The Democratic candidate for governor promises a sharp departure from Greg Abbott. But after a Dallas Weekly interview focused on Black and Brown Texans, a more complicated question remains: Is stopping Texas from moving backward enough?
There was a moment during my conversation with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa that perhaps said more than any campaign talking point could.
We asked about housing.
Specifically, I asked what she would do differently from Gov. Greg Abbott to make homeownership — and remaining a homeowner — more attainable for working-class Texans. It is an especially important question for Black communities like South Dallas, where development, rising property values and displacement increasingly exist alongside one another. Hinojosa began by criticizing Texas’ economic-development system and the tax incentives given to multinational corporations. She proposed $1,500 in relief for Texas households. She discussed electricity rates.
Then the conversation moved to healthcare and Medicaid.
What never really emerged was a housing plan. And that moment reflected a broader tension throughout our interview.
Hinojosa presents a compelling case for why Texas should move away from the Abbott era. What was considerably less clear was how a Hinojosa administration would specifically move historically underserved Black Texans forward.
And there is a difference.
A Candidate Running Against the Abbott Era
Hinojosa is not ambiguous about what she believes is wrong with Texas government.
On education, she says she would fire Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath and scrutinize state vendor contracts she believes have diverted money away from classrooms. She talked about shrinking class sizes, retaining certified teachers and putting more professional adults on school campuses. On voting rights, she committed to appointing a secretary of state who believes in expanding access to the ballot.
“We need to go back to basics, prioritize what matters, and that’s a great teacher in the classroom,” Gina Hinojosa
On affordability, she argued that Texas has created an economic system that subsidizes large corporations while ordinary Texans struggle with electricity, healthcare and everyday expenses.
Those are meaningful distinctions from the current governor.
For voters concerned about the direction Texas has taken under Abbott — particularly on reproductive rights, public education, voting access and the state’s approach to historically marginalized communities — a change in the governor’s office could itself have consequences.
“We are paying into a system that is working against us,” she said.
But DW entered this conversation looking for something beyond a Democratic alternative to Greg Abbott. We wanted to understand Hinojosa’s agenda for Black Texas. That answer remains much harder to define.
Where Is the Black Texan Agenda?
Three of Dallas Weekly’s questions deliberately created an opportunity for Hinojosa to address the experiences of Black and Brown Texans.
We asked about educational inequities. We asked about Black and Latino voting power. We asked about affordability and homeownership, an issue inseparable from the history of segregation, redlining, disinvestment and displacement in communities across Texas. Hinojosa offered policies that could certainly benefit Black Texans. But that is not the same thing as offering policies designed to confront racial inequity.
There was no clearly articulated plan during our conversation for increasing Black homeownership. No specific proposal for addressing racial disparities in access to capital. No detailed discussion of how her administration would ensure Black-owned businesses receive greater access to state procurement and economic-development opportunities.
Even when discussing public education, where disparities affecting Black and Brown students are well documented, Hinojosa’s answer centered primarily on improving the system universally: better teachers, smaller classes and better-funded campuses.
Those are indeed worthwhile objectives.
But universal policies and equity policies are not necessarily interchangeable. If one community begins several steps behind because of decades of public policy, treating everyone identically going forward does not automatically erase that distance.
On Voting Rights, a More Concrete Answer
Hinojosa was more specific when discussing voting access. She said one of the most consequential decisions she could make as governor would be appointing a secretary of state committed to equal ballot access. She also resisted making promises that she may not be able to deliver through a resistant legislature.
“I’m not going to promise something that I don’t think I can get done in this environment,” Gina Hinojosa
That restraint deserves acknowledgment. Candidates frequently campaign on proposals that governors cannot enact unilaterally. Hinojosa instead pointed toward administrative power — appointments, election administration and removing unnecessary barriers to voter participation.
“One of the biggest ways that I can have impact on voting rights is by appointing a secretary of state who cares about access to the ballot,” she said.
She also made one of her strongest arguments of the interview when discussing community power.
“Real change doesn’t happen inside the Capitol,” she said. “Real change happens in our communities that put pressure on the Capitol to make that change happen.”
For Black Texans, who have historically relied upon organizing outside institutions of power to force change within them, that argument resonates. Still, protecting access to political power and presenting an affirmative agenda for what government will do with that power are two different questions.
Maybe the Standard Has Changed
Texas Democrats have spent decades searching for the candidate who might finally break the Republican hold on statewide office.
Inevitably, memories return to Ann Richards.
Hinojosa is not Ann Richards. And perhaps expecting her to be misses the political moment altogether.
Richards represented a different Texas, a different Democratic Party and a different era of state politics. What Texas voters face now is not simply a choice between competing visions of progress. For many Texans, the more immediate question is whether state government will continue moving in a direction they believe is actively stripping away rights and limiting local autonomy.
That changes the calculation. For Black Texans, women, LGBTQ Texans and others who have watched major policy battles unfold under Abbott, there may be value in a governor whose most consequential accomplishment is sometimes saying “NO!”
No to another restriction. No to another policy that weakens voting access. No to another attack on reproductive autonomy. No to another measure that takes authority away from local communities.
A governor does not only advance legislation. A governor appoints agency leadership, signs or vetoes bills, shapes budget priorities and determines the direction of the executive branch. Stopping something can be consequential. But stopping regression should not be confused with achieving progress.
Not Going Backward Is a Beginning — Not an Agenda
And that may ultimately be the challenge Hinojosa faces with Black voters. The case against the Abbott era is already familiar to many of them. The unanswered question is what comes next.
- What does a Hinojosa administration do specifically about Black homeownership?
- How does it measure whether Black students are actually benefiting from increased public-school investment?
- And when racial disparities persist after universally beneficial policies are enacted, what is the state prepared to do about them?
Our interview did not provide sufficiently detailed answers to those questions. That does not mean Hinojosa cannot develop them.
It means she needs to.
Because defeating Greg Abbott and governing Texas are two different assignments. Hinojosa told DW that her administration would engage Texans daily and offer a level of transparency she believes is currently absent from the governor’s office. If she wins, Black Texans should use that promised accessibility to continue asking the questions that remained unanswered in our conversation.
Perhaps Texas is not getting another Ann Richards. Perhaps, after years of increasingly polarized government, some voters are prepared to accept something more fundamental: a governor who will stop the state from going backward. But if Gina Hinojosa wants Black Texans to see her administration as something more than a brake on the Abbott era, she will have to show them where she intends to take them.
Because maintaining the ground Black Texans have already fought to gain is important.
It is not the same as gaining new ground.
