{"id":487759,"date":"2026-11-06T04:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/487759\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T04:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:36:38","slug":"texas-elects-first-democratic-governor-in-decades-what-now-for-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/487759\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas elects first Democratic governor in decades \u2014 what now for the state?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">HOUSTON \u2013 Texas voters have flipped the governor\u2019s race and U.S. Senate seats to Democrats \u2014 a political shift not seen in the state in more than 30 years. Now, many Texans are asking: What comes next?<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">Political analyst Charles Kuffner said Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa can move quickly after taking office Jan. 1, with public education likely among her first priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Education, immigration possible top early agenda<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">Kuffner said Hinojosa could replace the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/news\/local\/2026\/11\/05\/tea-commissioner-mike-morath-signals-smooth-transition-amid-gina-hinojosa-firing-vow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">state\u2019s education commissioner<\/a> as soon as she is sworn into office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">On immigration, Kuffner said local law enforcement \u2014 including Houston Police \u2014 could scale back cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. He also said Hinojosa could change Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s border emergency declaration, which Abbott has renewed since 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s going to be cued up when Governor-elect Hinojosa puts out a list of priority legislation, which are the things legislation can take up quickly,\u201d Kuffner said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a Democratic House and Republican Senate, so it\u2019s not going to be as easy to pass things as it was when Governor Abbott was in charge and both chambers were held by Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Affordability hinges on Washington says political analyst<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf jbiTJv kYFPaL article-text\">When it comes to the cost of living, Kuffner told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/team\/FLXBV6YRWSKJORDZTEGJUURHS9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/team\/FLXBV6YRWSKJORDZTEGJUURHS9\/\">KPRC 2 News Sandy Torres<\/a> relief for Texas families may depend less on Austin and more on Washington. He said lower costs could come down to changes in imposed tariffs and easing tensions overseas \u2014 factors that will depend on who holds the majority in the U.S. House and Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Start Here, Houston<img alt=\"\"  loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1793939798_51_kprc_news2know.webp\" width=\"234\" height=\"50\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-dLMFU sc-fHjqPf eUxjKG\">More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texas voters have flipped the governor\u2019s race and U.S. Senate seats to Democrats \u2014 a political&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,44088,6288,288,3496,27,5130,163644],"class_list":["post-487759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-charles-kuffner","tag-decision-2026","tag-elections","tag-gina-hinojosa","tag-texas","tag-texas-governor","tag-texas-governor-elect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}