Gregory Wayne Abbott is attempting what only one other governor in Texas has done: win a third term.
But the 64-year-old incumbent, previously the longest-serving attorney general in state history, must first convince voters that he deserves another shot. To do that, Abbott is painting his state as a bulwark against national Democrats’ agenda on border enforcement and economic policy as well as school curricula and abortion restrictions. It’s this approach he hopes will help him beat out Democratic contender Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke in November.
Speaking with the Washington Examiner at his office inside the Texas state Capitol in March, Abbott first emphasized the need to maintain Texas’s economy, which would be the ninth-largest in the world by GDP if it were an independent country.
“There’s obviously so many issues,” Abbott said when asked about his priorities. “You address the issues that are before you at the time. And one thing that we want to focus on is Texas has pretty much the leading economy of any state in the United States. Goal No. 1 is to continue that process because that brings prosperity to everybody in this state.”
The state’s booming economy and the “Don’t Mess with Texas” individualism responsible for it are, in fact, drawing people from other states. The 2021 Texas Relocation Report, which tracked the arrival of new residents in 2019, found more than 500,000 people moved to Texas in each of the last seven years. That was before the coronavirus pandemic, which led even greater numbers of West and East Coast residents to migrate down south. Texas was among the first states to ban vaccine requirements and oppose mask mandates. Texas was the second-most moved-to state in 2020, after Florida, according to Move.org. Despite being the second-most moved-to and moved-from state in 2021, it gained more people than it lost and is expected to surpass 30 million residents in 2022.
Several hundred thousand tourists were in Austin for the South by Southwest festival as Abbott discussed his past and future ambitions from inside the pink granite Capitol.
Over the past seven years, the Abbott administration targeted the Obama and Biden administrations in dozens of lawsuits that claimed federal overreach. Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, Texas has launched 25 lawsuits against his administration specifically, including nine that pertain to immigration and border matters. Border security, Abbott said, would be his second-highest priority if given a third term.
The Texas gubernatorial race is rated “solid Republican” by Inside Elections publisher Nathan Gonzales. Abbott is expected to beat O’Rourke, a former presidential candidate who lost a close Senate race in 2018, in November. A RealClearPolitics average of polls taken since December has Abbott nearly 9 points above O’Rourke. Fundraising numbers skew in his favor, too.
Abbott already had tens of millions of dollars in his coffer before declaring his reelection bid in 2021. Since then, he has added to it, reporting $62 million to the Federal Election Commission in January. O’Rourke, by contrast, had only $7 million.
Not only has Abbott outperformed O’Rourke in fundraising, but his record as a state politician is also more than three decades long, making him an established name with voters. Abbott was born and raised in Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, then completed law school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He met Cecilia, his wife of 41 years, during college. In 1984, at the age of 26, Abbott became paralyzed after a tree fell on him while jogging.
He went into the private sector for eight years following law school, then worked as a state district judge until then-Gov. George W. Bush appointed him to the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001. He resigned to run for lieutenant governor, then pivoted to run for attorney general, as John Cornyn announced he would leave the post to run for Senate. In 2002, Abbott won the attorney general election and won reelections in 2006 and 2010.
As top litigator in the state, Abbott went after the Obama administration hard, suing more than 40 times over environmental, healthcare, transgender, and other matters — more than any other state attorney general. The approach is one that current Attorney General Ken Paxton has emulated. Paxton has dispatched 25 lawsuits against the Biden administration in a little more than a year.
Abbott first ran for governor in 2014 and beat then-Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis 59% to 39%. Four years later, Abbott beat former Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez 56% to 42%.
Under Abbott and Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, the state has unleashed a war on progressive policies at the local and federal levels, prohibiting abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, penalizing cities that reduce spending on police, allowing residents to carry a gun without a license to carry, and announcing plans for a state-built wall along portions of Texas’s 1,250-mile border with Mexico that were not walled off by the Trump administration. The state has procured 1,700 panels of border wall that were unused after Biden ordered the halting of wall projects funded under Trump, Abbott said.
Abbott dubbed the uptick in illegal immigration shortly after Biden took office an “invasion” and blasted the Biden administration for releasing illegal immigrants into the U.S. despite knowledge that many had the coronavirus. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed as much in September 2021, admitting that 20% of illegal immigrants taken into custody at the border and released from Laredo, Texas, were positive for the virus.
The governor initiated Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to get state and local law enforcement to help Border Patrol respond to the surge in illegal immigrants, most of whom pay criminal organizations known as cartels to get them into the U.S. More than 10,000 state troopers and National Guard soldiers have been deployed to the border and other regions of the state where drugs and people are smuggled via highways and back roads.
Abbott’s campaign website is heavy on border-related news and press releases attacking O’Rourke’s stances. Abbott said O’Rourke has changed positions on several issues and the public ought to be reminded of it. Although O’Rourke did not support gun confiscation during his unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2018, during a Democratic presidential debate in September 2019, O’Rourke said he supported a proposal for a mandatory buyback of assault weapons.
“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. You will not be able to use it against our fellow Americans anymore,” O’Rourke said.
In February, while campaigning in Tyler, Texas, O’Rourke said taking people’s guns was no longer something he supported: “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone. What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment.” The largest pro-gun organization in America, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, noticed O’Rourke’s attempt at rebranding on guns.
“The political reality of running in Texas, rather than a nationwide Democratic primary, could be a factor. So too could Americans’ increasing appreciation for private firearm ownership during a period of turmoil. Both are likely showing up in Beto’s internal polling,” the NRA-ILA wrote in a press release.
“It’s another example of somebody who knows that they’re losing, because it’s not just that. He’s changed his position on absolutely everything,” said Abbott. “Same thing happened last week with regard to critical race theory. He came out strongly embracing critical race theory and thinking it should be taught in schools. And then, when confronted by actual Texans, he walked it back and said, ‘No, it shouldn’t be taught in schools.’ Same thing applies with regard to [liquefied natural gas] shipments. He voted against LNG and the shipping of LNG and trying to relieve the European region from being dependent upon LNG from Russia. And he was in South Texas last week saying all this LNG stuff is great.”
Texas was the first state to hold primaries this year, which occurred on March 1. Abbott won 67% of the Republican Party’s vote, easily defeating runners-up Allen West, the retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former Florida congressman, and Tea Partier and former state Sen. Don Huffines.
O’Rourke won his primary with 91% of the Democratic vote. Because Biden’s approval ratings have declined significantly since he took office, lower-ticket races are expected to see a decline in support come November, further hurting O’Rourke’s chances.
Anna Giaritelli is the homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner, covering the department, U.S. border, and policies related to cybersecurity, immigration, and transportation.
