- Coming up on "Austin InSight," she's considered the Democratic front runner for Governor of Texas.

We'll have an in-depth conversation with state representative Gina Hinojosa.

"Austin InSight" starts now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(upbeat theme music) (upbeat theme music continues) - Hello and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

Right now, she is far from a household name across Texas, but most political observers consider her to be the front runner in the Democratic Party primary race for governor.

She is Austin state representative Gina Hinojosa.

We have an in-depth conversation with her coming up, but first, some background.

Hinojosa is 52 years old, married with two children.

She is an Austinite, but was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley.

She comes from a politically active family.

Her father, Gilberto Hinojosa, was chair of the State Democratic Party from 2012 until last year when he stepped down.

Gina Hinojosa is a University of Texas graduate.

She later earned a law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

After serving on the Austin ISD school board, she ran for and won a seat in the legislature, where she is now serving her fifth term.

Public education has been a priority policy area for her, including most recently vigorous opposition to Governor Greg Abbott's push for a school vouchers program, which was approved in last year's legislative session.

- This fight for our public schools returns us to our roots.

It returns us to what matters to our kids and communities, and I believe that this fight against vouchers and this fight against the billionaires for our public schools is this wellspring in Texas that is going to shift the politics in this state.

I believe this is going to be an awakening, not so much Democrat versus Republican, but more a populist movement where now we have everybody versus the billionaires and the private equity companies and the multinational corporations that are bilking our communities for all their worth.

- That is just one of several topics we addressed in our interview.

Representative Gina Hinojosa, thank you so much for being with us today.

- It's my pleasure.

Thank you.

- So, representative, you are running to be governor in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than 30 years, and not to mention against a longtime incumbent.

It's an uphill battle, which you know full well.

Why do you think you are the person to change that?

- So I've spent almost 10 years in the Texas House, mostly fighting for our public schools.

In that fight, I've made relationships and alliances with Democrats, Republicans, independents, from suburban and rural areas, in support of our neighborhood public schools, and especially on the voucher fight.

I was the co-chair of that voucher fight in 2023 with James Talarico, and we won, remember?

We beat the governor.

We beat back his voucher bill, and what I found is that so many more Texans agree with me on that issue of our public schools and on so many other issues, and it is my belief that Texans, when they hear what I am fighting for, that they will get behind this race, and so our public schools are very much a part of our identity as Texans.

I'm a mom.

That's why I only ever ran for office was because my son's school was threatened for closure, and it is that experience of our neighborhood public schools that is a universal and cuts across partisanship, and we saw indeed that there were lots of Republicans and independents who opposed that voucher scam.

- Education has certainly proved to be a top issue for you, and we're gonna get more into your top priorities if elected governor in a second, but first, for a little recent historical context, the recent track record for Texas, Beto O'Rourke lost to Greg Abbott in 2022 by about 10 percentage points.

That's substantial, and of course, he came much closer, though, to beating Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race, and to note as well, President Trump won Texas in 2024 with a more than 13% lead over Kamala Harris.

Why do you think now Texas is ready for a Democrat as governor?

- Let me give you a little fun fact that we just uncovered.

There was an independent poll released last week, and it found that, amongst independents, I am leading Governor Abbott by 13 points.

That same poll was done when Beto O'Rourke ran against Greg Abbott, and he was trailing Abbott by 13 points, right?

So I'm already performing 26 points better than Beto O'Rourke in this same poll amongst independents.

We are at a time in Texas and in this country where so many people are just setting aside politics as usual and those partisan labels because politics is broken and people want change.

Greg Abbott is more of the same.

- And to become governor, you're going to need to win over people who have voted for Trump or Abbott in the past.

What is your message to them?

How do you plan to win over those voters?

- So Texans are struggling.

We are a world economic powerhouse, but Texans are the most uninsured of any people in the nation.

We know that the cost of housing is more and more out of reach for Texans.

We know that electric bills are eating up more and more of our income as Texas families.

So Texans are struggling and Greg Abbott has not been responsive.

What I have seen in the Texas House is the problem we have is so much policy is driven by vendors, driven by Greg Abbott's donors, and so a lot of our big ticket items are just vendor contracts to his donors.

It's not just me saying it.

There was an independent watchdog group that found Greg Abbott's given almost a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to his donors.

So there's a real problem when it comes to corruption in Texas and it starts with Greg Abbott.

We need to end the vendor contracts that don't serve the people of Texas and make sure we're investing in what matters.

- And that's certainly been a key part of your messaging as well, being very critical of these billionaires and their influence, you say, and you've, in response, described yourself as a populist.

Can you elaborate more on that?

- Right, so for so long, we've thought about politics as the right versus left.

Are you a progressive Democrat?

Are you a moderate Democrat?

