Regina Inez Hinojosa (born December 8, 1973)[1] is an American lawyer and politician. She is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 49th District. Hinojosa was sworn into the Texas House on January 10, 2017, after winning the November 2016 general election. She succeeded Democrat Elliott Naishtat, who did not run for re-election.[2][3]
Hinojosa started her career representing union members as a civil rights lawyer. In 2012, facing Austin Independent School District's closing of schools, including her son's school, Pease Elementary, she joined the Austin ISD school board. She served four years until 2016, when she ran for Texas's 49th House of Representatives district, where she served five terms.[6][7]
Texas House of Representatives
2017
In the 85th Texas Legislature, Hinojosa proposed directing $3 million to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to help trafficking victims receive necessary services.[8] The proposal passed the House 113 to 32, but was stripped from the budget during negotiations with the Senate.[9]
2019
At an organizing campaign for the Healthy Texas Act of 2019, Hinojosa pledged to introduce legislation to provide every Texas resident with comprehensive healthcare services.[10] The bill was considered in committee, but did not move forward. [11]
During the 86th Texas Legislature, Hinojosa also authored HB 1307, which established a system allowing individuals impacted by disasters to apply for assistance. The bill was signed into law. [12]
2021
During the 87th Texas Legislature, Hinojosa filed House Bill 73, which would have prohibited the use of the gay/trans panic defense. Under the panic defense, criminal penalties for assault and murder can be lessened or eliminated if the perpetrator claims they lost control and acted violently in response to the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill was rejected by the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.[13]
In July 2021, Democratic members of the Texas House, including Hinojosa, left the state in an effort to prevent the passage of voting restriction legislation, which would ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, prohibit local election officials from distributing unrequested mail-in ballot applications, and grant partisan poll watchers unrestricted movement at voting sites, among other changes.[14][15] Although the bill eventually passed, provisions that would have made it easier for judges to overturn election results and prohibited early morning voting on Sundays (potentially impeding Black churches' post-service voting tradition) were eliminated. [16]
2023
During the 88th Texas Legislature, Hinojosa authored the Fully Fund Our Future Act. The bill would have invested 40 billion dollars into the Texas public school system, providing teachers with a $15,000 raise and school support staff with a $5,500 raise, increasing per-student funding from $6,160 to $8,947, and allocating an additional $2 billion dollars for special education services.[17][18] However, Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated that he would not permit increasing public education funding or providing teacher pay raises unless school voucher legislation passed.[19] As a result, public school districts did not receive additional state funding in 2023.[20]
2025
In February 2025, Hinojosa posted a link to an interactive website where users could learn how much money local school districts would lose as a result of school voucher legislation. Governor Abbott, who had designated the passage of school vouchers as his first priority of the session, stated that Democrats either don't understand the legislation "or they lie about it." Hinojosa responded, "Call me a liar to my face," in a post accompanied by a video offering to educate the governor on school finance.[21]
In August 2025, Hinojosa was one of the 51 Democratic members of the Texas House who left the state to participate in the quorum bust in order to delay the passage of new congressional maps.[22] While she was absent from the state, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to attempt to remove Hinojosa, along with a dozen other representatives, from office by declaring their seats vacant.[23] The members ultimately returned to the state before the Texas Supreme Court could issue a ruling,[24] and the maps passed through the legislature, triggering a nationwide cycle of redistricting.[25][26]
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