AUSTIN, Texas — Democratic nominee for governor Gina Hinojosa challenged Gov. Greg Abbott to debate outside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on Thursday morning as new polling shows a narrowing gap between the candidates.
Hinojosa’s campaign has confirmed she had agreed to multiple formal debates hosted by media groups around the state, but the Abbott campaign had not done the same. In another push, Hinojosa’s campaign brought two podiums and an independent moderator to the fence in front of the mansion. Abbott did not make an appearance.
“If Greg Abbott’s not man enough to debate me, then he doesn’t deserve to be the governor of Texas,” Hinojosa told a crowd of supporters who joined her. Hinojosa instead took questions from the press on topics like education, data centers, and corruption.
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The move drew pushback from the governor, who criticized the debate setup on social media.
“This morning’s circus in Austin was no sincere attempt to debate: a standing podium reachable only by stairs, purposefully designed to keep someone in a wheelchair from participating,” a post on Abbott’s campaign account on X wrote.
Abbott made appearances in East Texas on Thursday, where he addressed the calls for him to debate Hinojosa. The governor suggested his time is better spent meeting face-to-face with Texans.
“Having won the governorship before, the most important thing that a governor can do is to show up in communities,” Abbott said. “They want to see their governor in their community. They want to have the ability to ask their governor questions.”
A truck displaying an anti-Hinojosa ad parked next to the event outside the governor’s mansion. At a rally ahead of the proposed debate, write-in candidate Jenn Mack also interrupted Hinojosa’s speech before being removed from the stage.
Recent polling shows a narrowing race between Abbott and Hinojosa. A poll released this week by the Texas Politics Project shows Hinojosa leading Abbott, 49% to 48%, among Texas voters.
A Marist poll released this week paints a different picture, with Abbott leading with 49% of voters and Hinojosa trailing behind with 45% of voters.
Political science experts argue the polling averages, however, indicate a more competitive race than in previous years.
“Ultimately, we’ll have to see what the composition of turnout looks like,” said Baylor University political science professor Pat Flavin. “But I think just the volume of advertisements by the Greg Abbott campaign, but also the Dan Patrick campaign, to me, suggests that they’re very aware that this is going to be a close race.”