And so forth.

I don't think those labels serve us anymore because what I have found is that we're all in the same boat, really, against the billionaires at the very top who have access to the governor, and so at this point, we have a system in Texas that is being used against the vast majority of us, whether we're Democrats or Republican, and it is to serve those 1% of Greg Abbott's donors.

So that is the people all being in the same boat.

It is a populist agenda and it is actually our historical roots in Texas.

LBJ's grandfather was part of the Farmer's Alliance that pushed back against the big railroads because the people of Texas were being taken advantage of.

The same thing is happening today.

So we're reaching back to our past to do something very Texas, and that is to pursue an agenda that benefits all the people of Texas.

- And we've brought up donors and money.

The Abbott campaign, over the weekend, reported raising more than $100 million.

That's a lot of money.

How do you plan to compete with that?

- We will raise the money we need.

We will need to raise tens of millions of dollars and we need people to invest in our campaign.

What we have found so far is everyday Texans are who are mostly contributing to this race and I'm proud of that.

So Greg Abbott has a lot of money, but his lift, in many ways, is harder.

People have known Greg Abbott for almost 20, I'm sorry, almost 12 years now.

He actually has been in statewide office for almost a quarter of a century, right?

When you put it all together, so it's gonna be really hard for Greg Abbott to undo that negative impression that people know him by.

The polling shows he's deeply unpopular, whereas my lift is just to communicate who I am to people.

Once I communicate that, it'll be easier to win their support behind policies and the agenda that we are pursuing.

- And let's delve more into that, who you are.

Let's talk about your background now.

You are from Austin.

You represent Austin in the Texas legislature, but you did grow up in the Valley, which is something you've highlighted in your campaign videos.

Let's take a look.

(thunder booms) (Gina speaks in Spanish) - Fight back.

That's the lesson my grandmother taught me growing up right here in the Valley.

In my hardest fights, I hear her voice tell me.

(Gina speaks in Spanish) I came up in Brownsville public schools where no one had much money, but we had a strong sense of family and community.

When I started my own family, we built our lives around those same values.

- That Valley connection is important politically though.

Long thought to be a Democratic Party stronghold, but voters there appeared to swing Republican and toward President Trump in 2024.

Why do you think that is?

And what's your prediction for the Valley this year?

- What I found last election cycle is that lots of Texans along the border were angry about border security.

Now, when I go back and I visit, we've been back six times to the Valley since I launched.

There's a 180 on that issue.

Everybody wants secure borders, but what's happening right now is an attack on the community, the Latino community, and I was just visiting with some people who voted for Trump before and who voted for Abbott, some builders.

They're so angry right now about the immigration raids and everybody you talk to on the border that I've encountered wants to talk about these immigration rates because they feel targeted by these indiscriminate raids and sweeps.

It is not making us more safe.

It is making us less safe.

It is tearing up American families, and what we know is I talked to the Harris County, the Houston district attorney who said, actually, he has predators, sexual predators he cannot prosecute because the witnesses have been deported, right?

So there used to be an exception for these kind of people.

We wouldn't deport people who could help us hold predators to account, hold them to justice.

Now, there's just no defining who is deported and who is not, and as a result, we're all less safe.

- Now, among the Democratic hopefuls, this election cycle in Texas, this election cycle is making a lot of national news.

We've seen you on the national news, but perhaps you are maybe less well known than, for example, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett or Representative James Talarico, who we've had on the show prior.

- Yes.

- He has a large following on social media.

Are you concerned right now about statewide name recognition?

- Well, slow and steady wins the day.

We are building up that name recognition.

I never meant to run for governor.

In fact, I never meant to run for office.

I felt compelled to do it when my son's school was threatened for closure, and now I feel compelled to do it because we are in a moment in history when so many of us are compelled to do things we never thought we'd have to do before.

We are in a dark place in this state, in this country, and everyday Americans are called to do everything we can to bring us back to a place that is supportive of our values as Americans and as Texans.

That's why I decided to run for governor.

So we're building that campaign.

We've had great enthusiasm about the race.

We are getting some national interest now, and I note that that will grow, but mostly we are getting interest from the people of Texas, and that's what is so inspiring.

- Now, let's talk policy.

If you are elected, what are your first priorities as governor?

- Well, public schools.

We've talked about that before.

So, as I mentioned before, so much of our money is going to vendor contracts.

I had a press conference last year and I was surrounded by MAGA moms, in fact, who supported my bill idea of wiping clean the slate, clean of the vendor contracts that aren't serving our kids, and prioritizing spending on teachers, prioritizing spending on smaller class sizes, on special education, and on school safety.

This is not rocket science.

It's putting our money where it matters and investing in our kids.

So that would be a priority of mine.

It is deeply popular.

