Democrat Gina Hinojosa projected to win Texas governor race over Greg Abbott

A Democratic upset in Texas

Democrat Gina Hinojosa is projected to win the Texas governor race, defeating Republican Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth consecutive term. The call comes from network projections by CNN and NBC. With 67.7% of the vote counted, AP figures showed Hinojosa at 57% and Abbott at 41.8%, according to El País. An earlier count reported by Bloomberg, at 66% counted, had her at 57% to 42%.

Gina Hinojosa (Democrat)57%

Greg Abbott (Republican)41.8%

Gina Hinojosa (Democrat)

57 %

Greg Abbott (Republican)

41.8 %

Data from the article text

Who Hinojosa is

Hinojosa, 52, was born in McAllen in 1973 and grew up in Brownsville near the Mexican border, according to El Mundo. She is the daughter of Gilberto Hinojosa, also a politician, and began her career as a civil rights lawyer. After four years on the Austin school board, she won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 2016 and has held it since 2017. She has been a critic of school vouchers and the STAAR standardized tests. Her campaign focused on education, corruption, the expansion of data centers in Texas and lower property taxes, El País reported. Speaking to The New York Times in September, she said the general view was that no one could beat Abbott, but she ran anyway because she saw no other Democrat willing to try. The Rio Grande Valley, which backed Donald Trump in 2024, returned to the Democrats, a shift Diário de Notícias described as decisive in halting recent Republican gains among Hispanic voters.

Money and the margin

Hinojosa spent $36.8 million in the campaign against $281 million for Abbott, roughly an eighth of his budget, El Mundo reported. Abbott had never lost an election as governor and had served 12 years in the office. El Mundo attributed much of the result to a protest vote against Abbott and Trumpism, driven by economic conditions and high gasoline prices. It also credited Hinojosa's populist rather than progressive pitch, which aimed at undecided voters. By that count she led Abbott by about one million votes.

Gina Hinojosa (Democrat)36.8

Greg Abbott (Republican)281

Gina Hinojosa (Democrat)

36.8 million USD

Greg Abbott (Republican)

281 million USD

Data from the article text

The Senate race and the wider count

James Talarico, 37, was projected to win the US Senate race in Texas, defeating Republican Ken Paxton, the state attorney general. If confirmed, he would be the first Democrat elected to the US Senate from Texas in 38 years, since Lloyd Bentsen's 1988 reelection, and the first Democrat to win a Texas statewide race since 1994. Donald Trump had carried Texas by about 14 percentage points in 2024. Talarico campaigned alongside Hinojosa across the state, and Democratic figures poured money into her campaign in the final stretch.

In the states that held governor races on Tuesday, 3 November, Democrats were winning in 10 and Republicans in 5, according to the count available early on Wednesday, 4 November. The Democratic side had also gained four states in that count.