Governor-Elect Hinojosa Tells CNN Data Centers Are Not Ruled Out - But Texas Stops Until Laws Protect Texans
In her first extended interview since winning the governorship, Gina Hinojosa drew the line that Wall Street spent Thursday pricing in: data centers can be built in Texas again once the Legislature passes protections - and the Boca Chica beach is not for sale to SpaceX at any point.
Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa used her first extended national interview to clarify the pledge that helped crater AI stocks this week: she is not against data centers, she told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday - she is against building them before Texas has rules. 'I'm not ruling data centers out. It's not that I hate data centers, we just need to stop what we are doing until we have protections for Texans,' she said, adding that legislation would have to pass before she would favor ending the moratorium, and taking pains in the interview to describe her policies as pro-business.
The clarification lands in the middle of the market storm her campaign promise helped set off. Texas is the epicenter of the AI build-out - about a quarter of all data-center capacity planned in the United States is slated for this state - and investors spent Thursday selling chip and data-center stocks on fears that Democratic victories would slow that expansion. Hinojosa's framing to CNN was about sequence, not prohibition: 'Data centers have moved into mostly rural communities, and there are no rules and laws to protect Texans.' Her predecessor had already moved partway there: Gov. Greg Abbott was among the first Republican governors to halt new data-center connections to the state grid and order a comprehensive audit of the projects.
On the other fight she brought to the interview - the reported plan to sell some 1,300 acres of public land in Cameron County, including Boca Chica State Park, to Elon Musk's SpaceX - there was no softening. 'Selling our beach to Elon Musk is just something that is almost unimaginable, it's unacceptable,' she said. Hinojosa told a Thursday news conference she had spoken with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's executive director to request no action be taken on the land during her transition, and confirmed the matter was not on the commission's Thursday agenda; the department has said the commission was not considering the sale at its November meeting. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hinojosa, who defeated Abbott on Tuesday to become the state's first Democratic governor since Ann Richards and its first Latina governor, is scheduled to be sworn in on January 19 - when the moratorium, the audit, and the beach all become hers to decide.
