’m from the Rio Grande Valley. We launched in the Rio Grande Valley.
What the polling is showing is that what we’re doing is working. It is resonating.
People want change. They are tired of politics as usual. Nobody can afford it anymore.
And so we have an opportunity, and I am communicating a vision for Texas where we secure the American dream.
The American dream I grew up with — that if you work hard, you could have a good life — that’s out of reach for too many working Texans.
There’s no reason that happens except that, again, the government is working against us, not for us.
We need to save Texas schools so we can have the gateway, the opportunity for the American dream, and put money in your pocket.
And that is my plan to secure the American dream in Texas.
And what we’re seeing across the state is Texans are ready for it.
San Antonio Observer: Any last words?
Hinojosa: Look, we just need everybody doing everything they can in this election.
This is maybe our last best chance to really make gains for ourselves and our families.
We deserve better. We know. We’re Texans. We deserve the best, right?
So let’s make that happen.
We can only make that happen if we show up to vote, if we tell all our friends, and we do everything in our power to take back Texas.
San Antonio Observer: Thank you so much.
Hinojosa: Thank you.
