Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has announced her first round of transition team appointments, reaching across party lines and across Texas’s core economic constituencies in the days after her victory over Greg Abbott. The list, reported by Houston Public Media and the Houston Chronicle, pairs a rural Republican former state lawmaker with allies from organized labor and public education as the incoming administration begins building its agenda for January.
Among the most closely watched picks is Ernest Bailes, a conservative Republican and former state representative from rural East Texas who joined House Democrats in 2023 to block Abbott’s school voucher legislation. Abbott and his allies backed primary challengers against the Republicans who opposed the voucher plan, and Bailes lost his seat after the 2024 primaries. Hinojosa, who served alongside Bailes in the Texas House, described him as a champion for public schools and one of her closest Republican allies on education issues.
“We will put partisanship aside. We will work together for what is best for the kids of the state of Texas,” Bailes said Thursday, according to Houston Public Media. Hinojosa told the outlet that including a Republican on her team was part of “forging a new way forward,” adding, “I am not going to be the governor for just Democrats. I am going to be the governor for all the people of Texas.”
Education policy is expected to be a central economic issue for the incoming administration, since school funding shapes both household costs and the labor pool that relocating companies evaluate. The team includes Tamala Barksdale, a former Austin Independent School District trustee who served with Hinojosa on the school board. During the campaign, Hinojosa promised to increase funding for public schools and to replace Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath with an educator, positions that will guide her legislative agenda.
Organized labor also gains a seat at the table. Ryan Pollock, a union electrician and executive director of the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council, joins the team as Hinojosa emphasizes job creation and wages. Pollock said the goal is an economy that works for all Texans by ensuring workers receive high-quality training so they can do needed work safely and with dignity. For construction and energy-sector employers, the appointment signals a likely push to tie workforce development funding to apprenticeship and safety standards.
Joe Madden, a Houston public affairs consultant, will serve as the transition team’s executive director. Madden previously worked in the Texas Legislature and in Harris County government, where his responsibilities included government transitions and emergency management, experience that will matter as state agencies prepare for a change in leadership.
Hinojosa said she has already spoken with Abbott and that both teams are communicating about the transfer of power. “Greg Abbott has been gracious,” she said, according to Houston Public Media. “We are both committed to ensuring there is a smooth transition so that the people of Texas are taken care of.”
The appointments arrive as Texas businesses adjust to the state’s first Democratic administration in more than three decades. The governor-elect’s staff will begin reviewing resumes and making additional appointments in the coming weeks, giving industry groups time to seek seats in an advisory process that could shape tax, workforce and education policy for the next term.
