Days before Election Day, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is stepping into the ring for a critical voting bloc in the Lone Star State: Hispanic men.
Hinojosa’s campaign plans to air a 30-second advertisement Saturday during Mexican boxing superstar Canelo Álvarez’s fight against Christian Mbilli, an effort to reach Hispanic voters, especially Latino men, who played a significant role in President Trump’s 2024 victory.
The advertisement is titled “No Te Dejes,” a Spanish expression meaning “Don’t let yourself be pushed around,” and repeats Hinojosa’s central campaign message: “Fight back.”
According to her campaign, the spot contrasts Hinojosa’s proposals to protect public schools, restrict data center expansion and lower taxes with what she argues is three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s prioritization of wealthy donors and large corporations.
The advertisement will run on DAZN, the sports streaming platform carrying Saturday’s fight.
The ad reflects a broader strategy by Democrats to engage Hispanic men through sports and culturally relevant programming rather than relying exclusively on traditional political advertising.
It’s an approach that has already been tested in another Southwestern battleground.
During his successful 2024 Senate campaign in Arizona, Democrat Ruben Gallego made a concerted effort to reach Latino men through boxing watch parties, rodeos, cookouts and other community events.
Gallego went on to defeat Republican Kari Lake, becoming Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, even as Mr. Trump carried the state by nearly six percentage points in the same year.
In an interview with CBS News following his victory, Gallego said his strategy with Hispanic voters was to “talk to them as often as possible.”
Abbott has also pitched himself to Latino voters in Texas. His campaign launched a Spanish-language ad that cast Hinojosa as too socially liberal for the state, with press secretary Eduardo Leal arguing in a statement last week that her policies don’t match “the values of the Hispanic community.” Abbott has also highlighted his wife Cecilia’s status as the state’s first Hispanic first lady.
Hispanics make up around 40% of Texas’ population, and they could play a central role in Hinojosa’s push to become Texas’ first Democratic governor in over three decades. A CBS News poll earlier this month showed Abbott leading Hinojosa by four points outright, with a 3.4-point margin of error, but Hinojosa led by 23 points among likely Hispanic voters.
But the group is not nearly as blue as it once was.
Some 55% of Latino Texans voted for Mr. Trump in 2024, according to CBS News’ exit poll data. Latino men favored the president by a nearly two-to-one margin. That shift was an earthquake in Texas politics, turning once-reliably Democratic counties in the Rio Grande Valley into GOP-leaning territory and scrambling Democrats’ hopes that Texas could be turning their way.
In comments to CBS News, Hinojosa offered her own explanation for Mr. Trump’s success with Hispanic voters in 2024, arguing that his message resonated with Texans who felt the political establishment had failed them.
“The reason why Trump won, and why he was able to capture the Latino vote in the Valley and in Texas, is because he said the system is rigged — and he’s right. Democrats had been defending a system that is indefensible, that is actually working against us,” Hinojosa said.
Democrats are hopeful that the shift will be temporary. Nationwide polling shows that many Latino voters have turned away from Mr. Trump since 2024, and Democratic strategists in Texas have taken solace in high turnout in heavily Latino areas during this year’s Democratic primary.
Gallego’s former campaign adviser, Democratic strategist and CBS News political contributor Chuck Rocha, is now advising both Hinojosa and Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
Rocha told CBS News many Hispanic voters are disillusioned with high gas prices and other cost-of-living worries, though Mr. Trump’s immigration policies have also caused frustration.
“Right now, they’re more monolithic than I have ever seen in my life, and they’re monolithically mad,” he said.
But Daniel Garza, president of the conservative Latino advocacy group LIBRE Initiative, said “there is no pro-Democrat enthusiasm” in his home region of South Texas.
“I think most voters couldn’t tell you what the Democrat plan is for bringing down prices,” he said.
For now, Hinojosa is betting that one of Mexico’s biggest sports stars can help her land a punch with the voters both parties are fighting to win.