Transcript of What This Democrat’s Surge in Texas Says About the Midterms New

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We are facing an almost existential crisis in this country because tech giants are having their way with us. I'm Lulu García Navarro, and today

I'm interviewing Democratic candidate for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa. I'm Gina.

My pronouns are mom, Texan, and soon-to-be governor.

Hinojosa, who is a state representative, and Greg Abbott, the Republican incumbent, appear to be in a dead heat. If she wins, she'd be the first Latino person to ever hold the office and the first Democrat since the 1990s. If she loses, Abbott will head back for a historic 4th term. All eyes are on Texas during these midterms because Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton's race could determine control of the Senate. But Democrats have tried and failed for years to gain a foothold in Texas. So what makes Hinojosa think she can break the losing streak? And what is her argument to voters who may have supported Abbott in the past? We should say we reached out to Governor Abbott, who declined our request for an interview. Here's my conversation with Representative Gina Hinojosa. But first, a quick message. If you're not a subscriber, we have some news for you. You can now explore The Times for free without a paywall during your first month in The New York Times app. Download the app, and we hope you enjoy it. Now, on to the interview. Welcome, Gina Hinojosa, to the interview. It's so great to have you.

Thank you, Lulu. First day of early vote here in Texas.

I know. I saw you voted this morning. How was it? Was it busy, enthusiastic? What was the vibe?

It— yes, all of the above. We've hit several spots already here in Central Texas. And in fact, we just came from San Marcos, where we went to Texas State. And there were so many students who were excited about voting. Heard great stories. So yeah, people are pumped. Turnout's high across the state.

I read that before you decided to run for governor, you were thinking of running for state comptroller, which is a slightly less visible role in the state. What was it like to see your name on the ballot for governor?

It's almost surreal. I never planned to do this. I never planned to run for anything, really. I just try to mind my own business, Lulu, and somehow I've ended up running for governor. I started really on this path, on this journey, when I ran for school board because they tried to shut down my son's school. My son Mateo was in kindergarten and he was at the most perfect school by our home. And when I learned they wanted to shut it down, I just got mad and I ran for the school board and I won. And it was part of a citywide community effort to save our schools. And we did. But then I understood that the financial pressures to shut down our neighborhood schools were coming from the state. The state takes more and more of our money and doesn't give it back to our schools. And so I ran for the Texas House, and that's where I've been for 10 years. And my primary fight has been for public schools. Originally, you're right, I was going to run for comptroller because that's where the voucher program was going to be administered. School vouchers that take money from our public schools to give to private schools.

And I thought, well, I'll fight vouchers at the comptroller's office. But nobody wanted to run against Greg Abbott. And I just decided we had to. We had to try.

You know, I was told by a Texas reporter that in some ways you ran for governor, a position last held by your party in 1995 by another woman, Ann Richards, as a sort of sacrificial lamb. Because it was the longest of long shots. You had no real chance, but basically some Democrat had to do it. And so it might as well be you. Did you see it that way too when you did it?

No, Lulu, I wouldn't have given up a year of my life away from my family to be on the road all across the state to be a sacrificial lamb. No, I'm running to win. It is not an easy endeavor to do this. And it took everything out of me from this last year.

You know, what strikes me when you say you didn't run as a sacrificial lamb is that the Democratic Party didn't seem to think that you could get as, you know, as close as you've gotten and that you could win. I mean, your campaign hasn't been supported by national Democratic leadership until recently. You've been vastly outspent by the Abbott campaign. But, you know, cut to today, And the polls suggest that you and Abbott are sort of neck and neck. And I am just sort of wondering, what do you think changed?

Well, we saw from the very beginning that as people got to know who I am, they were with me, right? I had low name ID. I'm a House member in Central Texas, so people knew me in Central Texas. But Texas is like a country. It's big and diverse. There's a lot of people. So it's taken a year to reach people. So whereas my name ID was 20% or less when we first launched, it is now 80% of Texas voters know who I am. We are still reaching those final 20%. But the data has shown from the very beginning that people were connecting with my plan for Texas. People were connecting with my candidacy. We just needed to reach them.

