TEXAS \u2014 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s endorsements for public office have historically helped hopeful candidates, but this election cycle might prove otherwise.<\/p>\n
Abbott quickly endorsed Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in the Republican primary for the full-time position. Hancock,\u00a0a former state senator, took over the duties last July after then-Comptroller Glen Hegar left office. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Hancock has been campaigning with Abbott, however, there are other candidates in the race that might not align as much with Abbott as Hancock does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA Comptroller with an agenda that doesn’t align with the agenda of state leadership can be a real pain in their side.\u00a0And I think that’s part of the concern, even though this is really just about Republicans choosing Republicans,\u201d said Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n
There is a crowded slate of Republicans running for comptroller\u00a0and Abbott\u2019s pick is polling in third place, 20 points behind the frontrunner: former state Sen. Don Huffines.<\/p>\n
Along with the comptroller race, Abbott\u2019s endorsee in the primary for agriculture commissioner is in a similar spot. The governor opted to not back incumbent Sid Miller and endorsed political newcomer Nate Sheets, the owner of a honey company. Sheets joined Abbott on a South Texas visit with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, however, he\u2019s trailing behind Miller by 30 points, bringing Abbott\u2019s influence into question.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he doesn’t win, I think he’s going to be wounded. If somebody like Sid Miller wins by double digits or more and doesn’t matter what happens, then all of that is gone. Gov. Abbott has a lot to lose,\u201d said Anthony Holm, host of radio show \u201cPolitics with the Big Dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the 2024 election cycle, Abbott threw his power behind candidates who supported his school voucher plan. Not all who he endorsed won, but his endorsements still helped secure the passage of his preferred policy. One Republican strategist describes his endorsements of Sheets and Hancock as carefully calculated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t endorse people he doesn\u2019t think can win. He views them as good candidates and people who would be good allies for him, but also that they have a really good chance of winning,\u201d said Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser.<\/p>\n
Abbott\u2019s involvement this cycle is focused on electability, but according to one pollster, primary election voters typically have their mind made up before endorsements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is in these low turnout elections, the overall impact of an endorsement is necessarily limited because the voters who are already voting are the most engaged voters in the electorate. They’re the most likely to have an opinion about these candidates, and they’re probably the least likely to be swayed simply by someone’s endorsement,\u201d said Blank.<\/p>\n
Abbott’s endorsements will be tested during the early voting period from Feb. 17-27, and Election Day on March 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s endorsements for public office have historically helped hopeful candidates, but this election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6329,1658,2160,132,134,133,6328,1570,102,138,6363,68137,1063,223,287,82,27,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-172267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-app-capital-tonight","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-austin-headlines","13":"tag-austin-news","14":"tag-capital-tonight","15":"tag-ctv","16":"tag-dallas","17":"tag-el-paso","18":"tag-erin-davis","19":"tag-local-and-state-politics-texas-container","20":"tag-local-politics","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-san-antonio","24":"tag-texas","25":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}