People support, Texans support our Texas public school teachers, but they're not getting the support they need, and there's been an exodus of teachers leaving the classroom in Texas.

So we need to stop that and change that.

We need to make housing more affordable.

Right now, we know private equity is buying up a lot of single-family housing in Texas.

Travis County has a large percentage of its housing being bought up by private equity.

So does the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

We need to reign in the private equity.

Home ownership should be for the people of Texas so they have a place to live and not to maximize profits of shareholders.

I'm also proposing cash-back for renters.

So renters pay property taxes too, but never get the benefit of the property tax cuts that the legislature pushes.

I have voted for and support cash-back for renters to help them be able to save up to someday afford their own home.

When it comes to our grid, we mentioned that before, what has happened is Texans are paying about $40 more on average since 2021 because of the shenanigans that happened when our gas producers withheld energy from the grid to make big profits.

That happened during Winter Storm Uri.

Texans died.

So now we're all paying those profits, billions of dollars in profits.

We're about to have the same thing happen when it comes to data centers.

Greg Abbott just announced we're gonna have more data centers in Texas than any other state in the nation, and reports indicate that we will spend almost $600 more a year on electricity costs to pay for that.

Well, these data centers are owned by some of the richest men in the world.

When I'm governor, they will pay for themselves.

So those are just some priority policies that we have rolled out, but, generally, the agenda is to make the government of Texas work for the people of Texas, who pay for it.

- Now, you've mentioned some pretty big topics that are causing national conversations, but let's talk again about immigration, another national conversation we're seeing play out right now.

Governor Abbott has made a key part of his messaging the border operation Lone Star, deploying our National Guard to enforce immigration in other states.

How will your approach to immigration differ from Governor Abbott's?

- Well, first, what is happening right now is a targeting of the Latino community that is unacceptable.

So we were in the Valley two weeks ago and heard about an immigration sweep that took an American citizen, because the sweeps happen, they take you first, and they ask questions later.

He was still being detained several days after he was apprehended, because he was, like my mother, a naturalized citizen, and the whole process for naturalization is now being questioned.

Well, that's unacceptable.

Latino Texans are as Texan and as American as anyone else.

We make up a large percentage of the population in Texas.

We should be treated as valued members of our state and our community.

So, when I'm governor, I will stand up for all Texans, and including our Latino Texans, and we need to make sure that we have a humane approach to immigration.

I want border security and we need to have and I insist on border security, but we should not be having this indiscriminate targeting of our American families and our communities, like what is happening now.

It doesn't make anybody feel more safe.

In fact, many people feel threatened by it.

I was talking to this young person in Dallas last week who asked me, "What do I do if ICE grabs me and tries to take me even if I have proof of my citizenship?"

He was scared, right?

Texans, Americans are scared about what is happening right now, and we need a different approach.

We need to stop this indiscriminate targeting of our community here in Texas.

- And speaking of different approaches, we've talked about education being a central issue for you, and the governor has been recently successful in getting policy passed, like school vouchers, which you mentioned you vigorously opposed.

Education advocates say, on top of that, public schools remain underfunded.

If elected governor, what is your plan to counter that?

- Right, so we put our money in what matters, and that's our neighborhood public schools.

Right now, a lot of what we send in property taxes to the state doesn't get spent on our public schools.

We're told it does, but it actually doesn't, because Greg Abbott has kept the amount that we spend per pupil so suppressed, right?

And so what happens is our property taxes are going to all sorts of other things instead of our neighborhood public schools in this state.

Not even our property poor school districts are getting the benefit of our property tax dollars, which is supposed to happen under the Robin Hood or recapture plan that Texas has in law.

So we need to stop with all the extras, all the pet projects of the governor, all the contracts to his donors, and we need to invest in what matters, and our neighborhood public schools, being essential for the thriving of our children and their future, needs to be a priority.

- Can you undo vouchers?

- I believe we can undo vouchers, and let me say this.

I believe that there are Republicans in the Texas House who want to undo vouchers, and even in the Texas Senate, they do not feel free to vote their conscience because what happened in 2023 is we had Republicans stand with Democrats in support of our neighborhood public schools and oppose vouchers, and Greg Abbott put in a million dollars against each of those Republicans and was able to beat them in their primary election.

So it made the rest of the Republicans afraid to do it and they feel like they have to vote in lockstep with the governor, even though they tell me privately they do not support vouchers.

When we win in November, it will create a space and a freedom even amongst our Republican legislators to vote their districts and their conscience.

- And vouchers certainly proved to be interesting in this most recent legislative section with even Republicans, like you mentioned, rural Republicans deviating from party lines in regard to this issue, and in these last few minutes, let's talk about your vision for Texas.

What does the future of Texas look like under your leadership?

- The future should be bright.

