‘A Latino problem’: National Democrats clash with Andy Beshear over Texas governor’s race

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear hoped being chair of the Democratic Governors Association this midterms year would raise his profile and connections ahead of his expected 2028 run for president.

But it’s also created an opening to ramp up pressure on him, with frustrations spilling into the open this week as multiple Texas Democratic members of Congress and national group leaders accused him of putting his book tour and potential 2028 activity ahead of helping Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa win the Texas governor’s race.

At issue is national money going into Hinojosa’s underfunded, underdog race against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, once seen as nearly unbeatable. The latest New York Times/Siena poll finds no clear leader in the race, with Hinojosa up by four points, within the margin of sampling error.

Hinojosa and allies started by asking for $10 million from Beshear and the Democratic Governors Association, though they since downgraded to asking for $3 million. Only this week did the DGA announce plans to put $1 million into the race, with the possibility, but no promise, of adding more.

“It just felt that he’s not taking Latinos seriously, and they’re not taking Latinos seriously as a voting bloc in the Democratic Party,” Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia said of Beshear. “And if that’s the case, then he is going to have a Latino problem in 2028.”

Beshear aides don’t just reject the accusations; they bristle at what they see as an unfair effort to humiliate Beshear in public, with a person familiar with internal DGA conversations telling CNN that their polls have Hinojosa down by 5 points — even though another person familiar with the matter says the campaign’s own polls have her within the margin of error.

“It’s a tough argument that money should go there when many other candidates are tied or ahead in states much cheaper than Texas,” the person familiar with the DGA conversations told CNN.

Gabriel V. Cardenas/Reuters

What’s happening, though, isn’t just about Beshear or Texas. It’s Latino leaders road-testing how they can and will flex the political sway of one of the country’s biggest yet often overlooked voting blocs, and that once again this year is proving to be one of the swingiest.

“We cannot just think about the significance of this race in the context of this moment, but about what it will and could and should mean for 2028,” Rep. Veronica Escobar said on a Zoom meeting with DGA officials that Beshear did not attend. Escobar argued that a Hinojosa win would signal that Texas – which has 40 electoral votes – can be competitive in a presidential election for the first time in decades.

On the call, DGA executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper said several times that the organization believes in Hinojosa’s campaign, blaming the vagaries of campaign finance law and funds stretched thin nationally for not putting more into Texas. Though both those are true, the DGA is also working off its own polling that is driving its hesitancy.

“Your complete mishandling of this and your total disrespect to us has been absolutely astonishing,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, president and CEO of the Latino group Maremoto, when she was tapped to speak.

Juan Proaño, the president and CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he was surprised by the tone of what he heard on the call. Beshear, Proaño told CNN, is “doing the best he possibly can given the environment we’re in,” adding that he’s been satisfied with the governor’s broader Latino outreach so far.

Of the DGA officials on the call, Proaño said, “I will take them at their word that they will try to do more, but I’m also realistic about the constraints that there are which are much broader than Texas.”

Beshear, through aides, declined an interview request. His aides did provide a statement from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the only current Latino governor in the country, urging against infighting.

“I’ve worked closely with Gov. Beshear, Democratic governors and the DGA to invest in Hispanic communities across the country and raising the money so Gina’s campaign can get her message out to voters,” Lujan Grisham said.

Tom Perez told CNN he remembers conversations like these when he was the Democratic National Committee chair during the 2018 midterms.

“As someone was leading a party committee during a tailwind year, we had a size-12 set of opportunities in 2018 and we had a size-10 budget,” Perez said. “I think there’s a size-14 set of opportunities in the governors’ race context in 2026, and they are doing their best to spread the wealth.”

Perez, who is of Dominican descent, said that Beshear’s work as governor with Latinos in Kentucky’s rural communities and in Louisville undercuts political accusations being made now: “His record speaks for itself.”

Jim Vondruska/Reuters

A DGA aide pointed to investments beyond the $1 million in Texas to pay some expenses and staff on the ground, plus $25,000 Beshear contributed to the Hinojosa campaign through his own PAC. The aide also pointed to DGA money flowing into the governor’s races in Arizona and Nevada, much of it Latino-voter and Spanish-language focused.

Those two races — with the Democratic governor of Arizona running for a second term and Democrats trying to unseat the incumbent first-term Republican in Nevada — currently look more in play to the DGA than Texas.

The DGA operative also noted that Beshear has already made other calls to national donors trying to get more money to Texas, but been told no. In a call last week directly with Hinojosa, Beshear said money was short, but he was going to find $1 million for her.

On the call, several offered to provide Beshear names of donors they’d been talking to about raising more money for Texas. A Beshear aide offered to bring the list to the governor, but made no commitments that he would place the calls. So far, though, no one on the call has provided any of those names.

Beshear succeeded in appealing to one of the organization’s most reliable billionaire donors, who also happens to be the governor of Illinois – and who also happens to be taking steps toward a 2028 presidential run: JB Pritzker.

Beshear had a phone call with Pritzker asking for more money in which the Illinois governor then committed to a fresh $1 million, according to a person familiar with the call.

