Latino leaders press Beshear to expand DGA’s midterm map

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has a simmering Latino revolt on his hands. Quelling it could come down to Texas.

A group of Latino Democratic officials — including operatives and local and congressional leaders — are pushing Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, to pounce on late-breaking momentum in the Texas gubernatorial race, where Democrat Gina Hinojosa is vying to unseat incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott.

The effort to get Beshear to expand the map comes as the DGA eyes several swing states — like Michigan, Arizona, Georgia or Nevada — where the party is focused on keeping or flipping governors’ mansions. But underlying it all is the Democratic Party’s fight to staunch the hemorrhaging of Latino voters from their ranks, and Texas sits at the center of their losses.

“One takeaway from 2024 is that Democrats writ large need to be a whole lot more bold when it comes to their approach, their strategy, their thinking,” said Sergio Gonzalez, one of the operatives involved in the effort to recruit DGA’s support who’s working with Latino candidates across the country. “How do [Democrats] build the coalition that it's going to take for them to ultimately be successful? Gina is very much a part of that task.”

The Latino operatives and lawmakers made their case in a letter earlier this month asking the DGA to drop $10 million on Hinojosa’s race, pointing tomultiple polls that put the state representative within striking distance of Abbott. An investment from the DGA, they argued, could help make inroads with Latino voters and give Democrats what’s proved to be an elusive statewide victory in deep-red Texas.

Instead, the Latino coalition behind the letter said they got snubbed.

The DGA’s response to the letter, shared with the Latino organizers last Sunday and viewed by POLITICO, called Hinojosa an “outstanding candidate running a strong campaign,” and touted the work it’s already done investing in campaign staff and research in coordination with the campaign.

But the Latino leaders were ultimately disappointed by a lack of commitment from the DGA to financially boost Hinojosa. “We would be grateful for your help in raising the resources necessary to expand the map and go big in Texas,” the DGA wrote in its response. “We welcome your fundraising collaboration to support Gina’s campaign.”

The group said that after receiving the DGA’s response, they reached out to the organization and requested a meeting with Beshear, but they have not heard back.

The DGA, however, says it’s not taking anything off the table.

“The DGA is excited to be supporting Gina Hinojosa’s campaign for governor of Texas and has been working directly with her team since she’s launched,” DGA communications director Sam Newton said in a statement to POLITICO. “We’ve been in touch and have made clear we look forward to setting up a meeting to find a productive path forward.”

The DGA also has not ruled out investing in Hinojosa’s race, the organization told POLITICO.

“Gina Hinojosa is a great candidate and running a great campaign,” Beshear told POLITICO in a statement. “We are currently investing by paying expenses and recently providing staff. My goal as chair of the DGA this year is to win as many races as we can and that's exactly what we're doing by going on offense and expanding the map.”

Hinojosa said the DGA has been “a great partner since the beginning,” and that her campaign has a “good working relationship” with them. Asked if she believes they’ll spend for her in the final stretch, she said, “I sure hope they do.”

While Texas is a central focus of the fight Democrats and Republicans are waging to win the Latino vote, it’s states like Arizona and Nevada that have more competitive governor’s races — and are likely to showcase the influence of Latino voters in 2028. The DGA has made seven-figure investments in those states, running Spanish-language ads since May in Arizona. In their conference last week, Beshear announced a new “expand the map” fund to collect more resources to flip more seats, which could help races like Texas.

But the lack of assurances on whether the DGA will step in with a financial salve for Hinojosa has been cold comfort for the Latinos backing her. The result is what operatives called a “sweeping frustration” among their ranks at what they view as “dismissiveness” from the DGA.

“In just over a month, people will cast their first ballots in Texas. It's not like we have tons of time to iron this out,” said Gonzalez, who helped organize the letter to the DGA.

Hinojosa’s race is rated likely Republican, and she is facing a significant fundraising disadvantage to Abbott. Texas is flooded with media markets among the most expensive in the country.

Yet the operatives argue Hinojosa presents one of the best Democratic opportunities in the state in years. And they believe her campaign could get a boost from voters turning out for Democrat James Talarico in the Senate race, as well as down-ballot candidates with high name identification like Bobby Pulido.

“What is especially egregious in this particular situation is that she was coming from behind,” Jess Rocketto, another Latino operative working closely with Latino candidates who helped coordinate the letter, told POLITICO. “Now that she has come up from behind, they still don't want to invest. What is the DGA for in that case?”

And the operatives say the frustrations in Texas could ultimately land hardest on Beshear, who’s built a national profile as a Democrat able to flip a red-state governor’s seat held by an incumbent. He’s also been actively courting the Latino vote, collaborating frequently with top Latino creators like Carlos Eduardo Espina.

“We would really think, just to be honest with you, that Governor Beshear would understand this, especially given that he has presidential aspirations,” Gonzalez said. “It's very important that he understand this.”

Another Latino operative who signed the letter, granted anonymity to speak candidly, argued Beshear will need these same Latinos if he moves to build a coalition for 2028. “He's not being smart about his politics,” they said.

And in Texas, the operative warned that a failure to invest in Hinojosa now could not only make her uphill battle even harder, but it could also make it “next to impossible” to recruit a strong Latino candidate in the future.

“If they can't show that they’re showing up for their people, Texas is written off for Democrats for a generation,” they said.

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