Texas has been under Republican control for three decades. You’ve been all over the state during your campaign; what are you hearing from voters that tells you this is the year Texans are ready for a change?
Texans have been working harder and getting less, and they are putting the blame squarely on Greg Abbott’s lap. Schools are closing, over 150 schools are on a 4-day week, property taxes are up 85%, electricity bills have gone up by $40 per month on average, and data centers are running rampant across our communities.
We’re already seeing change on the ground, even in deep-red Texas. State Senator Taylor Rehmet flipped Tarrant County – which President Trump won by 14 points in 2024 (the same margin as he won Texas) – by 30 points this January by focusing on fully funding our public schools and lowering costs. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans are all energized because they know that Republican politicians in Austin aren’t serving them. They’re over the partisanship and culture wars, and they want leaders who will actually deliver for them. That’s why my plan is to secure the American Dream by saving Texas public schools and putting money in Texans’ pockets.
You started your public service career on a school board and you’ve made education a major focus on the trail. What would you do as Governor to improve schools across Texas?
Public education is the bedrock of the American Dream, and it’s time for a back-to-basics approach with a great teacher in the classroom. On day one as Governor, I will fire Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath and appoint an educator to lead the TEA, because the agency that oversees our children’s education should be led by someone who knows what it takes.
I’ll end the rigged STAAR test and tests like it and pause the rigged A-F accountability system and call on the legislature to deliver to my desk a bill that brings true accountability – not arbitrary tests designed to justify school closures. I’ll end Abbott’s school voucher scam and ensure Texans’ taxpayer dollars go where they belong: into the neighborhood schools families depend on. I’ll return school districts that have been taken over to their communities, audit and terminate corrupt vendor contracts, and use that money to pay teachers among the highest-paid in the nation. It’s time for an education governor to lead.
Affordability and cost of living are the biggest issues both nationwide and in Texas. They’re also the top priority of your campaign. What is something you would do as Governor to immediately help families?
On day one as governor, I’ll freeze residential utility rates, pause the state gas tax, and begin an audit of our corporate welfare system to end corrupt vendor contracts that are draining working families. I’ll call on state lawmakers to pass legislation to send $1,500 rebate checks to every Texas household – I call it the Greg Abbott Corruption Refund – by using money we already have hoarded in the Rainy Day Fund, which is at a record high of $27 billion. People have lost trust in government, and these one-time checks will be part of restoring faith that we work for them, not the billionaires and corporations.
You are originally from the Rio Grande Valley, an area that has become something of a battleground region politically. Is there a story from growing up there that has stuck with you and influences you still?
My earliest memory of the words that named that opportunity came from my father, on a weekend trip home from Matamoros, Mexico, to Brownsville. I remember seeing extreme poverty and begging in Mexico, and as a little girl, I remember being confused and upset by it. I asked my dad why. Why, in Mexico, were people begging on the streets, and not in Texas? He said to me, “In Mexico, there are the rich and the poor and not much in between. Here at home, we have a strong middle class.” This was the promise of the American Dream – and it’s what I’m running on today: to help Texans secure the American Dream again.
Texans are infamously proud to be Texan, as a candidate for Governor, I assume you feel the same way. So what makes you proud to be a Texan?
There’s a saying that “if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” Our saying is a little different: “If you can’t make it in Texas, you can’t make it anywhere.”
I was born and raised in a Texas that radiated opportunity. I grew up fully trusting, fully knowing that I could be anything I wanted to be in Texas if I put in the work. My grandfather was able to build his business from the ground up and support his family because of that opportunity – the promise that you did your part, and Texas did its part. That is the Texas I am fighting for.
(Photo: State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, via Gina For Texas Facebook)