Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivers remarks before supporters attending the Republican midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, September 10, 2026.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
Gov. Greg Abbott cast this fall’s Texas elections as “a choice between common sense and crazy” Thursday as he rallied Republicans at their convention in Dallas.
“I’m here to tell you that Republicans are going to win this year because Americans want safe communities and secure borders, and Republicans will deliver on that need,” he said.
Abbott has become a national conservative figure, driven largely by the billions Texas has spent to secure the border with Mexico.
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The governor, who is running for an unprecedented fourth term in office, faces Democrat Gina Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin, in November.
With images of Big Bend and the Texas flag behind him on the American Airlines Center stage, Abbott praised President Donald Trump, reminding the arena of his accomplishments and repeatedly hammering “the Democrats running on the statewide ticket.”
“Common sense always wins. It will win this year, too,” Abbott said, as the crowd repeatedly jumped up to cheer during his eight-minute speech. “Together we are going to demolish the Democrats. We are going to keep Texas red.”
He didn’t name Hinojosa or James Talarico, a state representative running for the Senate against Attorney General Ken Paxton — a departure from the new tone his campaign took earlier this week when his staff directly attacked Hinojosa for the first time on the trail.
In news releases, the governor’s campaign spokespeople called Hinojosa a “gender bender” for supporting transgender kids and “Job Killer Gina” for her opposition to some tax cuts for the wealthy over the years.
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But while Abbott didn’t mention Hinojosa, she and Talarico were present in spirit: He criticized their defense of transgender rights, efforts to stop a border wall and block stiff voting restrictions and opposition to private school vouchers, among other issues.
“They’re gaslighting the public on affordability,” Abbott said.
Abbott also ticked off laws he had signed in recent years: The state funding for100 miles of border wall, the largest private school voucher program in the nation and a constitutional amendment banning a state income tax that had bipartisan support in the Texas Legislature and was approved by voters last year.
“I stopped the craziness,” he said.
Abbott even managed to get a dig in on his favorite adversary — California.
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“Democrats are not safe,” he told the crowd. “They voted to defund police. That’s not Texas. That’s California Crazy.”
Then, in a nod to the handful of attendees sitting under the California sign in the center of the audience, he added: “With all due respect to the California delegation here.”
State Democrats called the speech “a snoozefest.”
“At a time when working people are struggling under Abbott’s agenda of giving data centers the biggest tax breaks in the country, shuttering neighborhood public schools, and enabling Flock cameras to surveil Texans without cause, he’s patting himself on the back at an event where the cheapest ticket is $20,000,” Hinojosa said in a statement.