You know, I know you know this, but Texas keeps breaking Democratic hearts. I mean, it's sort of like this heartbreak that happens over and over again. And that's because white conservative rural voters, you know, vote at higher rates than urban Black, brown, and younger voters. There's low turnout in the state, which hurts Democrats often. I mean, what are you doing differently than, say, Beto O'Rourke, who was the last Democrat to run against Abbott? He had a lot of name recognition, a lot of momentum behind him nationally, and yet he still lost by 11 points.

Well, I don't know that I can really compare my candidacy to Beto's. It's a different time. I mean, 2026 is a different time. Like, the data centers have been a physical manifestation of a governor doing the bidding of the moneyed interests, the biggest moneyed interests in the world, really, and leaving the people of Texas to fend for themselves. And so in that way, rural Texas, has felt betrayed by Greg Abbott because many of these data centers have descended upon rural Texas where there are no rules really. And the result is that in this state where we struggle from drought, for instance, I was in the Panhandle, Amarillo, talking to residents where they are fighting the world's largest data center. It is called Project Matador. Its investors are Rick Perry, our former governor, and his son. They negotiated a deal to get all of their water in this drought-prone area for the data center from the city water supply. When residents asked, what happens if we run out of water? The response they told me they got from municipal water was, well, we will have to turn off the residents first. Right? It's like, that's the environment we're living in in Texas.

And so— People are understanding that we are fighting a fight right now where it's like all of us in the same boat versus like 15 billionaire tech dudes. And the data centers are, again, that physical manifestation of what I call the one fight. Is Texas going to be a state by and for the people, or is this the billionaire's world and we just live here?

You know what I'm hearing you say, and I've heard you talk about this a lot, and it's a common theme among all Democrats at the moment, is that people are angry, which we know, right? People are really mad about the economy, about data centers, about a whole host of issues. And I'm just wondering, you know, when you go out to these rural areas, are you trying to get disaffected MAGA voters to turn your way? I mean, What is the overall plan on who to persuade? Because obviously your time and your resources are finite, so you have to pick and choose who you're trying to get to come over to listen to your message and to vote for you. Who's your coalition?

It's everybody. I have not picked and chosen. I have been all over this state with all communities, and it is the same message. It is not moderating. Moderating a message. To be clear, it is not moderating a message. It is reaching out to Democrats, Republicans, independents with what is a populist message, a message about doing the bidding of the people. And so, yes, I need Trump supporters to support this race. Trump won Texas. Trump won the Latino vote in Texas. Absolutely, they are invited to be part of this coalition. And in this time when people are disappointed in both political parties, both Democrats and Republicans, it creates a space and an opportunity for Texans to vote for the candidate.

What's been the thing that's most surprised you when you're out among maybe communities that you wouldn't naturally see as supporting you? I mean, you know, you represented obviously Austin, which is one of the most liberal places in the state.

Again, talking about the one fight, when I was in Red Oak, Texas, this is a suburb outside of Dallas. Actually, it is a rural neighborhood community where they have big acreage lots and a school down the street. They invited me in because they have 7 data centers moving into their community, right? And this one that's 900 acres large, right next door to the home that I was invited into, and I was sitting in a living room with MAGA. And they knew Greg Abbott had sold them out, but they weren't sure about me and they had questions. So I sat down, I said, okay, let's go, ask me. And they wanted to ask me like culture war questions, right? They wanted to ask me about constitutional carry. I said, what you call constitutional carry, I call permitless carry. And I voted against it because I believe we should have background checks to have a gun. They asked me about Sharia law and I said, well, I don't really know what Sharia law is, but what I worry about is that regular Muslim Texans are going to be discriminated against 'cause people think they're practicing this thing called Sharia law that probably most of 'em don't even know what it is, right?

