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Washington — Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running for governor in Texas, said on Sunday that there’s “deep disappointment in both political parties” in the Lone Star State, prompting a new path forward that she argued is “post-partisan in some ways.”
“Right now nobody wants politics as usual. Most of us see that it is broken,” Hinojosa said on “Face the Nation.”
Hinojosa, 52, is taking on Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas. A civil rights and labor lawyer who’s represented parts of Austin in the Texas House since 2017, Hinojosa would be the first Democratic governor and the first woman to lead the state in the governor’s mansion in three decades. A recent CBS News poll had Abbott leading Hinojosa, 52% to 48%.
But in a state like Texas, which has more registered Republican voters than Democrats, Hinojosa will need support from both sides of the aisle to pull off a victory. She argued that the deep disappointment she described in both parties has made Texans forge “a new way forward.”
“There is bipartisan anger about what Greg Abbott has done to our public schools,” she said. “Saving Texas public schools is a key part of my agenda, and that’s why this campaign has resonated amongst Texans.”
Hinojosa said her agenda “is not a Democratic agenda,” but rather a populist one aimed at delivering for Texans. She cited healthcare access for children and combating high insurance premiums as key focus areas.
She also pointed to data centers as an issue where Texans can find agreement. She said, “Nobody’s pushing back against the data centers harder than MAGA because these data centers are mostly moving into our rural communities that are unincorporated.”
“This part of Texas is being taken advantage of by these data centers, and the people of Texas and rural Texas are being taken advantage of,” she said. “There are big water concerns, there are big electricity cost concerns, property rights concerns, and so we need to visit all of it and make sure Texans are protected, and first and foremost have a seat at the table.”
The comments come as Hinojosa has filed a lawsuit to obtain emails between Abbott and Elon Musk, who’s given millions to Abbott’s campaign. She said, “We need to know what exactly is going on,” pointing to the relationship between Abbott and Musk, the CEO of Texas-based Tesla and SpaceX.
“Governor Abbott is focused on putting Texas on a path to becoming number one in education, codifying his data center guardrails, eliminating sales tax incentives for data centers, and lowering costs for hardworking Texas families,” Abbott’s press secretary, Eduardo Leal, told CBS News in a statement. “Under Governor Abbott’s leadership, Texas public education funding is at an all-time high and average teacher pay has risen by over 30%.”
“While Gina Hinojosa continues to run from her disastrous record, Governor Abbott will continue crisscrossing the state to talk directly to voters and to keep Texas, Texas,” he added.
Hinojosa expressed optimism about her chances in next week’s election, despite Texas being a reliably red state for over 30 years.
“Turnout is high, enthusiasm is high on our side, so we feel really good about where we are,” she said.
