By The Daily Caller (U.S.) | Created at 2026-09-25 22:46:45 | Updated at 2026-09-26 02:23:24
8 hours ago
Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa says she is ditching the culture war politics of Woke 1.0.
She is reportedly moving away from traditional fixations on pronouns, child sex changes, and DEI initiatives to focus on a little bit of pragmatism: prioritizing issues voters actually care about, like the economy.
Hinojosa has made public schools, healthcare, groceries and utilities costs, and ending Texas’ “costly data center madness” the main pillars of her campaign against three-term Republican incumbent Greg Abbott. On Friday, she told Politico she has moved on from the left-versus-right culture war issues. (RELATED: Longtime Conservatives In Texas Consider The Unthinkable: Voting For A Democrat)
“We’re not doing the culture wars. We are talking about how we’re gonna deliver for Texans, how we’re gonna make life easier for working families,” Hinojosa said. “And so in that sense, I think that has to be the way forward for Democrats, to focus on the economic issues and not take the bait when it comes to the culture wars.”
She even released a recent ad in which she describes her pronouns as “mom, Texan and soon-to-be governor.”
Of course, Hinojosa leaned into the culture wars before — when it was politically expedient. Abbott’s campaign, for example, has attacked her voting record as a state representative.
In 2023, she voted against a bill banning doctors from performing certain sex change surgeries on minors. Opposing a 2021 bill that would have cracked down on biological boys playing in high school girls’ sports, she joined fellow Democrats on the floor of the Texas state house waving a pink and blue transgender flag.
But recent polls suggest that erasing her Woke 1.0 past has worked out well so far.
A September NPR/Marist poll gave Hinojosa a 3-point lead over Abbott, 49 to 46 percent. It also showed that, among independents, Hinojosa leads Abbott by 13 points. Another poll, commissioned by the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, found that Abbott only leads by a single point. And the RealClearPolitics average puts Abbott ahead by two points.
These razor-thin margins might be driven, in part, by Abbott’s embrace of Big Tech, AI, and the data center industry — all against the backdrop of a national affordability crisis. Recently, he has tried to backpedal as grassroots opposition to data centers has grown bigger. But only four months ago, Abbott shared a stage with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, touting tech and AI investments in his state. (RELATED: Abbott’s Texas Tech Boom Is Built On Broken Promises)
“If we’re going to be the leader in technology, which we are, if we are going to be the leader in AI, which we presently are, it’s just going to require trillions of dollars of investments,” he said. “If we don’t invest in it, China will be the global leader in this. And so to me, it’s not whether. This is a must.”
Many rural Texans beg to differ.
Speaking to Politico about data center and power line proposals in August, Republican county commissioner Shawn Nanny said he has heard from many conservatives who believe Abbott does not actually care about their concerns or their way of life in the rural, sparsely populated parts of Texas: he only wants access to the land and natural resources.
“What I’m hearing is, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a Democrat in there and grit our teeth and bear it, but hopefully we’ll come out of it the following election,’” Nanny said. “They’re so upset; they just want [Abbott] out.”
Meanwhile, Hinojosa has attacked Abbott’s pro-data center track record. In August, she released a 30-second ad, targeting rural counties and disillusioned conservatives, accusing Abbott of “selling out” voters to Big Tech firms.
It will still take a lot for Hinojosa to flip the seat blue. The last time Texas had a Democratic governor was in 1995, when Ann Richards finished out a single four-year term. But in an election year when vast numbers of Americans are fed up with high grocery and gas prices, data centers, and politicians who bend over backward for corporate interests, Hinojosa leaving culture war issues on the sidelines might do the trick.
