Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took aim at Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa on Tuesday over her pledge to freeze electricity rates on her first day in office, calling it a move "out of the Venezuelan socialist playbook."
Nothing like your first act being out of the Venezuelan socialist playbook . . . This will not end well.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 10, 2026
"This will not end well," Paul wrote, linking to a Fox News report on whether Hinojosa has the legal authority to do it. The post passed 750,000 views within hours.
Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat who unseated Abbott on Nov. 3, says she will act as soon as she is sworn in on Jan. 19. "Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to: one, suspend the gas and diesel tax; and two, freeze electricity rates," she said in a statement quoted by the Texas Tribune.
Paul followed up by quoting an account of what price controls did to Venezuela, from rice to toilet paper, and to its electricity sector:
"The Venezuelan government set prices for thousands of retail goods by decree: from rice and chicken to soap and toilet paper. Price caps were often too low, so producers could not cover their costs, leading to shortages, smuggling and bankruptcies."
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 10, 2026
Venezuelan "electricity subsidies were also vast, leading to losses and underinvestment in the sector."
Texas are you prepared Venezuelan socialism?
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 10, 2026
A freeze would collide with the market Texas built in 1999, when Senate Bill 7 opened most of the state to retail electricity choice starting in 2002: most Texans buy power from competing retail providers, and the Legislature wrote into the law that "the production and sale of electricity is not a monopoly," Fox noted.
Nick Loris, president of the free-market group C3 Solutions, told Fox that the Texas Disaster Act "lets the governor declare disasters," but that "there is a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers" that high power prices qualify. Any lawsuit, he said, would likely come from "those affected parties," and the economics cut against the plan: "If the electricity suppliers are not covering the costs that they incur, that's going to leave them worse off."
Texas Republicans are already moving to box her in: state Rep. Brian Harrison has urged Abbott to call a special session to curb the governor's emergency powers before Hinojosa takes office, as we reported.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill ran on the same day-one promise.
Her office said the executive order she signed on Jan. 20 "freezes rate hikes," but its terms say it "uses existing funds to offset electricity bill increases coming in June" and lets the state's Board of Public Utilities "pause or modify utility actions that could further increase bills."
Hinojosa has also said Texas should stop building data centers until new laws to protect Texans are in place, a pledge that came the same day the Nasdaq slid on fears of Democratic moratoriums on the AI buildout.