Healthcare
Greg Abbott (R)
Abbott has refused to expand Medicaid for the entirety of his governorship, calling it a 'broken and bloated' program and 'a tax increase waiting to happen,' leaving Texas with the nation's highest uninsured rate; as state AG he sued in 2010 to throw out the ACA and led a follow-up suit as governor. On abortion, he signed SB 8 — the six-week 'Heartbeat Act' enforced through private civil suits — on May 19, 2021, the legal architecture that effectively ended legal abortion in Texas after Dobbs triggered the state's near-total ban. After Alabama's IVF ruling in February 2024, Abbott said he supports IVF access and that Texas would 'address' the issue but admitted 'I simply don't know the answer' to key questions and has not called a special session on it. He has touted $1.4 billion in federal rural-health funding (Texas's $281 million annual share is the largest in the country) and, in March 2025, $239 million in HHSC construction grants for rural inpatient psychiatric beds, on top of $2.5 billion since 2017 for state mental-health capital projects.
Gina Hinojosa (D)
Hinojosa's healthcare platform centers on accepting federal Medicaid expansion dollars — she has repeatedly argued Texas should 'draw down funds to insure about a million Texans and keep rural hospitals open,' framing it as 'reclaiming resources residents have already contributed.' She has targeted private equity and 'big insurance and big drug companies' for 'putting profits over patients' and pledged to 'rein in these out-of-control profiteers who are making healthcare more expensive and making Texans sicker.' On abortion, she voted against the 2021 six-week ban (SB 8) and has said the Dobbs decision was 'unjust,' writing that 'everyone deserves access to health care and the ability to determine their future, including when to become a parent' and that she 'won't stop fighting to restore and expand access.' She has publicly disclosed having an abortion 23 years ago and a later miscarriage, framing reproductive care as a personal as well as policy issue. She has not published a stand-alone mental-health plan.
Sources
- Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor, official campaign priorities page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Governing, 'Texas governor still won't expand Medicaid,' archived analysis of Abbott's repeated rejection of Medicaid expansion. (full list)
- Eleanor Klibanoff, 'Gov. Greg Abbott signs into law one of nation's strictest abortion bans,' Texas Tribune, May 19, 2021. (full list)
- Eleanor Klibanoff, 'Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says IVF should be protected, but: I simply don't know the answer,' Texas Tribune, Feb. 26, 2024. (full list)
- Office of the Governor, 'Governor Abbott announces historic $1.4 billion in federal funding secured for rural Texas Strong projects.' (full list)
- Office of the Governor, 'Governor Abbott announces $239 million in construction grants for mental health care in rural Texas,' March 2025. (full list)
- Gina Hinojosa, X (@GinaForAustin), post on Dobbs anniversary defending reproductive rights, June 24, 2023. (full list)
- Texas Choice Tracker, candidate page for Gina Hinojosa — abortion voting record, including SB 8 opposition. (full list)
- CBS Austin, 'Dem nominee for governor Gina Hinojosa weighs in on school budget crises and immigration,' March 2026. (full list)
- Gina Hinojosa for Texas, public Facebook post: '23 years ago I made the most difficult decision of my life…' — disclosure of her abortion and miscarriage. (full list)