The governor’s mansion may be a mile from campus, but the Tower is casting its shadow long over next year’s race for Texas governor.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, joined a crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination to challenge incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott in the November 2026 gubernatorial election on Wednesday.
Hinojosa, an alumna who has represented UT and West Campus in the Texas State House since 2017, is a regular sight on campus as a speaker for classes and political events. Last month, she teased a bid for statewide office at the Bass Lecture Hall in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and will return later this month to discuss her candidacy. The governor can appoint members to the UT System Board of Regents, who have the final authority to hire and remove the University president, if recommended by the chancellor and vice chancellor.
Hinojosa’s campaign will feature education alongside cutting costs of living, according to a Wednesday news release. It is also based on expanding healthcare access and lowering corporate influence in politics. Hinojosa, former Austin Independent School District board president, is a regular critic of Abbott’s school vouchers policy, which he signed into law in May. Abbott is also an alumnus and a presence on campus, both as a speaker and policymaker.
“I’ve seen firsthand how Governor Abbott’s rich donors run Texas at the expense of our schools, our communities and working families,” Hinojosa wrote in the news release. “I’m running to put Texas families first, fight for our kids and hold the powerful accountable.
Although she enters the race with several high-profile endorsements, there is no guarantee Hinojosa will win the primary election in March. Fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White, a UT alumnus and son of former Gov. Mark White, said while Hinojosa is a great state representative, she may not appeal to the broader electorate.
“If we put another politician up against him, we already know what’s going to happen,” White said. “They’re going to lose.”
Mark Strama, director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, said the campaign funding Hinojosa needs may not be easy to come by.
“It’s very hard for donors to invest in the Texas governor’s race,” Strama said. “It’s easier to raise money for a race for federal office, like the United States Senate, because donors from outside of Texas have more at stake from who we send to the Senate than they do from who we elect as our governor.”
Strama, who cautioned that he is a close personal friend to Hinojosa, said Abbott has been able to raise a lot of money from out-of-state funds. He is running for his fourth term as governor and has dispatched his three previous opponents by wide margins.
“Time and again, Gina Hinojosa chooses woke, extreme ideologies over the safety and security of Texas families,” Abbott’s campaign manager, Kim Snyder, wrote in a statement. “Texans deserve a governor who will continue to secure the border, fight for safer communities and uphold family values — not someone who supports failed, radical policies that hurt hardworking Texans.”
Like White, Hinojosa also joins this race with family connections. Her father, Gilberto Hinojosa, was the chair of the Texas Democratic Party until he stepped down last year.
Despite her connections and status as an elected official, Hinojosa will have to distinguish herself from a slate of Democratic unknowns vying to take on Abbott, said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project.
“A state representative is little known outside of their own district,” Blank said. “It’s going to take some serious work and a serious amount of money in order for her to start introducing herself, first to a larger pool of Democrats, and then to the electorate as a whole.”
