Greg Abbott has $96 million in his campaign account and hasn't lost a statewide race in over a decade. He still can't crack 50% in a single poll against his Democratic challenger. That's the argument Gina Hinojosa took to a national audience Wednesday, appearing on MS NOW's The Weeknight to call the three-term incumbent "a weak governor" who has failed on the basics of governing Texas.
Abbott's Poll Numbers Give Hinojosa Her Opening
The core of Hinojosa's argument is simple: an incumbent governor who can't consolidate his own state is vulnerable. Recent surveys from April and May 2026 show Abbott leading Hinojosa by margins of 46%-41%, 48%-43%, and 49%-43%, with the governor stuck below 50% in each. A Texas Public Opinion Research poll conducted April 17-20 put Abbott at 48% to Hinojosa's 43%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. A Texas Southern University survey fielded from late April through early May found Abbott ahead by just 6 points, with roughly a third of voters saying they didn't know enough about Hinojosa to form an opinion.
That last number cuts both ways. Hinojosa has room to grow as she introduces herself to voters across a state where no Democrat has won the governorship since 1990. Abbott, by contrast, has been on the ballot statewide four times. His ceiling appears to be right where it is.
Hinojosa's Record Attack Targets Abbott's Core Vulnerabilities
On The Weeknight, Hinojosa didn't just cite poll numbers. She went after Abbott's governing record directly, pointing to Texas leading the nation in people disconnected from the electrical grid, the most uninsured residents and children of any state, and the highest bankruptcy rate. The electricity argument carries particular weight in a state where a 2021 grid failure killed hundreds of Texans and left millions without power for days.
She also addressed Republican plans for congressional gerrymandering and referenced a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act, framing both as part of a broader effort to entrench GOP power at the expense of Texas voters. The gerrymandering issue is personal for Hinojosa: in August 2025, she was one of 51 Democratic House members who left the state to delay passage of new congressional maps, prompting Attorney General Ken Paxton to file a lawsuit seeking to remove her from office. The Texas Supreme Court dismissed that case in May 2026.
The TV appearance follows a first general-election ad buy Hinojosa launched this week, streaming during the NBA Finals on ESPN+. The spot depicts Abbott as a string puppet committing "turnover after turnover of our money to his donors." According to the Texas Tribune, the campaign is targeting young male and Latino voters, audiences Democrats have struggled to reach in recent cycles, and planned to max out ad time across all ESPN+ NBA Finals content for the duration of the series.