Though that money wasn’t earmarked for Texas, it did put the same amount of money in the DGA pot that Beshear then sent to Texas — and which Pritzker then essentially doubled by announcing that he was giving $1.2 million to Hinojosa personally.

“This race is winnable – it’s time for the cavalry,” Pritzker said on a call with some of the same Latino House members from Texas earlier this week, informing them of his direct donation.

That’s still combined less than the $5 million Pritzker gave to the DGA in the 2022 cycle, in part a reflection of his eagerness for the organization to be more aggressive in how it responded to the second Trump term.

A hard national shift among Latino voters away from Trump and better than expected polling from Hinojosa and Senate candidate James Talarico have fed dreams of new Lone Star State wins in 2026 and 2028 – at the local and district levels as well as state and national.

The last two years of many feeling targeted by Trump have heightened how invested Hinojosa’s supporters are in her candidacy.

“Gina is the thing that unlocks the hatred that our entire community is feeling nationally,” Alida Garcia of the group Twin Impact said toward the end of the call, getting emotional. “Texas sets the tone for our bad our community gets treated everywhere else in the nation, so having Gina there changes the whole tone for us.”

Hinojosa’s campaign remains diplomatic as the start of early voting nears, with a spokesperson telling CNN she appreciates all the help so far.

“We’re grateful for the support we’ve received in this final stretch from leaders across the country, and most of all from Texans who are ready for change after 12 years of Greg Abbott,” said Hinojosa campaign spokesman Tommy Kubitschek.

比尔·普利亚诺/盖蒂图片社

肯塔基州州长安迪·贝希尔希望，在今年的中期选举中担任民主党州长协会主席，能够提升他的知名度和人脉，为他预计在 2028 年竞选总统做好准备。

但这也为加大对他的压力创造了机会，本周，随着多位德克萨斯州民主党国会议员和全国团体领导人指责他将自己的新书巡回宣传和潜在的 2028 年活动置于帮助民主党候选人吉娜·希诺霍萨赢得德克萨斯州州长竞选之上，人们的不满情绪公开爆发。

争议的焦点在于，联邦政府是否应该向希诺霍萨的竞选提供资金，而希诺霍萨的对手是共和党州长格雷格·阿博特，后者一度被认为几乎不可战胜。这场竞选资金不足，希诺霍萨处于劣势。最新的《纽约时报》/锡耶纳学院民调显示，这场竞选没有明显的领先者，希诺霍萨仅领先4个百分点，但仍在抽样误差范围内。

希诺霍萨及其盟友最初向贝希尔州长和民主党州长协会索要1000万美元的竞选资金，但后来将目标金额降至300万美元。直到本周，民主党州长协会才宣布计划向这场竞选投入100万美元，并表示有可能追加投入，但并未做出任何承诺。

“感觉他根本没把拉丁裔选民当回事，民主党也没把拉丁裔选民当回事，”德克萨斯州众议员西尔维娅·加西亚谈到贝希尔时说。“如果真是这样，那他2028年肯定会面临拉丁裔选民的困境。”

贝希尔的助手们不仅否认这些指控，还对他们认为的公开羞辱贝希尔的不公平行为感到愤怒。一位熟悉民主党导演协会内部对话的人士告诉 CNN，他们的民调显示希诺霍萨落后 5 个百分点——尽管另一位知情人士表示，竞选团队自己的民调显示，她的支持率在误差范围内。

一位熟悉民主党州长协会（DGA）讨论情况的人士告诉 CNN：“当许多其他候选人在比德克萨斯州便宜得多的州与德克萨斯州势均力敌或领先时，把钱花在那里就很难说得通了。”

加布里埃尔·V·卡德纳斯/路透社

然而，现在发生的事情不仅仅关乎贝希尔或德克萨斯州。这是拉丁裔领导人正在试探他们如何能够并且将会如何运用美国最大但经常被忽视的选民群体之一的政治影响力，而今年，这个群体再次被证明是最摇摆不定的选民群体之一。

“我们不能仅仅从当下的角度来思考这场选举的意义，而应该思考它对2028年意味着什么，”众议员维罗妮卡·埃斯科瓦尔在与民主党州长协会（DGA）官员举行的Zoom会议上说道，贝希尔州长并未出席此次会议。埃斯科瓦尔认为，如果希诺霍萨胜选，将表明拥有40张选举人票的德克萨斯州几十年来首次能够在总统选举中具备竞争力。

在电话会议上，民主党导演协会（DGA）执行董事梅根·米汉-德雷珀多次表示，该组织相信希诺霍萨的竞选，并将未能向德克萨斯州投入更多资金归咎于竞选财务法的不确定性以及全国范围内资金捉襟见肘的现状。尽管这些说法属实，但DGA的犹豫不决也源于其自身的民调结果。

“你对这件事的处理完全失当，你对我们的完全不尊重，这真是令人震惊，”拉丁裔组织Maremoto的总裁兼首席执行官杰西·莫拉莱斯·罗克托在被邀请发言时说道。

美国拉丁裔公民联盟主席兼首席执行官胡安·普罗阿尼奥表示，他对电话会议中的语气感到惊讶。普罗阿尼奥告诉CNN，贝希尔“在当前环境下已经尽力而为”，并补充说，他对州长迄今为止在拉美裔选民群体中的广泛宣传工作感到满意。

