Hinojosa’s campaign answers questions about trans voters by saying the culture wars are over
Communications director for Gina Hinojosa for Texas, in a written statement to KXAN; the campaign did not name the official
“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.”
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 also interviews transgender and non-binary Texans by name, including Jeis Whittaker and Emily Oswin-Welborn, and covers James Talarico's separate Fox News remarks the same week. KXAN blocks automated access; the text was read from the syndicated Yahoo News copy recorded in the archived URL.
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
Case context: Did Gina Hinojosa’s “Pronouns” ad mock transgender Texans?
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; that line is the fixed reference point, 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_declines, 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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- Gina Hinojosa
Did Gina Hinojosa’s “Pronouns” ad mock transgender Texans?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“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
“Yes, I saw the 'my pronouns are' ad, and yes. I also think that was a bad move that didn't consider the reality trans people living here face; but Governor Abbott wants to erase trans people altogether.”Read statement
“Republicans are using people like me and my friends as a wedge issue to distract from their own failings - on that much, I agree with Hinojosa. But it's really easy for commentary about that problem to descend into complete apathy about trans issues. I'm unsure what 'my pronouns are mom, Texan, and soon-to-be Governor' is supposed to communicate. And I don't think actual swing voters will get it, either.”Read statement