Roosevelt, Franklin D.
1933–1945
FDR's Four Freedoms — including 'freedom from want' (the Second Bill of Rights' guarantee of healthcare, jobs, housing, education) — is the maximalist social-insurance framework. Abbott's decade-plus Medicaid-expansion refusal, his $1B voucher law that public-school advocates argue defunds the New Deal-era public-school model, and his sustained opposition to ACA enforcement all sit against the Four Freedoms. Hinojosa's Medicaid-expansion priority, anti-voucher record, $40B Fully Fund Our Future Act for teacher pay, and her targeting of 'big insurance and big drug companies' are the closest 2026 Texas approximations of FDR's frame. Both candidates run mixed against the Atlantic Charter / multilateralist strand of FDR — Abbott more so given his Ukraine-aid skepticism. Hinojosa is the substantially closer fit on the New Deal core.
Sources
- Governing, 'Texas governor still won't expand Medicaid,' archived analysis of Abbott's repeated rejection of Medicaid expansion. (full list)
- Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 'Abbott signs $1 billion school voucher ESA law,' KUT, May 2, 2025. (full list)
- Brian Lopez, 'Texas school voucher funding fight: Hinojosa says vouchers take billions from public schools,' Texas Tribune, March 31, 2025. (full list)
- Texas AFT, 'This week in the legislature: Let's talk about educator pay raises,' covering Hinojosa's Fully Fund Our Future Act questioning of TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. (full list)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Four Freedoms address (Jan. 6, 1941); Second Bill of Rights / 1944 State of the Union; Wagner Act; Social Security Act; Glass-Steagall. (full list)