{"id":824803,"date":"2026-05-27T04:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/824803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:59:18","slug":"montserrat-garibay-wins-runoff-election-for-hd-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/824803\/","title":{"rendered":"Montserrat Garibay wins runoff election for HD 49"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montserrat Garibay will represent Texas House District 49 at the Capitol, a seat long held by Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. <\/p>\n

Garibay, a former teacher and education advocate, beat Kathie Tovo, a former Austin City Council member. Republicans did not field a candidate, so Garibay will take over the seat.<\/p>\n

Garibay declared victory Tuesday night after receiving a commanding lead in early voting totals. As Election Day results came in, Tovo couldn’t close the gap. <\/p>\n

\u201cTonight is proof that Austin is ready to fearlessly stand up to the hateful agenda of Trump and Abbott,” Garibay said. \u201cAustin voters know we need to organize inside and outside of the Capitol to defend our constitutional rights and hold Republicans accountable.”<\/p>\n

Tovo congratulated Garibay on her win in what she called a “hard fought campaign.”<\/p>\n

“I wish her the best. I\u2019d like to thank my supporters for their dedication and efforts,” Tovo said.<\/p>\n

Hinojosa gave up the House seat to run for governor, kicking off a Democratic primary that drew eight candidates in March. Republicans didn’t field a candidate, so whoever wins will take the seat. <\/p>\n

The district stretches from<\/a> William Cannon Drive in South Austin through Central Austin and the University of Texas and ends just north of U.S. Highway 183. <\/p>\n

Public education was a top agenda item for both candidates. Both want the state to revisit its so-called recapture program, which siphons billions of dollars from property tax-rich districts to struggling districts across the state. They also both oppose the state’s push to give private schools public money through a voucher program. Those issues, along with lagging enrollment have led to school closures, a $181 million deficit and looming layoffs at Austin ISD.<\/p>\n

As an educator at Austin ISD, Garibay said she’s deeply familiar with the district’s issues, and she believes she would do more in the Capitol to try and right the ship for public education.<\/p>\n

Tovo, a longtime Austin City Council member, said her experience at City Hall would’ve made her a more effective lawmaker in the overwhelmingly Republican Texas House.<\/p>\n

Garibay was the top vote-getter in the March primary, with more than 13,000 constituents backing her, compared to Tovo’s 11,000.<\/p>\n

Rougly 60 percent of voters supported Garibay in the runoff, according to the Travis County Clerk’s office. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montserrat Garibay will represent Texas House District 49 at the Capitol, a seat long held by Democratic state…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":824804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,171,338804,338805,338806,338807,975,249325,338808,338809,338810,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-824803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-elections","tag-entertainment","tag-hd-49","tag-kathie-tovo","tag-kathie-tovo-montserrat-garibay","tag-montserrat-garibay","tag-music","tag-primary-elections","tag-primary-runoffs","tag-texas-house-district-49","tag-texas-primary-runoffs-2026","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116644778250579595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}