Hinojosa, Rubén, 1940-

Rubén Eloy Hinojosa (born August 20, 1940) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Texas's 15th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2017.

Born in Edcouch, Texas, he graduated from Mercedes High School in nearby Mercedes, Texas and attended Texas A&M University at Kingsville before earning a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas-Pan American. For two decades, he was the president and chief financial officer of his family's food processing company, H&H Foods. In 1974, Hinojosa was elected to the Texas State Board of Education, a position which he held for ten years. After long-serving Representative Kika de la Garza announced his retirement from Congress, Hinojosa entered the race to succeed him, winning the Democratic primary in a runoff and the general election.

While in Congress, Hinojosa was a staunch advocate for the interests of Latinos in the United States, joining the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and was chosen to head its education task force during his first term. As part of the New Democrat coalition, Hinojosa cultivated a centrist voting record in the House. Overall, he was largely supportive of the Bush administration’s free trade agenda and its energy policy. He voted in favor of expanding domestic oil production, and sided with Republicans on issues such as offshore drilling and limiting access to abortions though he was less amenable to Bush-era Republican proposals on immigration and border security. When Democrats gained control of the House at the start of the 110th Congress, Hinojosa was appointed chairman of the Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness. Following the 2008 economic crisis, Hinojosa intensified his commitment to reforming the financial services sector, co-founding the Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus and welcomed the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Board.

In 2015, Hinojosa announced he would not stand for reelection to an eleventh term in the House.