I am grateful and in awe of the incredible grace and power of God and of Texas.
Texas, I am humbled to be your next Governor.
When we started this campaign a little over a year ago, I asked a simple question:
Does Texas belong to the people of Texas: who live here, who work here, who raise their families here? Or is this the billionaires' world and the rest of us just live here?
Does Texas belong to parents and their children, or the billionaires trying to dismantle our schools?
Does Texas belong to the farmers and ranchers who have worked this land for generations, or the corporations buying it up?
Does Texas belong to the working families who pay their taxes, and do everything right, or the wealthy and well-connected who play by different rules?
Does Texas belong to the people who rise before the sun, who work two jobs, and who put everything they have into small businesses and big dreams? Or does it belong to the people who write the biggest checks to politicians?
Tonight, Texas answered. And we didn't whisper. We answered loud enough for every billionaire, every lobbyist, and every corrupt politician in Austin to hear.
Texas belongs to us.
We answered in McAllen and Corpus Christi. Dallas and in Temple. In San Antonio and Lubbock. From the neighborhoods of Austin to the wide-open skies of West Texas, all the way out to Big Bend.
We answered in our big cities, where they tried to silence your voice with gerrymandered maps and closed polling sites only to see turnout like never before, and you answered in small towns, where people had been told their vote was already spoken for.
We answered in communities that politicians visit every four years to ask for your vote, only to forget about you the minute they get to Austin.
We answered in places that have been overlooked, underestimated, and left behind for far too long. And we answered across party lines.
Because this campaign was always about whether the people of Texas ought to have a government that belongs to them. Not the highest bidder. Not the biggest donor. Not the most powerful lobbyist. You.
In January, I will take the oath of office ready to lead a government by the people, and for the people again.
Not for the people who donated the most. Not for the people who know the right people, but for every single Texan.
Because the governor's office does not belong to me. It doesn't belong to my party. It belongs to you.
This is our Texas. This is our government. And this is our one fight.
And tonight, we won.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a part of this campaign. This victory is because of you.
Editor's Note: The above remarks were delivered by Gina Hinojosa, a Rio Grande Valley native and governor of Texas.
