Higher prices at the pump and rising electric bills could be Gina Hinojosa’s path to the Texas governor’s mansion — if voters decide to elect a Democrat for the first time in more than 30 years.
Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin, is blaming three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for a surge in electric costs.
And she is urging him to suspend the state’s 20-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax to give motorists some relief, saying she hears concerns about spiking energy costs on the campaign trail.
“People are like, ‘Yes, that’s right. That’s happened to me,’” Hinojosa said in an interview.
Abbott has presided over an economic boom for most of his 11-plus years as governor. Texas’ unemployment rate trails the national average, and the state’s population is growing at the expense of high-priced states on the East and West coasts.
But Texas hasn’t been able to escape the nationwide inflation, and Republicans are being dragged down by President Donald Trump’s flagging approval ratings and the rising cost of gasoline in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Abbott’s campaign argues that Hinojosa’s proposals are unworkable and that Texas is succeeding because of consistent Republican leadership. At $3.98 per gallon, regular gasoline in Texas was up more than $1.20 from a year earlier Tuesday while still 11 percent below the national average, according to AAA.
“Texas continues to outperform other large states when it comes to affordability, and we are not going to stop in our efforts to keep Texas affordable,” Abbott campaign spokesperson Eduardo Leal said in an email.
The gas tax is the state’s main source of highway funds, and it also helps pay for local schools. Leal suggested that cutting it would be a move to “defund Texas public schools.”
Two recent polls show Hinojosa trailing Abbott by 5 or 6 percentage points, which is closer than the previous three Democrats who’ve challenged Abbott. Both polls show that affordability and high prices are among voters’ top concerns.
A survey of likely general election voters by Texas Public Opinion Research last month showed 21 percent of respondents ranked affordability as the most important issue. It showed Abbott leading Hinojosa 48 percent to 43 percent, with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
A separate poll of registered voters by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Austin, showed 61 percent were “very concerned” about higher gasoline prices and 15 percent ranked inflation and higher prices as the most important issue in their lives.
The April poll showed Abbott with 44 percent of votes and Hinojosa with 38 percent of votes in a hypothetical matchup. It had a margin of error of 2.83 percentage points.
It’s unclear how much voters blame Abbott for higher prices. The last Democrat elected governor of Texas was Ann Richards in 1990.
But Abbott and the state’s Republican leadership will have to cope with backlash to the economy under Trump, including higher prices in the wake of the Iran war, James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said in an email.
At the same time, Trump remains popular with Texas Republicans, Henson said.
Republicans will need to “separate themselves somewhat from the national dynamic without appearing critical of the Trump administration in a way that triggers backlash from Trump and/or the share of the Texas GOP electorate that still holds Trump in high regard,” he said.
Hinojosa said Abbott and Republican legislators are responsible for at least some of the higher prices.
For instance, Abbott has been a full-throated cheerleader for data center construction in Texas, at a time when there’s growing concern about the booming industry’s impact on electric rates, water supplies and rural quality of life. And he’s taken at least $1.6 million in contributions from tech executives in the last year.
“After 12 years of Greg Abbott, the system has grift all throughout it,” Hinojosa said. “The system is working against the people who are funding it, the taxpayer.”
Hinojosa said Abbott has bowed to big-money interests on a variety of issues, including pushing state lawmakers to adopt a voucher system that some families can use to help fund education in private schools. On his campaign website, Abbott says he’s focused on cutting taxes and promoting business in Texas.
The financial firepower behind Abbott remains a major advantage.
Abbott had $96 million in cash available in his campaign account last month, following big contributions from oil, real estate and utility interests, according to the nonprofit Transparency USA. Hinojosa had about $617,000, according to the same source.
Winter storm fallout
Amid a slew of major storms and a push for a stronger grid, Abbott and the Republican-controlled state Legislature have been in power during an era of rising utility bills.
When Winter Storm Uri struck the state in 2021 — killing more than 240 people — utility companies were stuck with billions in unexpected costs, while a handful of natural gas suppliers and generators reaped windfalls.
In response, state lawmakers enacted a series of laws that passed the price spike on to consumers, usually by adding small monthly increases to customers’ gas and electric bills.
Kelcy Warren, whose pipeline company made $2.4 billion during the storm, gave Abbott a $1 million campaign contribution later in 2021. Energy Transfer, where Warren has served as executive chair, didn’t respond to a request for comment this week.
Hinojosa has called the price increases the “Greg Abbott Corruption Tax” and tagged Abbott as the “mordida governor,” using the Spanish word for a bribe or payoff.
Abbott’s campaign didn’t respond to a question about the storm and higher utility rates. The governor has argued that state officials overhauled the electric grid and that it has performed well since the storm in 2021.
“That is because of everything that we’ve done over the last five years,” he said on a radio show in January.
Two other candidates are expected to be on the ballot for governor this year — libertarian Pat Dixon and independent Jenn Mack Raphoon.
Raphoon advocates for hard-right positions, including reasserting Texas’ historic position as an independent nation. She didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Dixon criticized Abbott’s policy of using tax incentives to attract new businesses like data centers, saying companies should pay for their own infrastructure.
“Growth is great if it’s sustainable,” Dixon said in an interview. It’s not sustainable if you’re taxing people and using funds that the governor uses to hand money out to corporations, because you think that’s where jobs come from.”
To be sure, Abbott is still a formidable politician. Despite the uproar over Uri, he won reelection in 2022 with about 55 percent of the vote over Democrat Beto O’Rourke. And Abbott started this year with a $105 million campaign fund.
O’Rourke, who served in Congress and ran for a Senate seat, had higher name recognition than Hinojosa at this point in the campaign seasons. The University of Texas poll showed that many voters hadn’t made up their mind about her.
This year, Democrats hope to benefit from another high-profile race in Texas — the one for Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s seat.
Democratic challenger James Talarico, a state representative, is making national headlines and raking in millions of dollars in campaign contributions. Cornyn is in a runoff for the GOP nomination against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a favorite of many Trump voters.
Hinojosa and Talarico worked together in the Texas statehouse. And they have coordinated some of their messaging on the campaign trail — including attacking Republicans over high energy prices.
Historically, Democrats in Texas have failed to field candidates for some statehouse and congressional seats. That’s not the case this year, and Hinojosa said her party’s full slate will also help bring out voters.
“There are a lot of synergies going on for Democrats right now for 2026 that we have not had, maybe ever before,” Hinojosa said.