And so we engaged, which I think is a rare thing for people of different political parties and for leaders, elected Democratic leaders, to sit down with MAGA and say, let's talk. And to agree to disagree where we disagree, to find common ground where we do, but then ultimately to recognize while we have been fighting these culture wars for 10, years in this country, culture wars that are not winnable because they depend on your, your personal experiences, your, your lived experience, that the only winners of these culture wars have been tech giants that are amassing our money and our power and all our data. And if you believe recent reports are about to blow up the world if we don't come together fast to save ourselves, how

persuasive do you think you've been?

I think people are tired of fighting culture war fights. I think there is an opportunity if we choose to lead and we choose to take it, to forge a new way forward that is almost postpartisan in recognition of disappointment again in both parties, because both parties frankly are corrupted by corporate influence. I mean, I have seen so Many, even Democrats, grandstand on culture war issues only to fight, only to vote with corporate interests. And none of us are better for it, right? I am not here to win moral victories. I am here to win results for the people of Texas.

I want to learn a little bit more about you and your background. You're a Texas state representative, as you've mentioned. You're a labor lawyer, a former school board president. Your father was a Democratic Party chair in the state for 13 years and was a former judge. Your mom was born in Mexico. What was your family like growing up?

My parents started off as legal aid lawyers. They represented farmworkers. And I was born to high school sweethearts. They were very young when they had me. So in some ways, I grew up with them. I grew up in Brownsville on the border with Mexico, Matamoros, Mexico. And back then, we used to cross back and forth all the time. I mean, we'd go for breakfast on the weekends to Mexico. We would go shopping for things in Mexico. We were a binational community.

How did that make you see the United States? Like, I've been there many times to that part of the country and to Brownsville in particular. It's a very unique and specific place. And I just wonder how it made you view America or what it— what you sort of learned about America growing up there.

I think there's a kind of very strong patriotism that comes from growing up on the border. I tell this story. I remember, I specifically remember being a little girl and crossing the border with my dad. I think we went to go eat breakfast in Mexico and being struck by the extreme poverty, by people begging on the streets. And it really hurt to see through the eyes of a child. And I asked my dad, how come in Mexico there are people begging on the streets and not in the United States? Because we didn't have any of that then. And he said, and I'll never forget, he said, because in Mexico they have the rich and the poor and not much in between. And in America, we have a strong middle class. And he said it with a pride, right? My dad, who also grew up on the border, said it with this patriotism, this proud patriotism. And he was talking about the American dream. And it has occurred to me that that sense of who we are, who our identity is as Americans and even as Texans to some extent, is being lost. And that so many working Texans and especially young people don't believe in the American dream.

They don't think it's real. They don't think that hard work pays. And we have to get back to a time when hard work pays, when the American dream is alive. That is who we are. That is our strength as a country, as a people.

Because you know the area really well, I am curious what you think has been happening down in the Rio Grande Valley. You know, we've seen it swing from firmly Democratic to Republican. In 2016, it was a 60-point-plus Democratic area. And then it has been turning and turning. And then in 2024, Trump won it solidly. And I just wonder what you think Republicans figured out to catch fire there.

I think there were a couple of things that were happening. I think one, Latinos along the border were angry about border security. Right? Because this was, remember, at a time when we had the caravans crossing, we had people sleeping under bridges. It felt chaotic. It did not inspire confidence. And border communities were angry about that. And those are mostly Latino communities. I also think that Latinos vote their pocketbooks. And Trump was promising to deliver a kind of economic prosperity that was appealing. But fast forward to today, and Yes, we all want border security, but these ICE raids are making us less secure, not more secure, right? And people are really angry about the racial profiling that's happened. We've had even Americans, American boys on their way to enlist in the Marines pulled from their car by ICE and beaten, right? We had a man who was killed in Houston a few months ago on his way to work, a case of mistaken identity where they shot first, asked questions later. I could go on. That is the reality we are dealing with in Texas, and Latinos are angry and scared. And there is a motivation really to vote for change in this election that I have not seen before.

