At her first public event since winning the Nov. 3 election, Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa announced her initial plans for the transition between gubernatorial administrations, emphasizing her plans to work across the aisle in “building a government that is working for the people of Texas.”
“We will have a bipartisan transition,” Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat, said during a Nov. 5 news conference. “We will have a bipartisan administration and government in Texas.”
The overview
Hinojosa spoke to journalists, students and supporters in the lobby of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, her alma mater.
“This is not about being a Democratic administration,” she said. “I’m not going to be the governor for just Democrats—I’m going to be the governor for all the people of Texas.”
Hinojosa also announced the team leading her transition to the governor’s office.
Joe Madden, a public affairs consultant and former chief of staff for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, will be the executive director of the transition team. Madden spent the last eight years helping newly-elected officials in Harris County transition to governance, according to Hinojosa’s press team. Other members of the transition team include:
Former state Rep. Ernest Bailes, a Republican from Shepherd, a rural community east of Houston (co-chair)
Ryan Pollock, executive director of the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents several local industry unions (co-chair)
Tamala Barksdale, a brand strategist and former Austin ISD trustee who served with Hinojosa (senior adviser)
“I believe in Gina,” Bailes said Nov. 5. “We will put partisanship aside; we will work together for what is best for the kids of the state of Texas. We will be able to take care of education, and we will support and listen to the people.”
Bailes, who described himself as a “conservative Republican,” served in the Texas House from 2017-25. He was unseated in the 2024 election by now-Rep. Janis Holt, R-Silsbee, whom Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed after Bailes voted against a proposal to create education savings accounts.
Former state Rep. Ernest Bailes, an East Texas Republican, speaks alongside Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa at a Nov. 5 news conference in Austin. Bailes will co-chair the Austin Democrat’s political transition team.Hannah Norton/Community ImpactMore details
Hinojosa said Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, whom she unseated in the Nov. 3 election, had been “gracious” and expressed that his office would “fully cooperate with this transition and be helpful as they can.”
“We are both committed to ensuring there is a smooth transition so that the people of Texas are taken care of,” she said.
Asked about potential efforts by Republican lawmakers to interfere with the transition to Democratic statewide leadership, Hinojosa urged officials from both political parties to “respect what the people of Texas have said.”
“[Texans] want change, and I would hope that elected leaders from both parties don’t get in the way of the progress we can make together to deliver for working people,” she said. “That is our obligation as leaders in this state, and I look forward to working with Republican leaders in the legislature.”
Hinojosa will need to work with the state legislature, including Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin and the Texas House Speaker, to enact new policies. As of press time, Democrats were projected to take control of the state House for the first time in 24 years, and at least two Democratic lawmakers had filed to run for speaker. House members will elect a speaker on Jan. 12, the first day of the 2027 legislative session.
Goodwin will preside over the Texas Senate, although the extent of the lieutenant governor’s powers will be based on rules approved by state senators, who are majority-Republican.
Looking ahead
Ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Hinojosa campaigned on plans to eliminate the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR; end the state’s education freedom accounts program; lower health care costs; enact a moratorium on data center development; and send $1,500 checks to every Texas household with money from the state’s emergency savings account, known as the Rainy Day Fund.
During her Nov. 3 victory speech to supporters in Austin, Hinojosa promised to remove Mike Morath as commissioner of the Texas Education Agency on the day she is sworn in as governor. She told reporters Nov. 5 that her team is “actively interviewing” candidates to replace Morath.
Abbott appointed Morath, a software developer and former Dallas ISD trustee, to the post in 2016. Hinojosa and other Democrats have frequently criticized Morath for how he runs the agency, citing recent increases in state intervention in public schools in recent years, changes to the state’s public school accountability system and the rightward shift of the State Board of Education, which is a division of the TEA.
Eight Texas public school districts are currently controlled by board of managers, all of which were appointed under Morath’s leadership, according to TEA records. Under state laws passed in 2017 and 2021, the TEA commissioner is required to close a campus or take over the district if that campus receives five consecutive failing accountability ratings. Hinojosa has also vowed to end school takeovers.
Appointments by the governor must be approved by the state Senate.