Labor advocate leads Austin council member for Gina Hinojosa's seat

Montserrat Garibay took an early lead over Kathie Tovo in the Democratic runoff for state Rep. Gina Hinojosa's Texas House seat, according to early returns. Montserrat Garibay appears to be the frontrunner in Texas House District 49's Democratic primary runoff, which will likely determine who holds the seat in the 2027 legislative session. Early returns showed Garibay with 59.24% of the early vote over Kathie Tovo with 40.76%. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, will vacate the Austin-based seat to run against Gov. Greg Abbott in November. She was first elected to the Central Austin district a decade ago. Garibay and Tovo emerged as the two top contenders from a crowded contest in the March primary. Garibay led, but neither candidate received a majority of the votes needed to win outright, forcing them into a runoff. Garibay is a former prekindergarten teacher and state labor leader who worked for the U.S. Department of Education under the Biden administration. After working as a bilingual pre-K teacher in Austin ISD for eight years, she served as vice president of Education Austin, the district’s teacher’s union, and later as secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO, a labor group. She lobbied for pre-K and workers' rights at the Texas Legislature. She has often brought up her personal background on the campaign trail, including how she became a U.S. citizen in 2012 and championed bilingual students. As a representative, she hopes to remedy the recapture process, which sends billions of dollars from property-rich school districts like Austin ISD back to the state every year to fund the budgets of property poor districts. During the March primary, her candidacy won endorsements from well-known Democrats including U.S. Rep. Greg Casar; former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis; state Rep. John Bucy; County Attorney Delia Garza; and Austin City Council members Mike Siegel and José Velásquez. Tovo is a former Austin City Council member who previously ran for mayor. When launching her candidacy for Hinojosa’s seat, she spoke out against what she views as Texas Republican lawmakers' attacks on public schools, citing book bans and “political purity tests to professors and teachers.” Tovo may be a more familiar face to HD 49 voters, as the city council district she has represented since 2022 mostly overlaps with the Texas House district. The winner of the November general election will be sworn into office on the first day of the 2027 legislative session in January.