Austin, Texas: Gina Hinojosa Beats Greg Abbott for Governor as Abbott Concedes, Becoming First Latina Governor

Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic state representative from Austin, defeated Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday night to win the governorship of Texas. Abbott conceded at 10 p.m. at his watch party in Austin, and the Associated Press called the race for Hinojosa.

"After looking at all the details of every county in the entire state, I made the decision to go ahead and call Gina Hinojosa and congratulate her on winning this race for governor of the state of Texas," Abbott told supporters, in USA Today's account of the speech. He added that there were still votes to be counted, but that mathematically his campaign could not win. In the AP count, Hinojosa had 4,009,886 votes to 2,935,343 for Abbott, with 6,681 of 9,900 precincts reporting. CNN projected Hinojosa the winner shortly after the concession.

Hinojosa, 52, will be the first Latina governor in Texas history, The Texas Tribune reported. The last Democrat, and the last woman, to hold the office was Ann Richards, who was elected in 1990 and lost reelection to George W. Bush in 1994. Abbott has been governor since January 2015, and a win would have given him a record fourth term. He had beaten each of his three previous opponents by double digits.

A school board fight that led to the mansion

Hinojosa, a Brownsville native and a labor lawyer, entered politics in 2012 when her son's elementary school in Austin faced closure. She won a seat on the Austin school board, became its president, and helped keep the school open. Voters sent her to the Texas House in 2016, and she is in her fifth term representing an Austin district. Public schools stayed at the center of her campaign. She promised to end the private school voucher program Abbott pushed into law, to fire his appointed education commissioner, Mike Morath, on her first day, and to return 1,500 dollars to each Texas household from the state savings account, The Texas Tribune reported. She also called for lawmakers to regulate data centers.

Money could not close the gap

Abbott started the year with more than 100 million dollars in campaign cash on hand, a sum Hinojosa never came close to matching. His advertising spending reached nearly 118 million dollars, against about 26 million dollars for her campaign, a gap of more than four to one, The Texas Tribune reported. It was not enough on a night when more than 7.7 million Texans had already voted early, a midterm record, and when Democrats also won the state's U.S. Senate race. How much of her agenda Hinojosa can pass will depend on the final results in the lieutenant governor and Texas House races, the Tribune noted. She is set to take office on January 19, 2027.