Anyone But Abbott? Reasonable…or Risky?

January 13, 2022

At True Texas Project we are firmly “Anyone But Abbott,” and that’s triggered cheers, fears and jeers from Texas voters.  We want to address it all so that Texas truly does put our best foot forward…

CHEERS
So why do we want so badly to get rid of Abbott?  That’s the easy part.  While he’s done a good job of appearing to be one of us now that it’s election season, most of us have been in this game long enough to recognize smoke and mirrors when we see it. 

• So what did Abbott do the issues missed above?  He called 3 special sessions, costing Texas taxpayers oodles of money.  He did include some good items on the agenda, but he failed to lead, and all of them died.  The Governor can get anything done that he wants done. He’s the Governor.  He either has no leadership skills, or the issues were just not important enough for him to fight for them.
• Election integrity did get passed in the 2nd special session — er, sort of. If you can call a bill that reduced penalties for election fraud an “election integrity” bill, well, that’s what Abbott signed into law. After grassroots called out this incredibly foolish move (was it intentional or does he not know what he’s signing???), he called a 3rd special session to fix it (cha-ching!).  Guess what happened next…  The Speaker of the House refused to hear the bill!  Wow!  What kind of leadership does Abbott have?  As Governor of Texas he bowed to the Speaker and loosened the election law when the people were demanding a stronger one. 
• In spite of the fact that the GOP put huge pressure on Abbott to end the gender modification of minors (which includes using drugs and surgery to permanently change children as young as 2 years old into the opposite sex, causing them to never be able to reproduce), Abbott failed to act.  His answer?  He asked for a statement from CPS on whether it would be considered child abuse.  He doesn’t know?  He has to ask?  Come on.  Even after they said yes, he still did nothing.  During the 3rd special session, Abbott put dog tethering on the agenda, but NOT gender modification of children. Dogs now have legislated protection, but children don’t.
• Critical Race Theory has been all over the news.  Citizens are livid that school children are being taught to hate themselves and our country. In fact, nothing has rallied voters into action like this issue, and the Texas legislature knew they had to address it.  Unfortunately, as politicians do, they passed a bill that was weak and ineffective. Imagine that.  So voters turned to Abbott for help, and you know what he did?  He wrote a letter.  A letter.  What???  Abbott did put it on the agenda in the 2nd special session, but he did nothing to make anything happen with it, and so nothing did. More failed leadership at the expense of our children and our nation’s future.
• Abbott failed to address the electric grid, even after Texans died during Snowmageddon due to power outages.  Abbott isn’t responsible for the weather, but he has known for years that the grid was insufficient, and he chose to ignore it.  Did you know we were 3-1/2 minutes away from a complete shut down of the Texas power grid? It would have taken months to recover!  The grid has been so poorly managed under Abbott that people froze to death in their own homes.  Abbott wouldn’t address it then, and he hasn’t addressed it even now.   The deaths of Texans are at his feet.  Even efforts they did make don’t go into effect until 2024.
• Abbott failed to address the Texas Border Crisis.  Did you know that Abbott has been in an elected position with the power to fix the Texas border for 20 years?  In 2002 he was elected as Atty Gen.  He stayed in that office for TWELVE YEARS and did nothing.  In 2014 he became Governor and in EIGHT YEARS has done nothing.  Yes, he’s talked a lot about it and given sound bites that make it seem like he’s done something, but in reality, the border is more porous than ever. 250 THOUSAND illegals enter Texas every month!  We even have Texas Guard at the border not getting paid!  Sadly, Abbott places blame on everyone but himself and is not courageous enough to take real action.  Oh, he did put up a little bit of fence…  chainlink fence, that is… funded by donations from folks like you and me (as if we don’t already pay enough in taxes)… and placed on the private property of his donors.  His “Lone Star Plan” has been a complete failure.  It is time voters start looking at results, not rhetoric.
• Abbott closed Texas during Covid.  Some may say, “Well, nobody knew what to do; he did the best he could.” Hmmm… maybe.  But is that a good gauge for the governor of the state that is supposed to lead this nation?  “The best he could”?  Not all states shut down, but Texas did.  Many states opened up much sooner than Texas did.  For months Abbott based all his decisions on number of cases (which is meaningless) instead of number of hospitalizations. It seems all Abbott can do is copy what the Governor of Florida does first.  And remember, Abbott is the one who threw Shelley Luther in jail where she was strip- and cavity-searched 3xs in order to “make an example of her” — all because she dared to open her hair salon so her stylists could pay their mortgages and feed their kids.  This is ok with Greg Abbott.  Mom and Pop shops were shuttered, but big business was allowed to remain open.  Abortion clinics were deemed “essential”, but you couldn’t visit anyone in a nursing home or bury the dead.  He was hand-picking winners and losers, and it destroyed livelihoods unnecessarily.
• Abbott closed churches.  Yes, on the holiest day of the year, Easter Sunday, Abbott demanded that Christians not gather.  As a former Attorney General, Abbott knew that was unconstitutional.  He did it anyway, and it went well beyond Easter Sunday.
• Abbott still has not addressed mask mandates and vaccine mandates in Texas.  He declared a worthless mandate that has been ignored statewide.  Though the GOP has asked for a special session to resolve these issues, Abbott has refused. 
• Here’s a good question:  Why did Abbott allow the Pharmacy Board in Texas to restrict the filling of HCQ and Ivermectin to treat Covid? 
• Abbott has been so bad, multiple county GOPs have had to censure him.  County GOP decisions are made by a wide variety of factions within the party — and yet when they vote, they all agree Abbott needs to be publicly reprimanded.
• Abbott has appointed “woke” leaders to college boards, family services, housing boards, etc, etc.  He’s also filled multiple judicial seats with big donors all from the same firm.
• When Abbott first ran for Governor, he launched his campaign priorities at True Texas Project.  With a Gadsden flag in hand, he proudly claimed he would end taxpayer-funded lobbying.  That’s right.  Your taxes pay for the cities, schools, hospitals and counties to hire lobbyists to fight for MORE of your money in taxes.  Can you believe it?  It’s horrific.  Abbott claimed he would end it, but his lack of leadership failed to make it happen.  In fact, the House made a complete joke out of Abbott over it, and Abbott let them.  The Senate passed the bill, and so the House assigned it to Chris Paddie.  Paddie not only scheduled it for a day when the session was already over, but he chose the day to be the birthday of the author of the bill as a slap in the face.  If that issue was important to Abbott, he would have fought for it, and not let Chris Paddie make a mockery of it.
• Let’s talk jobs.  Abbott claims to have reduced unemployment and created umpteen million jobs.  Is that true?  Not really.  If you consider that Abbott put millions of Texans out of work overnight and shut down small businesses, and then brought in corporations from blue states at huge tax breaks, you’ll realize that Abbott’s plan for the Texas job market isn’t a good one.

