Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa speaks during one of the Texas Democratic Party’s conventions. Credit: X / @HinojosaTX

The head of the Texas Democratic Party has joined the leader of the Bexar County Democratic party in packing his bags after the string of embarrassing blue losses that rocked the state in Tuesday’s election.

Following a red wave across the once reliably Democratic Rio Grande Valley, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa announced his resignation Friday morning. The resignation also comes after his comments ignited criticism from members of Texas’ LGBTQ+ community.

“In the days and weeks to come, it is imperative that our Democratic leaders across the country reevaluate what is best for our party and embrace the next generation of leaders to take us through the next four years of Trump and win back seats up and down the ballot,” Hinojosa said in his resignation letter.

Hinojosa’s departure comes after party operatives touted Texas as a possible swing state — or at least one in the process of turning purple.

It also follows a day after Hinojosa unleashed a firestorm of controversy in the LGBTQ+ community by suggesting during an interview that supporting transgender rights hurt the party at the polls. After activists and advocacy groups denounced the comments, he backpedaled and issued an apology.

Indeed, Vice President Kamala Harris held Houston rally with pop star Beyonce the week before Election Day. And money poured into Collin Allred’s campaign as polls showed the former NFL linebacker within the margin of error in his bid to oust U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

In the end, Trump won Texas by nearly 14%. In contrast, the former reality show star only beat President Joe Biden by a little more than 5% in Texas in 2020.

Meanwhile, Cruz convincingly won a third term, defeating Allred by nearly 9%.

The black eye for Democrats extended to the San Antonio area, where the party failed to flip a pair of seats in the Texas House.

Some political analysts believed the race for Texas House District 118 was a strong one for Dems. Even though Republican incumbent John Lujan said during a radio interview that he’d force a hypothetical daughter to carry her rapist’s baby to term, he still beat Democratic challenger Kristian Carranza by 3.6%.

The outcome in the traditionally moderate Texas House District 121 wasn’t much better. There, Republican Marc LaHood, a San Antonio criminal defense attorney who ran a failed race for Bexar County DA, defeated Democrat Laurel Swift by more than 5%.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...