And not to mention the high-cost crisis that we are in in Texas, where the price of gas, the price of electricity through the roof, property taxes through the roof, the cost of groceries. And they know who's been in charge. They know who to blame.

I'd like to stay with immigration for a moment because— and understand a little bit of how you see it and what your platform is should you become governor. Yeah. Because as you know, many people see Democrats as weak on the border. And Abbott has used his authority to send the National Guard down to the border, among other things, Operation Lone Star. And I wonder what approaches of Trump or Abbott do you agree with? I mean, we have seen The border become a much more secure place. You know, illegal crossings have plummeted under the Trump administration.

I think we cannot be treating people who have been in our communities for 20 years, hardworking, law-abiding members of our community, like we are treating somebody who needs to be vetted coming across the border. Those are 2 different kinds of people who need to be treated differently. We should have a path to legalization for people who are here. We should also have order at the border and security at the border.

But again, just to understand sort of specifically, what exactly would you do differently than Governor Abbott has done in terms of border security? Would you repeal SB 4, which is the Abbott law that makes unauthorized entry into Texas a criminal offense?

Well, I wouldn't have the power to repeal that.

But would you try and propose it? Yeah. Would propose, I mean, do you think it should be repealed?

I don't support, and I voted against it and I stand by my record, but I'm not gonna pretend like I'll have the power to convince the legislature to do that. We still, even if I win, we still have Republican control of everything in this state. And again, my agenda will be one that 99% of us agree on, which is to secure the American dream, To save Texas public schools, put money in your pocket, a populist agenda, rather than fight fights that I know I can't win.

That's interesting. So what you're telling me is that you might not agree with SB 4, which also authorizes the state to remove those here illegally. That's typically a federal function. But you're not going to try and change it because you feel like you can't. Do it. So then what's in it for Democrats who want to see substantial changes to the law in Texas to put you in office if you won't be able to deliver on sort of key issues for them?

Well, Lulu, there's so many things in Texas. This is not a blue state. This is Texas where we have Greg Abbott putting Texas National Guard in detention centers so that these private prison companies can maximize their profits. We have kids being locked up with their parents because Greg Abbott allows for the licensing of these detention centers for little kids to be locked up with their parents. We have a governor who turns the other way when Texans are being mowed down on our streets. Like, there is a lot besides the repeal of SB 4. And having a governor who has the courage to stand up for Texans will be— Night and day in this state.

I mean, how would you like to see ICE operate in Texas then? I'm just trying to understand if you become governor, how you would address some of the things that you see are wrong.

Right. I would use every— again, I would use everything from the bully pulpit to the courts to defend the rights of Texans. We have laws here in Texas where we can't have masked agents. We have body cams, dash cams. We don't have lawlessness that is resulting in people being run over and killed by federal agents. We have transparency, accountability, basic protections for Texans that aren't being respected.

Do you think it needs to be reformed? Do you think ICE needs to be reimagined? Do you think ICE needs to be disbanded?

I think what is happening needs to stop. ICE should not be doing this. They should not be here. They should not be doing this. Like, what they are doing is causing more danger to the people of Texas than it is protection. People fear them. People are angry at them. It is chaotic. People are— these guys are not trained. They should not be here.

You know, one of the things, staying with the border, that you've also spoken out about is Elon Musk in particular. You know, SpaceX is based in the Valley. It even has a town called Starbase there. It employs thousands of people. Musk has even pledged $20 million to a local school district down there. And you've been very critical of him and the way he's operated his businesses in Texas. And I'd love for you to explain why.

I'm actually more critical of the way Abbott lets him abuse our resources, right? Hmm. I blame him less than I blame our weak leader who doesn't defend Texans. So here's the record. The record is that Elon Musk has given Greg Abbott half a million dollars to his campaign, and he has received $1.6 billion in property tax breaks for his company, TeraFab. He's received tens of millions of dollars just in cash from the state of Texas for Starbase. He has received the governor's intervention in contracting for broadband so that he could receive a $100 million broadband contract. This is the reality we are living in.