There are many more issues we could add to this list.  But do you need more?  Can we all agree that Abbott is no good for Texas?

FEARS
Ok, so most of us agree that Abbott needs to go.  Some of us are afraid of what that means.  If we don’t support Abbott, will we usher in a Democrat governor… like Beto?  No!  Please read this carefully…

• In the Republican Primary, ALL the candidates are Republicans.  This is our chance to put our best candidate forward.  This includes Huffines, Prather, West, or even a few others.  Abbott clearly is not our best candidate based on all the reasons I gave above.
• Beating Abbott in the Primary is not going to be easy.  He is the incumbent with an unlimited supply of lobbyist dollars and great name recognition.  He lies about what he’s done and folks believe him.  However, in the Primary, you have to win at least 50% of the vote to become the Republican nominee. 
• There are 7 candidates running against Abbott on the GOP ticket.  SEVEN!  That’s unheard of!  A sitting governor generally is a shew-in for re-election — unless he’s proven his incompetence to the people as Abbott has.  With seven challengers, it becomes harder to get that 50% of the vote needed.  Each challenger brings their own unique set of voters, peeling them away from Abbott.
• If no one gets 50%, the top two vote-getters go into a runoff election.  This is our goal with Abbott.  Whichever challenger goes against Abbott in the runoff, all the “anyone but Abbott” voters will support him.
• Hopefully after the runoff election, the GOP will have a better nominee than Abbott.  Regardless of who that nominee is (Abbott or anyone else) GOP voters will support that person in the General Election against the Democrat in November.
• It turns out that the Democrats are hoping and planning for a race against Abbott.  Why? Because they believe they can beat him.  With all the flubs he’s made with Covid and Snowmageddon and the Texas/Mexico border, they have a lot to attack him on. While some fear that we have to put forth Abbott or we will lose, many of us recognize that just the opposite is true.  We have a greater risk of losing with Abbott as our nominee.  Check out what Beto is already posting (and this is just one of many):

• History shows us that presenting a candidate that moves to the center in order to win is a failed strategy.  It’s been tried time and time again.  In truth, we must present a strong contrast to the Democrat’s candidate. No history.  No baggage.  That’s how you inspire voters and win an election.

JEERS
We know Abbott has plenty of faithful followers that will refuse to look at the facts.  We hope you are not one of them!  As responsible voters, we all must be open-minded enough to gather information before making decisions.  Remember, it’s results that matter, and it isn’t personal.  Always look at the candidate’s record.  Is the border secure? Are your taxes lower? Are you confident in your elections? Are children protected? Are we safe from federal government over reach? The answer to all those questions is a resounding “NO!”  Do more research as needed.  This decision is much too important to base it on emotions or fears.  Save Texas!

A video to the True Texas Project forum with the 3 challengers to Abbott can be found here.