Victory came despite a more than four-to-one spending disadvantage. Abbott entered the year with more than $100 million in campaign cash and spent nearly $118 million on advertising to Hinojosa's $26 million. He had beaten all three previous opponents by double-digit margins, but the race tightened over the summer as public polls put the governor behind for the first time in any of his campaigns. National Democrats poured millions into Hinojosa's bid, which became a proxy battle between widely anticipated 2028 presidential contenders over their courting of Latino voters.
Hinojosa, a fifth-term Austin state representative and labor lawyer, launched her campaign in October 2025 as a long shot. She entered politics through the Austin school board after the potential closure of her son's elementary school in 2012, and made public education her central issue in the Texas House, where she fought Abbott's private school voucher program. On the trail she ran on public schools, pocketbook issues and what she called a 'post-partisan' agenda, promising to return $1,500 to every Texas household from the state savings account, end vouchers, overhaul school accountability and force lawmakers to regulate data centers.
'People are tired of fighting the culture wars,' Hinojosa said at the Texas Tribune Festival in September. 'The future feels very scary for so many Texans, and so it's just created this opportunity for us to come together. And I do feel like it is a watershed moment, almost a postpartisan moment, where 99% of us are in the same boat.' She framed the election around the question: 'Is this going to be a Texas that is by and for the people, or is this the billionaires' world and we just live here?'
Abbott cast the race as a choice between 'common sense and crazy,' pointing to his record of economic growth, property tax cuts, support for public education and school choice. In ads and on the campaign trail, Abbott repeatedly bashed Hinojosa as a 'radical' who 'supports boys in girls' sports,' an income tax and higher property taxes. 'These aren't average Democrats. These are the furthest left radical Democrats we see in the United States of America,' Abbott said as early voting kicked off. 'We will not allow those radical leftist Democrats to destroy our economy, to make our communities unsafe and to put Texas a step backward. There's too much on the line.' Hinojosa called the attacks 'lies.'
Abbott leaves office after a 12-year tenure marked by massive economic and population growth alongside Hurricane Harvey, the deadly 2021 winter storm grid failure, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uvalde school shooting and the Hill Country floods. He consolidated executive control of a constitutionally weak office through appointments, executive orders and vetoes, and pushed the limits of his authority using emergency actions and disaster declarations. His record included a $1 billion school voucher program, Operation Lone Star, a near-total abortion ban, tougher bail laws and property tax cuts.
Hinojosa has vowed to fire Abbott's education commissioner, Mike Morath, on day one and to use her veto against new gerrymandered electoral maps. The extent of the legislative change she can achieve will depend on downballot results in the lieutenant governor and Texas House races.