Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa is running for governor of Texas.
On paper, Hinojosa brings a trifecta of characteristics that have not historically translated into electoral success in rural red Texas: She is a woman. She is Hispanic. And she is a Democrat. That may be an uncomfortable acknowledgment of our own identity politics, but it is part of the political reality.
But she is making her case to rural Texas anyway.
Hinojosa was back in Amarillo this week for the second time, rallying voters and learning more about data centers, now high on the list of concerns for rural Texans. I was invited to join Hinojosa and her campaign team Sunday.
Full disclosure: I was one of the MAGA moms who joined Hinojosa in Austin last session to support her bill to DOGE the Texas Education Agency. I said then that it was a good-government bill and that a Republican should have filed it.
Supporting a bill is not the same as endorsing a candidate. But that experience gave me an early look at the issues she has placed at the center of her campaign.
Hinojosa says her run for governor is built around two promises: save public education and put money back into Texans’ pockets.
She carries a big stick on education. Hinojosa has served on the House Public Education Committee, helped lead opposition to vouchers and raised concerns about Texas schools facing closure. She is also known for asking hard questions of the Texas Education Agency and the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
She first ran for the Austin school board—and won—after the state tried to shut down her son’s school. Hinojosa says she would revamp the state’s accountability system with less reliance on STAAR testing and A–F ratings. She wants higher teacher pay, smaller classes, more money in classrooms, an end to state takeovers and a return to local control. She opposes vouchers, wants to replace Education Commissioner Mike Morath and says she would cut TEA bureaucracy and outside contracts.
Those issues should sound familiar here. Rural schools are often the largest employer in town, the center of community life and one of the last institutions holding a shrinking community together.
Hinojosa’s economic proposal would use part of the Texas Rainy Day Fund to send $1,500 payments to Texas families. She says the fund has about $17 billion and would leave $10 billion in savings while returning the rest to taxpayers.
A $1,500 check will not permanently lower insurance, groceries, utilities or property taxes. Questions remain about who would qualify, what the proposal would cost and whether a Republican Legislature would agree.
But her point is clear: Why is the state sitting on billions while Texas families struggle to keep up? Hinojosa says Texas government has become too responsive to billionaires, mega-donors and corporate interests while ordinary Texans pay more and expect less. “Is this the billionaires’ world, and are we just living in it?” she asked the folks at her rally on Sunday.
That question may land differently here than Republican leaders expect. We have spent years hearing about the Texas economic miracle while hospitals struggle, schools close, insurance rates climb and local governments have a harder time providing basic services.
Hinojosa also came to Amarillo to learn more about data centers.
She walked the along the perimeter of the Fermi Matador construction site and met with residents who have been asking the tough questions about water, electricity, land and infrastructure. Later, she hosted a roundtable with residents from the Claude area who talked about what large-scale industrial development could mean for their land, community and future.
Listening is a start. Rural Texans will need to know whether Hinojosa would give counties real authority to evaluate these projects, require developers to pay infrastructure costs and allow communities to pause, condition or reject projects when the risks are too great. But she is showing up where the questions are being asked.
I am not suggesting rural Texas is suddenly going to vote Democratic. It is not.
I am saying Hinojosa is talking about issues that matter here—and, in some cases, more directly than the Republican leadership rural Texans have supported for years. Rural voters may disagree with her solutions, question how she would pay for them or never get past the “D” beside her name. But they ought to hear what she is proposing before they dismiss her.
As I’ve written before, Republicans have long counted on rural Texas without competing very hard for its votes. Democrats have too often treated rural communities as places to visit during election season rather than places to understand.
Hinojosa is testing both assumptions.
I am sharing Hinojosa’s platform here not as an endorsement, but as a challenge to us as rural voters. We should not give either party our support automatically. Candidates from both parties should have to earn our votes—especially in rural Texas.
Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers, including the Texas Rural Reporter.