Which side is Greg Abbott on? To one GOP ally, he’s ‘not making much political sense’ | Opinion
The script is straight out of pro wrestling.
Gov. Greg Abbott has pulled off a political pivot worthy of a World Class show, turning against his own team and joining up with opponents to loud boos and cheers in a sharp and mystifying turn.
Suddenly, Abbott is campaigning with the same toxic Republicans who have been harassing, bashing and mocking him for nine years.
They are the ones who shun Abbott and establishment Republicans as “RINOs.” They boo his name.
Yet now he’s on their side.
It started last fall, when Abbott turned against his Republican supporters in the Texas House just because their voters don’t want school vouchers.
These are the same House members who always side with Abbott on other bills, often against power-hungry Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Now, Abbott has even sided with a Republican who once openly made fun of his disability and another who gave money to Abbott’s opponents.
In East Texas, Abbott is supporting Greenville Republican Brent Money in a Jan. 30 runoff election against Van Zandt County Republican Jill Dutton for an open House seat.
That’s the same Brent Money who called Abbott “weak and spineless” in a 2022 comment on Twitter, now X.com.
Abbott’s spine was crushed in 1984 when a tree fell on him. He uses a wheelchair.
It was “a poor choice of words, to say the least,” former state Sen. Bob Deuell, a fellow Greenville Republican, wrote by email.
“From my point of view, and as someone who always supported Abbott, the governor is not making much political sense these days,” Deuell wrote.
He called the switch “very unbecoming and quite frankly, not very Christian, especially considering his conduct and demeanor earlier in his public service career.”
In Parker County west of Fort Worth, Abbott has switched his loyalty from Rep. Glenn Rogers to anti-establishment organizer Mike Olcott in the March 5 party primary election.
Olcott, a former Minuteman border vigilante who became a major tea party kingmaker, has donated to Abbott’s opponents.
Rogers has opposed school vouchers, siding with public education leaders in Aledo and other districts.
Abbott said last year if the House wouldn’t pass school vouchers, he would “send this to the voters themselves.”
Now, he apparently plans to send more issues to the voters.
In a Texas House race north of Dallas, Abbott re-shared a letter from 21 Rockwall County Republicans criticizing Rep. Justin Holland for voting “against gun rights” — meaning Holland voted to raise the age to 21 for buying a semi-automatic rifle — and “to put Democrats in leadership positions” by supporting Speaker Dade Phelan.
“The story here, I think, is Republicans eating their own,” political science professor Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University wrote by email.
By Texas standards, Holland is a moderate who has stood with Abbott and the House Republican majority on most issues, Jillson wrote. But “his apostasy on the voucher issue has Abbott and the conservative activist wing ... trying to read him out of the party.”
University of Houston professor Brandon Rottinghaus put it another way.
“I think most of Austin is as confused as hogs on ice about the governor’s tactics,” Rottinghaus wrote.
Governors usually try to unite their party.
“But in Texas politics every person and group is going their own way and unity is in short supply,” Rottinghaus wrote.
It’s the kind of division Republicans expected to see from Attorney General Ken Paxton of McKinney, impeached by the House over abuse of office but not removed by a reluctant Senate.
“I expected payback and revenge from Paxton,” Deuell wrote. “I did not expect it from Abbott.”
In politics, you reward your friends and punish your enemies. Abbott has flipped the script.
No wonder Republicans are confused.
