Old Abbott AG Opinion Could Be Obstacle
to Senator's Appointment as Comptroller

Capitol Inside
June 16, 2025

Governor Greg Abbott appears to be exploring a potential end-around a significant restriction on his authority amid speculation that he wants to name a Texas Senate Republican to the opening that Comptroller Glenn Hegar will create at the end of the month when he steps down to take a job in academia.

Abbott has been quietly eyeing State Senator Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills as a possible replacement for Hegar in a move that would give him the advantages of incumbency if he's a candidate for the post when it's on the Texas ballot in 2026.

But that could be a tricky move in a state where the governor may forbidden from appointing sitting legislators or those who've recently resigned to other elective offices. Abbott's dilemma is complicated by an opinion that he issued as the Texas attorney general in December 2002 when he said that governors may not appoint a lawmaker to another office that requires Senate confirmation during the term in which they were elected. Abbott had been the Texas AG for three weeks when he authored the non-binding opinion that could be a roadblock now in his deliberations on comptroller.

Hancock has fueled the conjecture with a new campaign video that does not specify whether he's running for re-election or a statewide post like the one Hegar is giving up on June 30 so he can go to work as the chancellor for the Texas A&M University System.

Hancock could have an edge in a crowded primary field if he's the incumbent with the Abbott stamp of approval. But the governor's support would be no guarantee of victory in a comptroller's race that already features a pair of relatively well-known contenders for the GOP in Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former Texas Senate member Don Huffines.

Huffines is a darling of the far right who has the luxury of tapping personal wealth for the statewide contest. While Huffines has softened his rhetoric about the governor since an unsuccessful bid to unseat him in 2022, Abbott could expect heat from conservative base voters if he picked Hancock for the upcoming vacancy.

But Hancock could face a more imposing challenge in the statewide race if had Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as an enemy after vocally supporting the House vote to impeach him in the regular session two years ago. Hancock was one of only two Senate Republicans who voted to convict the state's top lawyer when he was acquitted later that year in a trial that featured Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick as the presiding judge.

Hancock could have more of an adverse effect on Craddick as Republicans who would have to rely on support from the business establishment and its lobbyists in Austin to counter the Huffines war chest. Craddick, whose father is former House speaker and current member Tom Craddick, has been popular with the oil and gas industries that she's regulated as one of the state's three elected RRC members.

Hancock is the only senator who's spent time in the Patrick doghouse after alienating the chamber president during a fight in 2021 over the Texas power grid that crashed during a record freeze that year in February. Patrick stripped Hancock of the coveted chairmanship he'd had as the Business and Commerce Committee leader and assigned him to chair the Veteran Affairs Committee instead in a move that was widely perceived as a demotion for his defiance on the electric crisis.

The falling out with Patrick didn't put dent in the close relationship that Hancock and the governor have had for years. Hancock served six years in the House before a promotion to the Senate in 2012.

But Hancock would have to relinquish his Senate seat if he runs for comptroller without an appointment to the job from Abbott. The governor would have the option of filling the opening with someone who would be a placeholder with no plan to seek the job at the polls next year.

Or Abbott could appoint Hancock as comptroller and see if anyone would challenge such an action in the courts as illegal based on state law and the non-binding opinion that he served up as the AG.

more to come ...

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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