Elon Musk has also been an enormous contributor to the Republican Party, not only Greg Abbott, but the Republican Party writ large. You know, tens of millions of dollars being poured into the race in Texas in particular, but, you know, all over the country. I mean, how do you see his role in the politics of your state?

Yes, he has an outsized influence, to say the least, in our politics. He should not be able to spend that much money. That's gross that he has that kind of influence over our political system.

I just think that there must be some tension there because he is a big employer in the state. He moved a lot of his businesses to the state of Texas. You want people to have good-paying jobs. You want people to be employed. And obviously, you know, he's got a very successful series of companies. So how do you imagine that you would manage that relationship with someone who clearly supports a different agenda?

Well, listen, I launched this campaign with this saying my grandmother used to tell me growing up, no te dejes. There's not a direct translation for this saying, but it basically means know your worth and fight to defend it. I mean, Elon Musk is lucky he is here. Yes, there are good jobs that he is providing, but also he's getting tremendous taxpayer dollars that it's, it's not justified really.

And— You think he should get out of the state?

People see it. Um, he doesn't need to get out of the state. He just needs to abide by the rules like everybody else does. We all pay our taxes. Why shouldn't Elon Musk pay his taxes in Texas too?

You know, Gina, you're sort of describing the way that many Texans feel disempowered and the way that the economy has functioned, in your view, against ordinary Texans. But I do think Republicans would argue that their policies have made Texas one of the most business-friendly states in the entire country. It has the second-largest economy after California. Isn't that good stewardship of the state?

Well, Lulu, there's no question that corporations love Greg Abbott and Texas. But the reality is we have the most people without health insurance of any state, despite the fact that Texans work more hours than the national average. We have the most children without health insurance of any state in America. We have the most people disconnected from their electricity because they cannot afford to pay their bills of any state in America. We have the most bankruptcies of any state in America, and it is small businesses that are struggling to keep their doors open. We have over 150 whole school districts operating at 4 days a week because they can't afford to operate at 5 days a week. That is Greg Abbott's record. So yes, there's a lot of money that flows through Texas. There is a lot of money that is made in Texas by the people of Texas, but the people are not sharing in that economic wealth. In fact, Texans are struggling more than they were I'm

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Okay. We're gonna pivot a little bit to something that you've talked about, which is seeing yourself as a populist and not a liberal or a progressive. Your voting record in the statehouse is by all accounts pretty liberal. You were in 2019 ranked the most liberal member of the Texas House. And it was a title that you sort of openly embraced. And I'm just curious how you define the difference between populist and progressive. And tell me why you've landed on populist as a label for yourself now.

I think populist meets the moment of our time. Again, the one fight, the one fight in this country. And it is about economic power, and populism is about economic power. And whereas I do think in the past we evaluated politics as right versus left, I just don't think those labels apply at this moment in history, not in this moment in political history. We see that things are so stacked against working people in this country, And so listen, it's just a label, but if I were to pick a label to describe what are my politics, it is economic populism. It happens to be a type of politics that is rooted in our Texas history. It was LBJ's grandfather who was part of the Farmers Alliance that organized farmers against big railroads that were taking advantage of them. In much the same way, we have working Texans who are up against, again, tech giants, big tech. And so I chose this title to define what is my politics, because I do think that this has to be the politics of the moment to meet the challenges of the moment.

Is part of it also that the sort of progressive liberal label could be perceived as pretty toxic by certain members of the state that you're trying to get to vote for you?

No, it is not that. Because I, but what I think it is, is that those labels have been associated with culture wars. And I just don't think that the culture wars are the fight of 2026.

Hmm. I'm just trying to sit with it. I'm not trying to be difficult. I'm just trying to understand a little bit. So you're a populist progressive? It's not an either/or thing?

Well, look, I just think that Progressive politics is associated with culture wars, and I have no interest in fighting culture wars at this time. Fighting culture wars at this time is not a winnable fight. It is the fight that divides us because it is the fight about who we are and our lived experiences. And that is not the fight of 2026.

