7 Questions With Texas’ First Latino State Democratic Chairman

By Pete Litterski, Voxxi

Gilberto Hinojosa has risen to the chairmanship of the Texas Democratic Party at a time when Latino voters are seen as potential game changers in several battleground states.

Texas may not be considered in play for the Democratic presidential race, but Hinojosa, who won the leadership position June 9 at the Democrats’ state convention, says he is prepared to re-establish the relevance of a party that has not won a statewide election since 1994.

Hinojosa, 59, a former Cameron County Judge, county party leader and member of the Democratic National Committee, says that building Hispanic voter turnout is the key to reestablishing the state party and points to the last Texas gubernatorial election where he believes Democratic challenger Bill White could have toppled Rick Perry if Latino voters had turned out at the same rate as whites and African Americans.

Hinojosa lives in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas where Latinos are the dominant majority and have produced many of the state’s best known Hispanic leaders.

VOXXI spoke to Hinojosa about his historic election as the first Hispanic chairman of the Texas Democratic Party and his plans for turning the fortunes of his party in a new direction.

VOXXI: Given the demographics of Texas, why did it take until the second decade of the 21st Century for Texas Democrats to elect an Hispanic chairman?

HINOJOSA: I’m not sure. There is a song written by a famous Mexican singer that goes “No hay que llegar primero; Hay que saber llegar.” “You don’t have to get there first; You just have to know how to get there.” And we did at the 2012 Texas Democratic Convention.

VOXXI: Will the election of an Hispanic chairman catch the attention of the many Texas Latinos who historically have not voted?

HINOJOSA: I believe it will. There many issues which I can address with our Hispanic community that will be easier for Hispanics to relate to because I am a second generation American whose grandparents came to the United States during the Mexican Revolution. Having been raised in an Hispanic family, lived in an Hispanic community and represented Hispanic communities as an elected official, I understand, probably more than most people, what keeps Hispanic mothers and fathers awake at night, and how engaging in the political process will help resolve many of those issues and problems.

VOXXI: George P. Bush, the son of Jeb Bush, and several other young Republicans have launched Hispanic Republicans of Texas and they believe they can attract Latino voters to the Texas GOP. What do you plan to do in response?

HINOJOSA: If Republicans in Texas and across America figure that the anti-Latino policies that they have been advocating in the last few years will attract more Latinos to their party, then I urge them to continue their efforts with the same approach. As a result of this effort to “attract” Latino voters, almost 85 percent of all Latinos believe that the Republican Party is anti-Latino. On the other hand, Latinos know that the policies that Democrats have advocated show that Democrats “estan con ellos” (“are with them”). Contrast the position of the Republican’s presumptive presidential nominee (who is against the Dream Act and called for the self-deportation of 12 million undocumented workers) with President Obamas’ administrative order preventing young undocumented workers from being deported and allowing them work permits. These same Republicans cut $5 billion from the public school budget in Texas the same year that the majority of children in our public schools were Latino.

VOXXI: There are rifts showing in the Texas Republican Party. Do you see that as an opportunity to make some inroads this year? In what races?

HINOJOSA: Of course. I believe that the U.S. Senate race is a good opportunity for Democrats. The Republicans are getting ready to nominate a right wing tea party candidate, Ted Cruz, whose positions are so far out of the mainstream that they haven’t been seen in America in over 50 years. This is a Republican who has never held a public office. He has no track record other than his mean-spirited attacks on everything we believe in as Americans. Democrats, on the other hand, are fixing to nominate former state representative, Paul Sadler, who was the chairman of the House Education Committee, successfully rewrote our education policy in Texas, supported successive pay raises for teachers and was voted a “Top Ten Legislator” by the Texas Monthly almost every session that he was in the legislature. It is going to be hard for Ted Cruz to match up to a statesman like Paul Sadler.

VOXXI: What statewide races do you most look forward to in the 2014 election?

HINOJOSA: All of them. I believe that we will have strong candidates for every statewide office, from governor to the Texas Supreme Court.

VOXXI: Looking ahead to future elections, who are some of the rising political stars among Texas Latinos?

HINOJOSA: Obviously, the Castro brothers from San Antonio, Mayor Julian Castro and the soon to be congressman, Joaquin Castro. Rafael Anchia is another rising star who brings smart, thoughtful governing to the Texas legislature. In South Texas, we have seen great things come out of Representative Eddie Lucio III. And in Houston, Representatives Jessica Farrar and Carol Alvarado, along with Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez, have shown strong leadership in the few years that they have been in the House.

VOXXI: Hispanics outnumber African Americans in Texas, but African Americans have a stronger record of turning out the vote. Can both groups work together in a state where they, as a bloc, now outnumber non-Hispanic white Texans?

HINOJOSA: We share a mutual enemy — the Texas Republican Party. We share a mutual goal — a better Texas, with quality public schools, health care for all Texans, particularly women and children, and a responsible government that is not controlled by the big corporate interests and the radical right. Those two factors have brought us together in ways that you have never seen before in Texas.

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Pete Litterski is a freelance writer and author living in Longview, Texas. He was a editor, columnist and editorial writer over a newspaper career that spanned more than 30 years. He was the editor of the Longview News-Journal in East Texas for 10 years before moving into the role as senior editor for five more years with responsibility for the daily Opinion Page, the Sunday Focus section and an AnswerLine column. He wrote a weekly news column on local and Texas political issues as well as five editorials per week addressing everything from city park bond elections to the restructuring of Texas public school funding.