As rumors of her candidacy made the rounds this September, Hinojosa laid the groundwork for her corruption allegations, calling attention to a report by Public Citizen<\/a>, the nonprofit consumer rights advocates. The report found that since 2020 Abbott has repeatedly declared state emergencies, allowing him to circumvent the state\u2019s competitive bidding process and award no-bid contracts worth almost a billion dollars. According to the report, the companies receiving the contracts have contributed about $3 million to Abbott.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe identified eight companies that received non-competitive, emergency contracts from the state, most of which were tied to recent disasters such as COVID-19, hurricanes, or border security,\u201d the report reads. \u201cIn each instance, a company, its owners, or its executives donated large amounts to Gov. Abbott through his Texans for Greg Abbott PAC.\u201d<\/p>\n The executives identified by Public Citizen did not include Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, who gave Abbott a record-setting $12 million<\/a> last year as the governor moved heaven and earth to win approval of a private school voucher program allowing families to spend public taxpayer money on private schools for their children. Hinojosa has criticized Abbott for accepting the donation. She is also criticizing Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock for providing a $50 million contract to Odyssey, a tech company that received a $500,000 prize from Yass in 2023, to oversee the voucher program. \u201cIt is a grift,\u201d Hinojosa told a CBS reporter<\/a> last week. \u201cIt is a way to pad the pockets of the well-connected.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hinojosa said it is the cozy relationships detailed in the Public Citizen report that have helped Abbott collect his massive $87 million<\/a> war chest. \u201cWe\u2019re campaigning on that,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, you don\u2019t get that kind of campaign cash doing the bidding of the people. Abbott has that amount of campaign money because he is corrupt. So he can keep his dirty money, and we\u2019ll get the people of Texas on our side.\u201d Hinojosa has less than a thousandth of Abbott\u2019s cash on hand \u2013 only $72,000<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hinojosa got started in politics in 2012, when she joined the campaign to save her son\u2019s school, Allan Elementary, from being taken over by a charter school company. She won a seat on the Austin ISD school board, voted to stop the takeover, and helped inaugurate the current era of progressive representation on the board. Four years later, Austin voters sent Hinojosa to the Texas House, where she served on the public education committee, becoming, in the opinion of fellow Rep. Donna Howard and other colleagues, one of the Legislature\u2019s premier fighters for local schools. \u201cHer fierce advocacy provides a sharp contrast to Abbott\u2019s legacy of shortchanging and privatizing our public education system,\u201d Howard told us.\u00a0<\/p>\n Howard is one of many Democrats endorsing Hinojosa, who will first take on rancher Bobby Cole and businessman Andrew White, son of former governor Mark White, in the Democratic primary in the spring. The list includes U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Greg Casar, and Jasmine Crockett; Texas Sens. Sarah Eckhardt and Roland Gutierrez; House members John Bucy, Erin Zwiener, and Mihaela Plesa; and many local elected officials. \u201cI have tremendous admiration for Gina\u2019s bravery and tenacity,\u201d Sen. Eckhardt told us. \u201cFrom her time on the Austin school board through her tenure in the Legislature, she finds leverage and works it until she gets movement.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott has not been seriously threatened in any of his three campaigns for governor. In the closest, in 2022, he flattened Beto O\u2019Rourke by 11 percentage points. However, a poll taken this summer<\/a> shows that the governor\u2019s approval rating has faltered, with Texas voters saying that corruption is the top problem facing the state and country. And Democratic political insiders love the contrast that the charismatic Hinojosa presents with a governor who is often dour and lecturing<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s Abbott\u2019s worst nightmare,\u201d Austin\u2019s dean of political strategists, David Butts, told us. \u201cShe\u2019s younger, she\u2019s got more energy, she\u2019s a woman, and she\u2019s Hispanic. And that appeals to a cross-section of the electorate that probably feels somewhat dumped on by Greg Abbott and his authoritarian ways.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/n.s1-hinojosa-John-Anderson.jpg\")
State rep. Gina Hinojosa speaking to striking nurses outside Ascension Seton Medical Center on Dec. 6, 2023 Credit: John Anderson<\/p>\n