Hinojosa’s campaign answers questions about trans voters by saying the culture wars are over
Gina Hinojosa for TexasCommunications director for Gina Hinojosa for Texas, in a written statement to KXAN; the campaign did not name the official
Asked by KXAN what Hinojosa's message was to Texas's transgender voters after the "Pronouns" ad, the campaign's communications director answered that the culture wars are over in 2026, that almost everyone lost them while corporate power won, and that billionaire technology figures gained power while the public fought each other. The statement did not mention transgender Texans.
“Culture wars are over in 2026. 99.9% of us lost, and corporates power won. While we fought each other at Thanksgiving, 15 billionaire tech dudes won; they amassed power and now they are about to blow up the planet if we don't come back together to save ourselves.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Did Gina Hinojosa’s “Pronouns” ad mock transgender Texans?
On September 8, 2026, Greg Abbott’s campaign opened a transgender-focused line of attack on Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, nicknaming her “Gender Bender Gina,” cataloguing her votes against Texas restrictions on gender-affirming care and school policy, and posting an altered screenshot of one of her own public-schools ads in which an American flag had been replaced with a transgender pride flag. The next day Hinojosa released a campaign ad titled “Pronouns,” which her campaign said would run statewide and in which she is the only speaker. In it she said Abbott wanted to run a campaign calling her “too woke” while she would run one about working people being “too broke,” closing with the line “My pronouns are Mom, Texan, and soon to be: Governor.” Whether that closing line mocked transgender people is the matter in dispute. Transgender writers and advocates said it borrowed a mocking right-wing joke about pronouns at their expense, while the campaign defended the pivot away from culture-war argument. Hinojosa has voted against the Texas restrictions Abbott cites, and the criticism of her is about the ad’s rhetoric rather than her legislative record.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
KXAN asked the Hinojosa campaign what her message was to Texas's transgender voters after the "Pronouns" ad; the campaign's communications director, who is not named in the piece, answered with this statement. The article, posted on September 14, 2026, says the campaign sent the statement on the afternoon of September 11. It also quotes transgender Texans and the parent of a transgender child, identified only by first name, initial or pseudonym, and covers James Talarico's remarks the same week on transgender athletes and surgery for minors.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
KXAN was reporting on transgender and non-binary Texans' reactions to the "Pronouns" ad and to James Talarico's Fox News remarks, and asked the campaign directly what Hinojosa's message was to Texas's transgender voters.
After the quotation
Hinojosa has voted against the Texas restrictions on gender-affirming care and school gender policy that Abbott's campaign cites against her; the campaign's statement did not restate those votes. Abbott's campaign returned to the subject on September 15.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case asks whether the closing line of Hinojosa's September 9 "Pronouns" ad — "My pronouns are Mom, Texan, and soon to be: Governor" — mocked transgender Texans, not Abbott's attacks on her record. The campaign restates the ad's own premise as an affirmative justification: that culture-war argument is spent and that the real contest is economic. That defends the conduct under scrutiny. The closest competing label is “Explicitly stayed out”, because KXAN asked a direct question about transgender voters and the answer never mentions them. That loses because the campaign did not refuse or close the subject; it supplied a substantive rationale for the approach the ad took, which is a defence rather than a redirect. “Mixed or conditional” loses because the statement contains no countervailing position or unresolved condition.
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More from this case
Read the full caseHinojosa says the "Pronouns" ad was meant to rebuke culture-war politics
“What I was trying to communicate is to both Greg Abbott and to the culture wars. You can shove it with your culture wars. He had just accused me of working with teachers to try to trans kids. It's just ridiculous, right? … And so that was to say, look, we're not doing your culture wars.”Read statement
Greg Pak dislikes the "Pronouns" ad but credits Hinojosa for not waffling on trans rights
“Didn't like Hinojosa's recent "Pronouns" ad. I *DO* like her actual voting record in Texas for trans rights, and I'm glad that unlike some other politicians, she's not waffling on those stances.”Read statement
Katelyn Burns says it was wrong to mock trans people’s pronouns with this style of joke
“Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, spawned an online backlash from some lefty trans posters by appearing to mock pronouns. "My pronouns are mom, Texan and soon-to-be governor," she says in a recent campaign video posted to YouTube. When I made a post on Bluesky pointing out that none of those words are pronouns, and implied that it was wrong to mock trans people's pronouns with this style of joke, a bunch of Bluesky liberals took umbrage.”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "Hinojosa’s campaign answers questions about trans voters by saying the culture wars are over". First published: 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/998-asked-by-kxan-what-hinojosa-s-message-was