Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hosted a tailgate at the Texas Governor\u2019s Mansion Friday evening ahead of Saturday\u2019s football game against Florida. The tailgate featured remarks from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and members of the UT administration and Board of Regents.<\/p>\n
In remarks to guests, Abbott and DeSantis spoke about the academic prestige of their respective universities and the combined economic strength of Texas and Florida. Abbott said the two states share a large portion of the United States\u2019 GDP.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas and Florida are leading America in educating the students of the future, and no two universities do it better than Texas and Florida,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n
Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, said UT\u2019s strength comes from its leadership, including UT President Jim Davis and Abbott.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Davis is on a mission. He\u2019s done more in his first year than we\u2019ve done the previous five,\u201d Eltife said.<\/p>\n
DeSantis discussed his fulfillment of campaign promises during his nearly eight years as governor, including policy and issues relating to immigration and gender identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought the big fight,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cWe beat Fauci on Covid, and we\u2019re better for it. We beat George Soros on crime, and we\u2019re better for it. We beat Disney on gender insanity, and for better or for worse, we even beat Martha\u2019s Vineyard on illegal immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Eltife and DeSantis also poked fun at their football team\u2019s season losses. Florida has lost its two most recent games.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week in Dallas was a dumpster fire,\u201d Eltife said. \u201cWe did not play well in many aspects of the game, and we handed (Oklahoma) that win. No amount of corny dogs and cocktails can ease the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abbott and DeSantis said they made a bet on the game\u2019s outcome. Abbott bet a liter of Dr Pepper, a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream and a bottle of Garrison Brothers bourbon on a Longhorn victory, while DeSantis bet stone crab claws and key lime pie on a Gator win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know what\u2019s going to happen, don\u2019t we,\u201d Abbott said. \u201c(The) Texas Longhorns are going to bring home a victory tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte expressed support for both DeSantis\u2019 and Abbott\u2019s leadership and governance of their states.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernor DeSantis does an amazing job leading (his) state,\u201d Del Conte said. \u201cGovernor Abbott, what you\u2019re doing for our state is unbelievable. We need to make sure you get reelected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarks ended with a performance from the Longhorn Band, who played \u201cThe Eyes of Texas,\u201d as many in the crowd raised their hands in a \u201chook \u2019em\u201d hand sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hosted a tailgate at the Texas Governor\u2019s Mansion Friday evening ahead of Saturday\u2019s football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-468577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468577","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=468577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}