Presidio
Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for governor, got a warm welcome in Presidio this week. Nearly 200 people gathered at Benito Hall on September 1 to listen as she promised to fight for Texan families and end corruption.
She is the first major political candidate to visit Presidio this election cycle. The visit was orchestrated by Ramon Rodriguez, the executive director of Project Homeleaf and regional director of 134 PAC, a political action committee supporting Democratic candidates. The Presidio mayor’s mariachi band marked the occasion, with the mayor of Ojinaga and the county judge in attendance. As a border town native from Brownsville, Hinojosa easily tapped into her audience’s border priorities.
“Your fight has inspired a nation,” Hinojosa said, drawing huge cheers as the crowd waved signs that read “Protect Our Land.” “That border wall is not necessary here in the Big Bend. It desecrates sacred land. What that wall is about is corruption.”
The border wall construction project has resulted in three out-of-state firms benefitting from no-bid contracts worth billions, which were awarded by the federal government, with no input from the community.
Hinojosa is running against Gov. Greg Abbott, who has held the office since 2015. Hinojosa has honed in on the wall debate because Abbott has claimed that the border wall will not be built in the national park while remaining silent as ranchers in Presidio County are served threats for eminent domain notices, and Presidio officials are kept in the dark about plans. His tenure as governor has been marked by Operation Lone Star, a sharp crackdown on immigration, and state-led construction of a border wall, razor wire and buoys deployed in the Rio Grande Valley.
Several races, including the governor’s, are expected to be close this year. Hinojosa and other Democratic candidates say they are appealing to a deeply felt discontent by people who feel that the current Republican leaders are working more for major out-of-state interests such as tech companies than for everyday residents.
“This year is about electing leaders that work for us,” said Hinojosa in her speech. “We pay for that government, it should work for us.”
She then waited as nearly every audience member lined up to greet her, bending over to listen to each before moving on to Terlingua for another event.
