Speaking at a campaign event in Houston on Wednesday evening, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa called her race against Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott the "most important" race in America.
Her comments came during a speech in South Houston commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was signed into law by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 6 of that year.
Hinojosa, an Austin state representative, reflected on her participation in last year's efforts by Texas Democratsto break quorum in the state legislatureto try to deny state Republicans the opportunity to pass a controversial mid-decade redistricting map. Texas Republicans ultimately succeeded in their efforts, passing anew congressional map at the behest of President Donald Trumpthat could help their party potentially secure five additional seats in the U.S. House during the November election.
On Wednesday, Hinojosa said she believed Republicans would continue to gerrymander Texas to the point of blocking Democrats from ever regaining a majority in Congress.
"Next year, they will slice and dice Texas, drawing new maps to eliminate five Democrats in Congress," she said. "Two years later, Texas will gain another five seats in Congress through the census — because we are growing faster than the other states. ... When that happens, if the same Austin Republicans are still in power, they will redraw those seats for themselves."
Hinojosa said that if she’s elected as the next governor of Texas, she would veto any further attempts at partisan redistricting.
"When an election is decided before a single ballot is cast, no matter which party you belong to, we all lose. We are no longer America," she said. "But a rigged map still has to make its way to the governor's desk. ... That makes this office the last line standing between one party and permanent control of Congress, and it makes this race the most important in America."
According to several recent polls compiled by theTexas Politics Project, Hinojosa is trailing Abbott by an average of 6 percentage points across six polls in the past two months. However, one of those polls, conducted by Fox News late last month, showed Hinojosa down by 1 point with a margin of error of +/-3%.
Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to the state's highest office in more than 30 years, since Ann Richards won in 1990.
Abbott, seeking a record fourth term as governor, has also outraised Hinojosa by a wide margin, according to theDallas Morning News,whichreportedAbbott took in over $25 million from March to June while Hinojosa received just over $6 million.
Hinojosa told reporters after her speech Wednesday that money alone does not win elections. She referred to Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's defeat of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in this year's GOP Senate primary.
"We see again and again in this state and in this country that all the money in the world can't buy you an election," Hinojosa said. "We saw it in fact in Ken Paxton's race where he was outspent 10 to 1. So Greg Abbott's problem is that what you use campaign money for is to tell people who you are and what you're about. People know who he is and what he's about. They want change and it's why he can't break 50% in any poll."
Abbott has recently taken on the rapid expansion of data centers in Texas, ordering a pause on the construction of new facilities until they are audited by state energy regulators over their water and electricity usage.
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