Abbott Could Be Riding in Role as RGA Chairman
to Rescue of GOP Governors Who Trump Attacks

List of Republicans Breaking with Trump Grows

Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside
December 3, 2020

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz had been Governor Doug Ducey's most high-profile supporter outside the state of Arizona when the founder of Cold Stone Creamery won the top job there in 2014 - the year in which Texas Governor Greg Abbott was elected initially himself.

Abbott and Ducey had impressed their GOP counterparts around the country enough to be elected late last year as the new Republican Governors Association chairman and vice chair respectively. The dynamic duo vowed to work hand in hand to keep the Grand Old Party strong and united for the campaigns in 2020.

But the Texas governor would have been lying if he'd told Ducey back then that he'd have his back in the future. Ducey has come under attack from President Donald Trump for certifying the election returns in Arizona this week and ignoring a call from the White House while the deed was getting done. Abbott has been nowhere to be found at a time when Ducey could use his support more than ever with a bitter and revenge hungry president firing threats of base retribution at him on social media for following the laws that he took an oath to uphold.

Ducey isn't an isolated case. Abbott hasn't appeared to rally to the aid of any of the other governors who serve with him on the RGA Executive Committee after they've been attacked and threatened by Trump and his allies.

The organization's governing board includes Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland - a pair of GOP leaders in blue states that Trump has added to the betrayal list for refusing to participate in the plot to deny Democratic President-elect Joe Biden the job that he won at the polls exactly one month ago.

GOP Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia has been portrayed as a traitor by Trump without a whisper of support from Abbott in his role as the RGA leader in the election year that culminated in a Democratic takeover at the White House.

The RGA directors board that Abbott chaired this year has several other Trump apologists in Governors Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Noem told Trump that she wanted to try to get his face added to Mount Rushmore when he made a speech there on the eve of the Fourth of July to rail against protesters who'd been tearing down racist monuments. Trump had turned the famous tourist attraction into a stage to unveil a grandiose new national park that would be filled with statues of the Americans who are his favorite heroes.

Ducey in the meantime probably can expect the same cold shoulder from Cruz that he's getting from Abbott. The junior Texas senator can empathize with Ducey nonetheless - having been a target of Trump's wrath in the past before becoming his most adoring defender and cheerleader. Cruz had been angry at Trump for calling his wife ugly and suggesting that his father had been somehow involved in the John Kennedy assassination.

Cruz had the nerve to accept a primetime speaking part at the national GOP convention in 2016 where he refused to endorse the New York billionaire for the nation's highest office. But Trump only needed a month or two to break Cruz like a wild pony and put him in his place. Abbott had been Cruz's mentor when the governor was the Texas attorney general.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has been the third wheel in the Trump Texas triad that's gone along with the astonishing attempt by the president and a team of conspiracy-hawking lawyers to overthrow Biden before he's ever inaugurated. As the Trump campaign chairman in Texas, Patrick might be the last person in the world that would consider a ride to the rescue for Ducey and other GOP officials who have received death threats against their children in some cases. Patrick might be Trump's most unconditional loyalist with Cruz as a close second.

Patrick has been preoccupied since he kickstarted a reward fund a week after the November general election with a promise to pay potential informants $25,000 a pop for information that leads to convictions that will help seal the president's quest to have votes thrown out in swing states that he lost like Arizona and Georgia. Patrick announced the bounty offer on November 10 and hasn't said anything publicly on the evidence he's compiled up to now with the network of tipsters and squealers he planned to recruit.

But Abbott as the RGA chairman in 2020 would be the strongest defender that fellow Republican governors who are being berated by Trump could have in their corners if the Texas leader decided to speak out on their behalf.