{"id":5835,"date":"2025-10-16T00:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/5835\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T00:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:27:09","slug":"houston-businessman-andrew-white-launches-democratic-challenge-to-gov-greg-abbott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/5835\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston businessman Andrew White launches Democratic challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.<\/p>\n

Andrew White, a Houston businessman and son of former Gov. Mark White, launched his bid for governor Wednesday, vowing to run as an independent in the Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexans are tired of the culture wars,\u201d White said in an interview. \u201cThey want a governor who will focus on the things that matter: Schools, hospitals and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

White, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2018, said he decided to run again after the catastrophic Independence Day floods in the Hill Country. His 18-year-old son, Thompson, was a counselor at Camp La Junta off the Guadalupe River during the flood. Along with three other counselors, Thompson helped dozens of eight- and nine-year-old campers move up to the cabin rafters as the river surged in and rose until just a few feet of air remained. Thompson, along with the rest of the cabin, emerged uninjured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes me mad is that this was avoidable,\u201d White said. \u201cI\u2019m not blaming it on one person. I\u2019m blaming it on all of them. I was super excited to run eight years ago \u2014 I\u2019m 10 times more excited to run this time. We need a change at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued on his website<\/a> that Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> \u201canswers to extremists\u201d and has left billions of dollars of federal funds on the table in opposing Medicaid expansion. He also accused Abbott of costing Texans billions more in electricity bills after Winter Storm Uri and through the private school voucher program he pushed lawmakers to enact earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for a new approach,\u201d White said on social media<\/a>, adding that Democrats needed to expand their base, including independents, to defeat Abbott.<\/p>\n

White joins Bobby Cole, a rancher and retired firefighter, and Bay City Councilman Benjamin Flores in the Democratic primary to challenge Abbott, who is running for a fourth term.<\/p>\n

In his 2018 bid, White fell short in the Democratic primary to Lupe Valdez, a former Dallas County sheriff, who went on to lose to Abbott by more than 13 percentage points.<\/p>\n

But since then, White argued, the \u201cpolitical winds have shifted substantially.\u201d While the Democratic Party in 2018 was primarily occupied by identity politics and movements such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too and more permissive immigration policy, he said, today, \u201cDemocrats just want a candidate who can win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no longer time for the candidate who can pass all the purity tests,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for a candidate who can beat Greg Abbott.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an \u201cindependent Democrat,\u201d White said he would unite the party\u2019s progressive and moderate wings, while also inviting independents into the base.<\/p>\n

As of mid-July, Abbott reported that he had raised almost $90 million in campaign contributions, an enormous sum for any challenger to counter. In 2018, White loaned his campaign<\/a> $1 million. He said he was \u201call in\u201d this time, and was committed to personally covering his campaign\u2019s overhead costs.<\/p>\n

He drew on his Christian faith to describe the \u201cservant leadership style\u201d he hoped to embody, and he referenced a quote by Sam Houston that guided his father\u2019s governance approach as his own north star.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m going to make him and his legacy proud,\u201d White said about his father, \u201cit\u2019s going to be as a \u2018do right and risk consequences\u2019 governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three featured TribFest speakers confirmed! You don\u2019t want to miss \u200b\u200bDeb Haaland, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and 2026 Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor; state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston and 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and Jake Tapper, anchor of CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Lead\u201d and \u201cState of the Union\u201d at the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13\u201315 in downtown Austin. Get your tickets today!<\/a><\/p>\n

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,5053,392,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-elections","tag-governors-office","tag-greg-abbott","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835","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=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}