Texas Democrats' longtime chairman steps down after big losses continue for the party

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The longtime leader of the Texas Democratic Party announced his resignation Friday after another election cycle of lopsided defeats and voters making a dramatic swing toward the GOP on the heavily Hispanic southern border.

Gilberto Hinojosa, a native of the Rio Grande Valley, has served as the Texas Democratic Party chair since 2012. During that time, Democrats have not won any statewide offices and badly lost key races Tuesday.

All but two counties along the Texas-Mexico border, long considered Democratic strongholds, turned red for Trump. It included Hidalgo and Cameron, the two most populous counties in the Rio Grande Valley. President-elect Donald Trump easily won Texas by 14 points, which was more than double his margin of victory in 2020 and a sign of eroding Democratic support.

Hinojosa said he would step down in March 2025.

“In the days and weeks to come, it is imperative that our Democratic leaders across the country reevaluate what is best for our party and embrace the next generation of leaders to take us through the next four years of Trump and win back seats up and down the ballot,” Hinojosa said.

His announcement also came just a day after issuing an apology over comments he made to Austin public radio station KUT after Tuesday's election. “You could, for example, you can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there’s certain things that we just go too far on, that a big bulk of our population does not support,” Hinojosa told KUT.

Hinojosa later issued an apology on social media, saying that LGBTQ+ persons in Texas "deserve to feel seen, valued and safe in our state and our party.”