Speaking to a crowd of supporters in San Antonio on Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his intention to run for re-election to Texas’ highest office.
“To keep Texas the best very state in the United States, I am running for reelection as governor of the great state of Texas,” said Abbott.
He previously served on the state’s Supreme Court then as Texas Attorney General. Abbott first ran for governor in 2014 with near universal support from conservatives and no competitive Republican opposition. In the general election he defeated Democratic State Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth by a substantial margin, continuing a two decade legacy of denying Democrats any of Texas’ statewide elected offices. Abbott won ten more counties than his predecessor.
To make Democrats’ injury even worse, Republicans would also take Davis’ seat in the Texas Senate in the same election—replacing the pink shoed abortion advocate with the boot wearing Konni Burton, a tea party leader from Colleyville.
Since taking office, Abbott has largely advocated for conservative causes including increasing ethical standards for elected officials, strengthening the state’s spending limit, tax relief, and border security. He’s also spent considerable effort arguing for restricting the growing “patchwork quilt” of local government regulations as more and more of them run rampant and seek to regulate the lives of everyday Texans.
While Abbott refrained from active involvement in the regular session of the Texas Legislature, he has called lawmakers back for a special session to address conservative reforms that failed to pass, items such as property tax reform, privacy protections, ending the automatic collection of labor union dues, expanding parental choice in education, and election integrity.
He also appears to be moving to hold lawmakers to task if they refuse or fail to get their work done in the extra time.
The coming special session will be a test of Abbott’s resolve and could do much to determine the outcome of his re-election campaign. If the governor continues to champion grassroots Texans’ reforms and hold lawmakers accountable, conservatives are likely to rally around him again.