But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check

Gina Hinojosa

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Hinojosa called the 2024 arrests of UT Austin protesters "out of hand". In 2017 she was recorded present, not voting on the state bill barring contracts with companies that boycott Israel. A claim she backs the boycott movement is a 2022 questionnaire prompt she left unanswered, not her position.

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Deep Dive

Hinojosa is a state representative from Austin and the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas. She has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are hers.

What she has spoken about is policing, not policy toward the war. When state troopers cleared a protest at the University of Texas at Austin in April 2024, she said the arrests were "out of hand" if there was no actual threat of violence. She returned to it in 2026, accusing the governor of "authoritarian brutality" for "bringing in DPS troopers on horseback to shut down protestors". Both are about how the state handled a demonstration. Neither says what she thinks the United States should send, or withhold, or to whom.

One circulating claim needs correcting, because it would otherwise sit in a reader's memory as a fact. She has been described as supporting the movement to apply economic pressure on the government of Israel through boycotts. That sentence is printed on her 2022 state House race questionnaire, which she left entirely blank: it is the form's own prompt, sitting above her answer, and her answer to it is "Did not answer", as is her answer to every other item on the form, from healthcare to immigration. A prompt is not a position.

When the Texas House passed HB 89, the bill on state contracts with and investments in companies that boycott Israel, 131 to 0 on April 20, 2017, she was recorded as present, not voting. Earlier that day, on the bill's second reading, the journal recorded her voting yes, and she filed a statement of vote saying she had intended to vote present, not voting. If you want her position on what the United States sends, ask Hinojosa directly and send us the reply. It goes on this page in her own words.

The record

Notable actions

• April 20, 2017: Recorded as present, not voting when the Texas House passed HB 89, the bill on state contracts with and investments in companies that boycott Israel, 131-0 (Record 344). On the bill's second reading the same day she was recorded voting yes (Record 335) and filed a statement that she had intended to vote present, not voting.

How this mark works

We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

See a dash? Ask the candidate where they stand, then send us their answer and we'll review it and update the mark. Or volunteer to help review candidates.

No recorded votes on the bills we track. We found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

Nothing located. Recorded searches covered her name against military aid, conditioning, the United Nations refugee agency, Israel bonds and anti-boycott law, and returned nothing. Coverage of her campaign launch describes a focus on education, healthcare and housing.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

Nothing located.

Characterization of the conflict

[Reaction window, 2023-10-13; misattributed] A statement circulating under her name reads, in part: "Hamas must be stopped, Israeli and American hostages must be returned, AND innocent Palestinians must be protected." and "Mass death of civilians in Gaza is unacceptable." The address given as its source is a post on the Facebook page of Representative Greg Casar, a member of Congress from Texas, dated October 13, 2023. The words are his, not hers. Recorded here so the misattribution is not repeated.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

[Correction, read 2026-09-26] The claim that she supports the movement to apply economic pressure on the government of Israel through boycotts traces to the national security section of her iVoterGuide questionnaire for the 2022 state House race. That page covers the November 8, 2022 general election for State Representative, District 49, and says "Ratings & research below apply to this race only". Her 2026 governor profile on the same guide carries a biography and no questionnaire. The sentence in question, "I support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, allow full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees", is the guide's own prompt, printed on the page in the same position as its prompts about healthcare, vaccination and border security. Directly beneath it, where her answer goes, the page reads "Did not answer". Every item on her form reads "Did not answer". The prompt is the guide's wording, not hers, and it is not attributable to her.
[Position, 2024-04-24] On the clearing of a protest at the University of Texas at Austin, the Texas Tribune reports, and we confirmed on the page: "Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said the arrests were “out of hand” if there wasn’t an actual threat of violence."
[Position, 2026-04-17] On a call with two education unions she accused the governor of "hijacking" higher education and of "authoritarian brutality", giving as an example "bringing in DPS troopers on horseback to shut down protestors", referring to those 2024 protests. Reported and quoted by Texas Scorecard, read and confirmed. That outlet is openly hostile to her and frames the remarks as a defense of anti-Israel agitators; the framing is the outlet's and only her quoted words are used.
[Earlier record, 2017-04-20] The official Texas House journal records her votes on HB 89, whose title reads "An Act relating to state contracts with and investments in companies that boycott Israel." On third reading the bill passed by Record 344, 131 yeas, 0 nays and 12 present, not voting, and she is listed among the 12 (House Journal, 54th day, page 1750). On second reading the same day, Record 335, she was recorded voting yes, and the journal prints her statement of vote: "When Record No. 335 was taken, I was shown voting yes. I intended to vote present, not voting." (page 1736). A release by the Austin chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition, a group that works to build ties between the American Jewish community and Republican lawmakers, dated May 30, 2017, criticized four Austin-area Democrats, naming her first, who "were present in the House Chamber during the vote and choose to abstain." That description is the chapter's.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

Nothing located in her own words. The only Hinojosa named in a Texas Public Radio report on Jewish voters in the state is Gilberto Hinojosa, a past chair of the state Democratic Party, not her; the report carries nothing from her.

Race and status context

Democratic nominee facing the incumbent governor, having won the primary outright (Houston Public Media); race context on Ballotpedia. State representative for District 49 since 2017.

Also in this race

✗ Greg Abbott (Republican)
– Jenn Mack (write-in) (Independent)
? Pat Dixon (Libertarian)

All Texas candidates.