{"id":335942,"date":"2026-06-14T12:34:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335942\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T12:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:34:30","slug":"at-texas-gop-convention-abbott-vows-to-demolish-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335942\/","title":{"rendered":"At Texas GOP convention, Abbott vows to ‘demolish’ Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> on Friday vowed to eviscerate Democrats in November\u2019s midterm elections during a speech at the Texas GOP convention that previewed his next legislative priorities and his message for the fall campaign: tying the opposition to \u201cBernie Sanders socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to thousands of delegates at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Abbott suggested the party will close its primaries to only Republicans, a priority of GOP activists that would require primary voters to register with the party. The governor also renewed his call to ban local governments from sending lobbyists to Austin \u2014 known among critics as taxpayer-funded lobbying \u2014 and encouraged the Legislature to adopt his plans for regulating data centers<\/a>, slashing property taxes<\/a> and taking a hard line on immigration<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s remarks offered a fresh look at how he plans to confront Democrats in a midterm where President Donald Trump\u2019s policies, and the state of the economy, is creating political headwinds for Republicans. The governor cast the minority party, and its nominee for U.S. Senate, Rep. James Talarico<\/a> of Austin, as radical socialists who are trying to rebrand from their lenient approach to the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration. The spike in illegal border crossings in part helped Trump and the Texas GOP make massive gains<\/a> along the border with Latino voters.<\/p>\n

The governor, who has nearly $100 million in his campaign coffers, did not once mention his own November opponent: Rep. Gina Hinojosa<\/a> of Austin. He did, however, knock the top of the Democratic ticket for being from the capital city, which he called the \u201cPeople\u2019s Republic of Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnity is going to drive victory this November, and no one does a better job than you all\u201d at turning out voters, Abbott said to uproars of cheers. \u201cTogether, we will demolish the Democrats. Together, we are going to win in November. Together, we are going to keep Texas, Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s suggestion that the state will require voters to register with a party occurred two weeks after Secretary of State Jane Nelson \u2014 the state\u2019s chief elections officer \u2014 announced<\/a> she would step down in July. <\/p>\n

The Republican Party of Texas had sued<\/a> Nelson, an Abbott appointee, to close the state\u2019s primaries, motivated by concerns that Democrats are infiltrating GOP contests to boost more moderate candidates. Abbott has not yet named a replacement secretary of state, but party activists are hoping Nelson\u2019s successor will drop the agency\u2019s legal opposition and allow the primaries to be closed via the courts. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere in his speech, the governor, who is seeking an unprecedented fourth term, underscored a variety of urgent tasks he has identified for the Texas GOP, from its elected lawmakers to the party activists who are set to instruct them with a new slate of legislative priorities Saturday. <\/p>\n

He professed Harris County will be red once again<\/a>, as he plans to invest $25 million in that effort and campaign \u201cblock by block, door to door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott also called for the Legislature to codify his executive order that froze new H-1B visa applications from state agencies and public universities. That new law should extend the freeze to \u201call state and local governments,\u201d the governor said, adding, \u201cTexas jobs should only go to Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond clamping down on local government lobbying, Abbott also made a pitch for reining in city and county spending, touting his proposed property tax package that seeks to require two-thirds voter approval of property tax increases. <\/p>\n

He also accused Democrats of supporting Sharia law and prompted thunderous applause when he called for completely outlawing it and giving the attorney general\u2019s office more authority to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contrast between what Republicans have passed and how Democrats have voted is shocking,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cIt should be a five-alarm warning to anybody thinking about voting for Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinojosa, Abbott\u2019s Democratic foe, blasted the speech as \u201chypocritical, boring, and stuck in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his speech, Abbott made no mention of rising health care costs, utility rates, or the fact that the American Dream is out of reach for too many Texans after 12 years of his failed leadership,\u201d she said in a statement, adding that, as governor, she would \u201cstrengthen Texas public schools, hold down utility costs for working families, and ensure healthcare for every Texas child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Abbott\u2019s proposals received immediate praise from some of the GOP\u2019s grassroots leaders, like Luke Macias, a longtime conservative political consultant who thanked<\/a> the governor for \u201cstanding alongside the grassroots and leading\u201d on the push to close the state\u2019s primary elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,288,392,2280,2424,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-335942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-elections","tag-elections","tag-greg-abbott","tag-republican-party-of-texas","tag-republicans","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335942","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=335942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}