Right now, it feels so uncertain and somewhat scary for most Texans, but again, we're a world economic powerhouse.

We should be using our investment, our property taxes to invest in the people of Texas.

Let me give you another example.

So we are proud of our small business owners in Texas.

Their ambition is very bold, very Texas style in its vision of really providing for family, owning your own business, providing for family, investing in your community, but our small business owners struggle in Texas.

Our small business owners in Texas make less in profits than the national average, for instance.

So I have rolled out tax policy to give our small business owners a sales tax.

Instead of prioritizing Amazon with sales tax cuts or property tax cuts, let's cut the sales tax for our small business owners instead.

Let's put our money where our mouth is.

We say we support our small businesses.

We should invest in the small businesses of Texas.

Those are just some examples of how we can use our tax dollars to really benefit our communities and the people of Texas.

- And, finally, for people who don't know you, what do you want them to know and really understand about you on a personal level?

- I never wanted to do this.

I never meant to run for office.

I made my husband promise to never run for office before we got married over 26 years ago, but I feel compelled to do it, and I know a lot of people are saying, "Well, I've never voted before."

They're saying, "I didn't mean to."

I just talked to somebody.

She said, "I never meant to do a podcast.

I feel like I had to do a podcast because nobody else was doing it, and we need the truth out there."

So many of us are called to do courageous things we never thought we'd have to do, but that is meeting this moment in history.

We are all called in this moment, a moment not of our choosing for most of us, but we are here and we have a real opportunity as Texans to be the difference, not just for this state, but the nation, and so while I never meant to be here, sometimes, you know, life has other plans, and here I am.

We're running to win in Texas.

We're getting great support from Texans, great enthusiasm, and so proud and happy to be able to talk about this campaign on this show.

- Well, and if you were to win, you'd also be the first governor from the Valley ever.

- That's right.

- Wow, okay.

- That's right.

- For the Valley, that's, I know, a big deal.

- Yes.

- We certainly covered a lot of ground today.

Representative Hinojosa, thank you so much for speaking with us.

- My pleasure.

Thank you.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues) - We have invited governor Greg Abbott for an interview on "Austin InSight" regarding his reelection and other topics several times.

In responses from both his office staff and campaign, the governor has declined our request, but before we go, we want to highlight a legendary and beloved Austin musician, Marcia Ball.

A fixture on the local music scene, her fast fingers have danced across the piano keyboard for more than 50 years.

In addition to being a musician, she's been an effective advocate for local musicians, founding a nonprofit to help aging musicians with housing and other needs, but last year, Ball was diagnosed with ALS.

She's still playing but not able to sing these days.

Fortunately, there are plenty of recordings of her unmistakably New Orleans-influenced sound, like this snippet from a 1979 appearance on Austin City Limits.

♪ More and more ♪ (lively blues music) ♪ Tired of being alone ♪ ♪ I've got my baby on the phone ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Trying with all my might ♪ ♪ To have a good time Saturday night ♪ - It is my honor to welcome Marcia Ball to the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

(audience applauding) - [Laura] Ball was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2018, and in an interview, she talked about her early connection to music.

- Growing up in Louisiana, growing up anywhere in the '60s, but in Louisiana, especially on the radio, you know, we had soul music, but we had Cajun music, and we had all that New Orleans stuff.

Fats Domino was the biggest thing.

I just was fortunate enough to grow up in a place and time where the kind of music that was happening then was something that I could absorb and then go on to hopefully expand, and that's how my whole musical life has unfolded.

- Last week, she was honored at a special event at the Paramount Theater, a big thank-you for her many contributions to Austin's music community.

And that's our show.

Thank you so much for watching.

You can see our stories on the Austin PBS YouTube channel or watch full episodes for free in the PBS app.

And as we leave you, here's more of Marcia Ball, who wants all of us to shine bright.

We'll see you next time.

(lively blues music) ♪ As we go around the sun, holdin' on when the corners come ♪ ♪ Puttin' ourselves out on the line ♪ ♪ Never heed the warnin' sign ♪ ♪ Walk into the world ahead ♪ ♪ Learn everything that's ever been said ♪ ♪ See everything that you can find, open up your mind ♪ ♪ Shine bright, go on and take somebody with you ♪ ♪ Shine bright, that's how you really live ♪ ♪ You shine bright, it's a gift of givin' ♪ ♪ When you feel the spirit ♪ ♪ Step into the light, shine bright ♪ (lively blues music continues) ♪ Choose your heroes, choose 'em well, ♪ ♪ Listen to the stories they tell ♪ ♪ Feel the planet goin' round and round ♪ ♪ Moon and stars are comin' unwound ♪ ♪ Love your neighbor, teach your child, life, love ♪ - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(upbeat flute music)