Hancock Gets Trailblazing Plan to Run
for Comptroller as Acting Boss in Motion
Capitol Inside June 19, 2025
A potentially unconstitutional scheme that Capitol Inside revealed this week got under way in earnest on Thursday when Republican Kelly Hancock resigned from the Texas Senate and landed an immediate job as the acting state comptroller with plans to run for the job in the primary election in 2026.
With Governor Greg Abbott as the central force behind the scenes, Hancock got the unprecedented approach to a statewide campaign off the ground with an announcement that he's leaving the Legislature to go to work as the chief clerk under Comptroller Glenn Hegar for the next 10 days or so.
Hancock will receive his first promotion after Hegar's departure on June 30. The North Richland Hills resident will take over as the agency's commanding officer until Abbott appoints a replacement for Hegar or a successor is elected in the general election 16 months from now. Abbott has the luxury of delaying a formal appointment until such a time if he so chooses.
The Republican governor and his team believe Hancock will have a better shot to win the statewide position next year if he has the ability to run with the appearance of incumbency even though he's never been elected to the post. Abbott wanted to appoint Hancock as comptroller but was barred from doing so by the state's constitution and an opinion that he issued as the Texas attorney general during his first three weeks as the state's top lawyer in late 2002.
Capitol Inside reported on Tuesday that Abbott was trying to find a way around the law. The web site outlined the unique resign-to-run strategy in a story on Thursday.
Hancock will join a field of Republicans that includes Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former Senate member Don Huffines
in the battle for the comptroller's post that Hegar claimed initially in 2014 when Abbott won a promotion to his current job. Hegar is heading to the Texas A&M System to take over for John Sharp as the chancellor there.
Abbott has viewed Huffines as an enemy since the former Senate Republican from Dallas attempted to oust him in the 2022 primary election. It's conceivable that the governor rallied quietly behind Hancock in the comptroller scramble as a way to prevent Huffines from winning the post. But Abbott and Hancock have been close allies and the governor may simply think he would do the best job.
But the plotting has the potential to backfire if Huffines, Craddick or someone else challenges the back-door strategy in the courts as a violation of the constitutional clause known as the holdover provision. The Texas Constitution states in Article 16, Section 17 that "all officers of this State shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall be duly qualified."
The section could be interpreted to mean that Hancock is bound to perform the duties of a state senator until his successor is chosen in a special election that Abbott could set as an emergency on a date sometime during the summer. This could apply to Hegar as well.
more to come ...
The political elite are manipulating the system to install another go-along-to-get-along lap dog as State Comptroller, because they know President Trump’s DOGE-style transparency would expose everything.
