Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa, are both campaigning hard in Bexar County in the final stretch of a tougher-than-expected Texas governor’s race.
Abbott, 68, has been reelected twice by wide margins since claiming the role in 2014.
He more often spends the final stretch of an election rallying support for down-ballot Republicans, but speaking to a crowd of roughly 200 supporters at Texas Pride BBQ in Adkins on Wednesday, he was focused on his own race, which polls show him leading slightly or within the margin of error.
Abbott warned that Hinojosa would raise taxes and take Texas’ border security back to the Biden era if she claimed the state’s top leadership role, mentioning the state lawmaker by name no fewer than six times in his prepared remarks.
“Everybody here, you know how crazy [James] Talarico is, right?” Abbott said, referring to Democrats’ much better-known U.S. Senate candidate. “… What will surprise you is this: my opponent, Gina Hinojosa, is to the far radical left of Talarico.”
It’s quite the turn of events in a race that bigger-name Democrats took a pass on last year.
Most believe that a midterm election of a Republican’s presidency offers their party’s best chance at flipping a statewide office in Texas, yet when Democrats’ biggest names huddled to line up their nominees for a statewide ticket, none jumped at challenging the formidable Abbott.
Outside the Las Palmas Library on the first day of early voting, Hinojosa’s mom, Crisanta Guerra Lozano, said her daughter was fed up with corruption she’d observed in the conservative-dominated Texas Legislature, where GOP megadonors pushed big changes to the state’s public education system.
“She just wanted someone to run for the governor’s position because, as a state representative, she could see all the things that [Abbott] was doing — the no-bid contracts and the way his donors were profiting,” Guerra Lozano said.
Hinojosa, 52, called all of the likely contenders — Beto O’Rourke, former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, and even former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg — before launching her campaign last year.
“They all said no,” said Guerra Lozano. “So she told me, ‘Well I just couldn’t let Abbott run unopposed.'”
Hinojosa’s focus on corruption
Hinojosa is an attorney who grew up around politics from a young age.
She was born in Brownsville, lived in D.C. while her parents were in law school, sat on her father’s shoulders at Cesar Chavez marches when she was a girl, and later watched her dad run for judge and Texas Democratic Party chair.
Despite that early exposure, Hinojosa’s retail political skills were relatively untested before this race, and her wonky messages about corruption only now seem to be gaining steam in the final stretch.
She went largely unrecognized as she campaigned alongside then-U.S. Senate hopeful Jasmine Crockett in San Antonio in January — and her efforts to connect the GOP’s immigration enforcement tactics to the private prison industry nearly put people to sleep at U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro’s (D-San Antonio) press conference outside City Hall later that same month.
Now in recent weeks, however, Abbott has faced a barrage of criticism for unpopular policies linked to prominent GOP donors, and such messages are getting different reception.
A watchdog group revealed this month that Texas continued issuing new data center permits long after Abbott promised to stop them, while Texas Monthly reported that the state was gearing up to sell a popular state park to tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Abbott declined to rule out the latter claim, while Musk is pouring millions of dollars into GOP campaigns for Texas Republicans, including the governor’s reelection campaign.
At an Oct. 19 rally at Brooks City Base, Hinojosa rattled off example after example from her time in the Texas Legislature to a crowd that waited hours to see her and seemed receptive to her criticisms of Abbott.
“He is selling off Texas for parts to his biggest donors, because Greg Abbott is the most corrupt governor in Texas history,” Hinojosa told the crowd at Hangar 9. “He stopped fearing the voters of Texas because he has run every year, winning by double digits, never to receive a single poll that showed him losing — until now.”
Abbott’s final sprint
Against that backdrop, Abbott has been racing across the state and burning through an incredible war chest that had north of $100 million stockpiled at the beginning of the cycle.
He told supporters at Texas Pride BBQ that Hinojosa’s progressive record in the Texas House included calling for an income tax that Texas doesn’t currently have and supporting voting to allow biological men to play women’s sports.
“Gina took it next level — and this is where it gets very dangerous — she voted to use your taxpayer money to fund public schools, for public schools to assist children in school to transition their sex behind their parents’ backs,” Abbott said. “…It just shows you how dangerous she would be if ever the levers of government were in her hands.”
He also sought to remind voters of the border issues on so many minds when the state supported President Donald Trump by roughly 14 points last election cycle.
“Remember, it was just two years ago we were still living under the Joe Biden regime,” Abbott told supporters. “Remember what Joe Biden did to our border. Remember the havoc that Joe Biden caused in our state.”
The message resonated with Republicans in attendance, who saw him out to chants of “four more years.” One even called to make him governor “permanently.”
Texas doesn’t have term limits on its governor, and if Abbott completes an unprecedented fourth four-year term, he’ll be the longest-serving governor in the state’s history.
He’s already held statewide office for roughly three decades, including stints on the Texas Supreme Court and as Texas Attorney General before his 12 years as governor.
Abbott told attendees to take it “one step at a time,” and start with casting an early vote at the nearby Saint Hedwig City Hall.
“This is two miles away. I can roll over there in like 10 or 15 minutes. After all, I am Governor Hot Wheels, right?” Abbott said. “You’ve got to do your part to make sure we keep Texas red. And when you do that, Texas is going to be the best state in the United States of America.”
Abbott was joined by exiting state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) and the GOP nominee to succeed him, Jorge Borrego, as well as District Attorney hopeful Ashley Foster.
Missing from the gathering were some the congressional candidates who face tough races this November, including Carlos De La Cruz, whose campaign headquarters is just a few miles down the road from Texas Pride BBQ.
Hours after the event, text messages went out alerting San Antonio Republicans that Abbott would be back in town, at Bigz’ Burger Joint on Nov. 2.
Meanwhile Hinojosa will appear at Northside AFT’s union hall on Sunday, followed by an event with Talarico that night at The Espee.
The contest remains a tall order for Democrats, but Guerra Lozano said it’s been worthwhile just to see Republicans put back on their heels.
“I’ve heard it on national news that [Hinojosa] has run the best campaign, and a lot of candidates, Democrats, are following her style,” Guerra Lozano said. “She has brought a lot of issues to the attention of Texas .. like the data centers, like funding public schools …. So to me, she’s already won.”
