Greg Abbott has governed Texas for over a decade from a wheelchair — the result of a 1984 accident in which a tree fell on him while he was jogging — and has spent much of that time governing as if the state’s size and ambition were personal extensions of his will.
He was Texas Attorney General for 12 years before becoming governor, suing the federal government 31 times on issues ranging from immigration to environmental regulations. The lawsuits were as much a political strategy as a legal one. Many failed in court. All of them built a brand.
The Record
Abbott’s tenure has been defined by signature conservative legislation: SB 8 (the 2021 six-week abortion ban with a private civil enforcement mechanism that was explicitly designed to evade judicial review), permitless carry of firearms, aggressive school choice expansion, and Operation Lone Star — a $4.5 billion state-funded border security initiative.
He signed the bills that made Texas the center of national debates on abortion, guns, and immigration. He did so deliberately.
The Border
Abbott has deployed the Texas National Guard to the southern border and used state funds to build physical barriers — actions that have generated both significant national media coverage and ongoing legal battles with the federal government. He bused migrants to Democratic-controlled cities (New York, Chicago, Washington DC) in a strategy that was simultaneously punitive, performative, and politically effective.
The 2026 Race
Abbott is expected to seek a fourth term in 2026. Texas Democrats have been unable to mount competitive statewide challenges — Beto O’Rourke’s 2022 gubernatorial run raised $77M and lost by 11 points. The question isn’t whether Abbott will win but whether his policy record becomes a template for Republican governance nationally.
What They’re Watching
Whether Abbott’s brand of confrontational federalism — constant litigation with Washington, unilateral state action on immigration, abortion restrictions written to avoid courts — becomes the model for Republican governors in the Trump era, or whether his decisions on abortion cost him with suburban voters who have been drifting away from Texas Republicans.