Well, I don't know that that's true. I mean, I think it is culture wars, but it's also Being a progressive could be about the way you use taxation to redistribute wealth. It could mean the way you want to have the healthcare system work in terms of supporting Obamacare, Medicare for All. I mean, it's not just a label that has to do with culture wars. It means more than that.

Well, and it may mean more than that to you, but I think to a lot of people it means the culture war fights because those are the fights we've been fighting for the last 10 years.

So it comes back to my thing that it's toxic.

No, it's not. It, it's not that. It, it comes back to it doesn't meet the political moment of our time. It, it, it is not what 2026 is about. Look, we are facing an almost existential crisis in this country because tech giants are having their way with us. Like there is one fight. And we are so caught up in fighting each other in a divided nation, fighting each other over the ways we disagree about social issues and culture wars, that we're all about to lose. And so I'm not going to perpetuate that anymore.

You clearly, though, do understand that some of these issues do motivate people. And, you know, you released a very personal ad early in your campaign talking about the issue of abortion and Texas abortion is almost completely banned from conception with no exception for rape or incest. And you really discussed something that was very personal to you. Can you tell me that story and why you wanted to talk about it?

Yes. So my first pregnancy shortly after I was married was diagnosed with— I was diagnosed with a fetus that had trisomy 18, which was described to me by doctors as not compatible with life. And I had to make a decision about whether or not to terminate that pregnancy. I had a week's time to decide that. Wow. I consulted with my priest and the nun at my church. I prayed with my husband. We both took that time to figure out what to do. My Family was so supportive. I had a small Christian community that held my hand along the way, and I ultimately decided not to terminate that pregnancy and carry it forward to term. She didn't make it. She died at 9 months of pregnancy at birth, and it made me who I am. I probably would not be here had not been for that experience. It showed me my strength and really put things in perspective for me.

The doctor said, I need you to understand she's not going to live. But I did understand that I was making that choice. I chose her.

You know, that's such a very personal and painful story. What were you sort of hoping people would understand about you from that?

I think Texans, and I think voters want to know, who are you? Why are you doing this? What motivates you? So it was a formative part of my life, formative experience in my life. And I think the thing that I wanted to communicate is that this is first and foremost a human experience. We have so politicized pregnancy in this country. But there are so many women, so many families who have had their hearts broken by pregnancies gone bad, right? And to try to connect with people at a human level with what my human hardship was and how it made me stronger.

Do you see abortion as a culture war issue? Do you see it as something that transcends that as an issue of healthcare, as an issue of human rights?

I do think it is an issue of human rights. I do think it is a healthcare issue. There are women who are dying in Texas because they can't terminate a pregnancy when they are in crisis because doctors are facing 99 years in prison if they terminate a pregnancy to try to save a woman's life. And then they're overruled by a political board, and women are dying. We just had our governor delay the release of the maternal mortality report in this state until after the election. But we know, we've heard so many stories of women dying, and we know it's going to be bad. So absolutely, it is all of those things.

What would you like to do if you're governor on that issue, or what would you propose to do? Again, understanding that the legislature is what it is.

I do think that we can come together in a bipartisan way to save women's lives. And that is the commitment I've made on the campaign trail to prioritize saving women's lives.

Obviously, you know, as a woman, you are hoping to appeal to women. And as you've mentioned, including MAGA women. And I just looked at the latest Marist poll. And you are ahead with women, but not by much. Are you doing well enough with women? Do you think about that?

We have— well, the only reason we're winning 6 major polls out of the last 5 weeks is because of our strong support from women. So I feel good about our support with women. And but look, we take no demographic for granted, and we're working again to appeal to all Texans and But women, from mothers who are concerned about their public schools, to women concerned about the healthcare of their daughters, to women concerned about data centers that have come into their community and upending their home life and their communities. Absolutely, we've garnered a lot of support from women.