普罗阿尼奥在谈到参加电话会议的美国导演工会官员时说：“我会相信他们会努力做得更多，但我也清楚地认识到，存在着比德克萨斯州更广泛的限制。”

贝希尔通过助手拒绝了采访请求。他的助手提供了一份来自新墨西哥州州长米歇尔·卢扬·格里沙姆的声明，格里沙姆是美国目前唯一一位拉丁裔州长，她在声明中敦促各方避免内讧。

“我与贝希尔州长、民主党州长和民主党州长协会密切合作，投资于全国各地的西班牙裔社区，并筹集资金，以便吉娜的竞选活动能够将她的信息传递给选民，”卢哈恩·格里沙姆说。

汤姆·佩雷斯告诉 CNN，他记得在 2018 年中期选举期间担任民主党全国委员会主席时，也曾有过类似的对话。

佩雷斯说：“作为在顺风顺水的一年里领导党委会的人，我们在2018年拥有相当于12个规模的机遇，但我们的预算却只有10个规模。我认为在2026年的州长竞选中，机遇的数量相当于14个规模，他们正在尽最大努力将这些机遇分配给更多的人。”

佩雷斯是多米尼加裔，他表示，贝希尔担任州长期间在肯塔基州农村社区和路易斯维尔为拉丁裔选民所做的工作，削弱了目前针对他的政治指责：“他的政绩不言自明。”

吉姆·冯德鲁斯卡/路透社

民主党州长协会（DGA）的一位助手指出，除了在德克萨斯州投入的100万美元外，还有其他投资用于支付当地部分开支和工作人员费用，此外，贝希尔还通过他自己的政治行动委员会（PAC）向希诺霍萨的竞选活动捐赠了2.5万美元。这位助手还指出，DGA的资金正源源不断地流入亚利桑那州和内华达州的州长竞选，其中大部分资金都用于支持拉丁裔选民和西班牙语选民。

目前看来，亚利桑那州民主党州长竞选连任，内华达州民主党人试图击败现任共和党州长（第一任期），这两场选举对民主党州长协会来说比德克萨斯州的选举更重要。

民主党导演协会的一位工作人员还指出，贝希尔此前已多次致电其他全国性捐助者，试图为德克萨斯州争取更多资金，但均遭到拒绝。上周，贝希尔在与希诺霍萨的通话中表示，资金短缺，但他会为她筹集100万美元。

在通话中，几位人士主动提出向贝希尔州长提供他们正在洽谈的、旨在为德克萨斯州筹集更多资金的捐赠者名单。贝希尔的一位助手表示愿意将名单交给州长，但并未承诺会亲自打电话。然而，到目前为止，通话中无人提供过任何名单上的姓名。

贝希尔成功吸引了该组织最可靠的亿万富翁捐助者之一，而这位捐助者恰好是伊利诺伊州州长，并且也正在为 2028 年总统竞选做准备：JB·普利兹克。

据一位知情人士透露，贝希尔曾与普里茨克通电话，请求追加资金，伊利诺伊州州长随后承诺追加 100 万美元。

虽然这笔钱并非专门用于德克萨斯州，但它确实将与贝希尔随后向德克萨斯州提供的资金数额相同的资金投入了民主党导演协会的资金池——而普里茨克随后宣布他将个人向希诺霍萨捐赠 120 万美元，这笔资金实际上翻了一番。

“这场竞选是可以赢的——是时候派兵了，”普里茨克本周早些时候在与一些来自德克萨斯州的拉丁裔众议院议员通话时说道，并告知他们他已直接捐款。

即便如此，这笔捐款加起来也比不上普利兹克在 2022 年选举周期中向美国导演工会捐赠的 500 万美元，这在一定程度上反映了他渴望该组织在应对特朗普第二个任期时采取更积极的行动。

全国范围内拉丁裔选民对特朗普的强烈反对，以及希诺霍萨和参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科的民调结果好于预期，都让人们梦想着孤星之州（德克萨斯州）在 2026 年和 2028 年赢得新的胜利——无论是在地方和地区层面，还是在州和国家层面。

过去两年里，许多人感觉自己成了特朗普的攻击目标，这更加激发了希诺霍萨的支持者对她竞选的热情。

“吉娜的出现，就像是解开了我们整个社区在全国范围内积压的仇恨，”双子冲击组织的阿莉达·加西亚在通话接近尾声时激动地说。“德克萨斯州为我们社区在全国其他地方遭受的糟糕待遇定下了基调，所以吉娜的到来改变了这一切。”

随着提前投票的临近，希诺霍萨的竞选团队仍然保持着外交辞令，一位发言人告诉 CNN，她感谢迄今为止得到的所有帮助。

“我们非常感谢在最后阶段得到全国各地领导人的支持，尤其感谢德克萨斯州人民的支持，他们在格雷格·阿博特执政 12 年后渴望改变，”希诺霍萨竞选发言人汤米·库比切克说。