Gina Hinojosa is making herself known to Dallasites

On May 16, Texas Rep. and governor nominee Gina Hinojosa hosted a block party along Fairmount St. in uptown Dallas, inviting locals and press to learn about her campaign. 

The event comes approximately six months before Texans vote between Democratic frontrunner Hinojosa and Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor. The block party featured tablings by local political organizations like UTD Democrats and food trucks. Locals walked through the block, talked to fellow community members and enjoyed dance performances inspired by KPop Demon Hunters. 

The highlight of the party, however, was the series of speeches delivered by local leaders and government officials like Texas Rep. Venton Jones and Hinojosa herself. Speakers conveyed Hinojosa’s potential to change Texas politics.

Hinojosa’s platform priorities include the issues of affordability, healthcare and public education. 

“When I am governor, we will save Texas schools by wiping clean the corrupt vendor contracts and using that money to pay teachers their worth,” Hinojosa said. “We will have abundant and affordable electricity when we make the corporations pay their fair share. We will insure every Texas child and we will rein in the insurance companies that charge us more but make it harder to see the doctors that we need and get the medications that we need.”

The central theme of Hinojosa’s speech was the alleged damage that Abbott caused during his over 11 years as Texas governor. Hinojosa accused Abbott of taking taxpayer dollars meant for public-benefitting programs to further his personal agenda. She further criticized the “shipping in” of foreign labor to build data centers and condemned Abbott’s efforts to fund initiatives that gave him financial benefits. 

The Retrograde was unable to identify corroborating information regarding Hinojosa’s foreign labor claim.

In anticipation of the November election, The Retrograde surveyed UTD students on Instagram regarding their primary concern when voting for government officials. In this May 15 survey, 39 percent chose immigration, 28 percent chose the economy while healthcare and foreign policy came to a tie receiving 16 percent of votes each. In an interview with The Retrograde, Hinojosa answered questions on the issues UTD students were most concerned with.

Hinojosa stated that current immigration policy in Texas has targeted local communities as Abbott encourages detention facilities owned by private prison companies to ramp up enforcement. She specifically spoke about Liam Ramos, a five year old who was held at a Dilley, Texas detention facility in Jan. 2026. 

“Greg Abbott has created a new kind of licensing that allows for the locking up of little children and their parents like little Liam,” Hinojosa said. “Remember that story of Liam being locked up in Dilley? That is because no other state allows that to happen. Greg Abbott allows it to happen.”

Hinojosa further stated that Abbott requires local police to hold victims of crimes until immigration enforcement arrives. She added that Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare struggled to prosecute child sex abuse cases because key witnesses are frequently detained, deported or afraid to testify.

“The most important thing we can do is to use the voice of the governor for all Texans and to say these raids are attacking our communities and our families,” Hinojosa said. “Many of us come from mixed-status families so what is happening right now literally hits home. It is making us less safe, not more.” 

The most important thing we can do is to use the voice of the governor for all Texans and to say these raids are attacking our communities and our families.

— Gina Hinojosa, candidate for Texas governor

Hinojosa also partially blamed Abbott for the rise in cost of living, stating that he has raised electricity bills by an average of $40 per month. 

“During winter storm Uri in 2021, when many of us were freezing in our homes, too many to death, because the power was out, the gas companies withheld gas that our grid needed to operate,” Hinojosa said. “Greg Abbott let them get away with it and got a million dollar check to his campaign from the CEO of one of the gas companies. That’s an example of the Greg Abbott corruption tax.”

The issue of healthcare is also one that Hinojosa has centered in her campaign. She said private equity and large insurance and drug companies are making healthcare unaffordable for “regular” Texans. Her plan to fight against healthcare unaffordability is to ban “bad faith” insurance coverage denials for health appointments so that companies are unable to drive up healthcare costs.

“We have the most children without health insurance of any state,” Hinojosa said. “85 percent of these kids are American children. We can insure all of these kids by expanding Medicaid and pulling down the federal funds that we have already paid for.”

Reflecting on the past, Hinojosa emphasized the strength of the American middle class when she was growing up, alluding to its present fragility. 

“[Does] anybody remember the American dream?” Hinojosa said. “That was the promise that people my age grew up with. It is the promise that if you work hard, you get an education, have a full-time job, you can afford your own home, you can afford to pay all your bills, you can afford to have children and to even send those children to college, [you can afford] to take a vacation once in a while and to retire with dignity. That is what this election is about. That is what this campaign is about. It is nothing less than the American dream. It is what we are fighting for.”