A different demographic. Prominent Latinos wrote a letter to Democratic leadership imploring them to give you financial support. And I'm going to quote a little bit of that letter. They said, we are asking you to invest in a competitive race with the largest Latino electorate in the country following an election cycle where Republicans made alarming inroads with Latinos. I mean, do you think the national Democrats ignore Latino candidates like you?

Well, I don't really follow, like, other races, right? But I would like them to invest in this race. We have an opportunity of a generation to win here. We've been dealt a phenomenal hand in Texas. And It would be very helpful to have more national support in this race. There are big national stakes in this race. We know that Republicans in Austin want to redistrict again in Texas, redraw maps, and they have decided to do so next year if they win. We know there's no Democratic control of Congress when that happens. We need a governor in Texas who will veto rigged maps, and I will be that governor. So those are the stakes, right? And again, this is an opportunity of a generation to win in 2026, yes, Latinos are key to that win number. Beto got 64% of the Latino vote in 2018. When I get that, I win because there are more of us in the voting population in Texas in 2026. And look, this is not the time to be playing small ball, right? Everything is on the line in 2026. And so I think that's what motivates people who are pushing national Democrats to invest in Texas.

Do you think the head of the DGA, the Democratic Governors Association, Andy Beshear, disrespected your candidacy because he was reluctant to invest?

Well, I have a good relationship with him. They did send $1 million. I'm grateful for that. And we walked home with some progress.

No disrespect, but $1 million is not a lot in Texas. It's such a big state, as you rightly said.

Right. It isn't. It's helpful. Right? We have mostly raised— 95% of our contributions come from small-dollar donations. I'm proud of what we've been able to raise. We've raised now over $30 million in this race. But that is people power here in Texas.

You just mentioned this issue that is so important, right? Which is that Texas is forecasted to add 4 congressional seats in 2030, and they're planning to redraw the maps, which which could be very, very problematic for Democrats in Congress. Did you make the case to the national party about that?

Yes, I did make that case. And I have made that case from the very beginning. And we've been talking to anybody who will listen about them from the very beginning. And so that's why I think you're hearing Democrats across the country really want to make sure we have the investment we need to win because the stakes are so high and because the opportunity to win is even higher. So we've just never had an opportunity like this in— look, we have for the first time a ticket running in Texas. We've had Beto in the past, we've had Colin Allred in the past, but it was them. And now we have me, we have James, we have Democrats running up and down the ballot for the first time. We have Democrats running in every Texas House seat, Texas Senate seat, congressional seat. Democrats are working it. in every corner of the state, up and down the ballot. So yes, we have an opportunity of a generation, really, to win in Texas.

If you lose, do you think it's the Democratic Party that's to blame, that they should have invested in you more and much earlier? Or does a loss ultimately just reflect the heartbreak of Texas for Democrats?

Lulu, so when you're Running for governor and you spent a year of your life in the trenches every day running, you can't go into an election thinking, what if I lose? So I can't even contemplate that reality. I am running to win. I think I will win and we are working to win.

Well, let's say you do win. It will be a political earthquake. What do you think it will signify?

You know, the thing that I am most excited about when I win is the feeling Texans will feel to know their power, to know their power again, to know that we can go up against big money, probably the biggest in the country, entrenched politics. Greg Abbott's the most entrenched incumbent there is probably in America, and that we can win. And I just know there's going to be this feeling of almost liberation. when we feel our power again. And that's the thing I'm most looking forward to.

Gina Hinojosa, thank you so much for talking to me. I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Lulu.

That's Texas State Representative and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa. To watch this interview and many others, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@theinterviewpodcast. This conversation was produced by Wyatt Orum. It was edited by Alison Benedict. Mixing by Athim Shapiro. Original music Music by Dan Powell and Marian Lozano. Photography by Devin Yalkin. The rest of the team is Priya Matthews, Seth Kelley, Paola Neudorf, Maya Tepler, Eddie Costas, Jeremy Rocklin, Gabby Contreras, Kathleen O'Brien, and Brooke Minters. Next week, David talks to Martin McDonagh, director of the new film Wild Horse Nine. I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and this is The Interview from The New York

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