Cato favors free markets, free trade, civil liberties, criminal-justice and drug-policy reform, and near-open legal immigration153. Abbott earns Cato credit on tax cuts, deregulation, the Second Amendment, and SB 2 — but loses on Operation Lone Star's coercive scale, Trump-tariff defense, the Ten Commandments package, SB 1362, and his cannabis veto. Hinojosa earns credit on HB 81/HB 2107 cannabis bills, legal-immigration humaneness, and civil-liberties votes. Both pick up partial credit.
Issue
Abbott
Hinojosa
Tax cuts
Helps
—
Abbott: Helps · Hinojosa: —
Cato favors broad-based tax reduction; Abbott's $18B property-tax cut and franchise-tax reductions earn straightforward Cato credit. Hinojosa's 'tax the billionaires' framing1 runs against Cato's tax posture.
Deregulation
Helps
—
Abbott: Helps · Hinojosa: —
Cato favors light-touch regulation; Abbott's regulatory-rollback record earns credit. Hinojosa supports expanded state regulatory authority on consumer and labor protections,1 which Cato disfavors.
School choice (SB 2)
Helps
—
Abbott: Helps · Hinojosa: —
Second Amendment
Helps
—
Abbott: Helps · Hinojosa: —
Cato is firearms-rights-positive; Abbott's permitless-carry signature earns credit. Hinojosa supports more gun-safety regulation than Cato finds comfortable,1 though she is not a leading gun-control voice.
Operation Lone Star coercive expansion
Hurts
—
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: —
Cato is generally skeptical of expanded state coercive capacity; Operation Lone Star's scale and Guard deployment cuts against Cato's executive-power skepticism. Hinojosa opposes the operation's scale.1
Trump-tariff defense
Hurts
—
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: —
Ten Commandments / church-state package
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
Cato treats Establishment-Clause violations as civil-liberties harms; Abbott signed the SB 10/11/763 package and Hinojosa voted against.
SB 1362 preemptive ban on extreme-risk protection orders
Hurts
—
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: —
Cato is civil-liberties-positive but also skeptical of categorical state bans on civil-justice tools; pairing permitless carry with SB 1362's preemptive ERPO ban cuts against the institute's framework. Hinojosa voted against SB 1362.
Cannabis policy
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
Cato favors cannabis legalization; Abbott's June 2025 veto of the modest cannabis bill is the smallest possible Cato-aligned move, while Hinojosa's HB 81 and HB 2107 decriminalization bills75 are direct Cato-aligned wins.
Legal-immigration humaneness
—
Helps
Abbott: — · Hinojosa: Helps
Cato is one of the leading institutional voices for expanded legal immigration; Hinojosa supports comprehensive reform and humane processing.1 Abbott has prioritized enforcement-only, contrary to Cato's framework on the legal-pathway side.
SB 17 foreign-land-ownership ban
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
Cato treats national-origin property bans as civil-liberties violations; Abbott signed SB 17 and Hinojosa voted against.
Sources
- Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor, official campaign priorities page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- CBS News Texas, 'Gov. Abbott says Trump uses tariffs as leverage to boost border security,' CBS News Texas, Feb. 2025. (full list)
- Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 'Abbott signs $1 billion school voucher ESA law,' KUT, May 2, 2025. (full list)
- NORML, vote scorecard and candidate page for Gina Hinojosa — covers HB 2107, HB 81, HB 122, HB 1535, and SB 3 votes. (full list)
- 'Gina Hinojosa,' Wikipedia, accessed May 2026 — legislative record including HB 73 gay/trans panic defense ban. (full list)
- Cato Institute: free markets, free trade, civil liberties, criminal-justice reform, dovish foreign policy, executive-power skepticism. (full list)