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Abbott Gambling Millions on Longshot Bid
to Reclaim County GOP Lost on His Watch
Capitol Inside
October 22, 2025
GOP Governor Greg Abbott watched helplessly as Harris County turned a solid shade of blue on his watch during a dozen years as the top Texas leader. Abbott vowed on Tuesday night to take the state's largest county back for the Republicans at the polls a year from now.
The Republican governor who's seeking a record-breaking fourth term told supporters at an event in the Houston-area suburb of Cypress that flipping Harris County back to red is his second highest priority for the 2026 election cycle. But Abbott argued the GOP can't be content if Harris goes pink again. He wants to crush the Democrats there next year.
"I have two priorities in this election," Abbott said. "Number one is to win reelection. Number two is to win Harris County.
"So I've got $90 million in my bank account - and I'm going to spend most of it in Harris County, Texas to make sure, precinct by precinct, we turn out voters who voted in the presidential election, turn out voters who never voted before," the governor added. "We got to win Harris County and make Harris County dark red."
But Abbott could be throwing money away on a longshot gamble based on his history as a candidate in a swath of southeast Texas that contains more than 5 million people in Harris County alone. Abbott has seen his share of the Harris vote shrink substantially in two previous re-election bids on the Texas ballot.
Abbott defeated Democrat Wendy Davis in Harris County by 4 points with 51 percent of the vote in his first race for governor in 2014. But Abbott lost to Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez by nearly 6 points there in 2018.
The incumbent governor had his worst showing by far in Harris County in 2022 when Democrat Beto O'Rourke came close to winning there by double-digits with 54 percent in 2022. O'Rourke beat Abbott by 9.5 points in Harris County the last time the Republican was on the ballot there.
President Donald Trump hasn't done that much better than Abbott in the largest county in the Lone Star State. Joe Biden carried Harris County in 2020 when he defeated Trump there by 13 percentage points in 2020 when he reclaimed the White House for the Democrats. Then Vice-President Kamala Harris beat Trump by almost 6 points there last fall. Democrat Hillary Clinton clobbered Trump in Harris County in 2016 when she won there by 14 points.
Harris County's transformation to a blue mecca actually got under way when Republican Rick Perry was the governor for a record 14 years. George W. Bush carried Harris with 54 percent and 65 percent of the vote in his two campaign for governor respectively.
Perry trounced Democrat Tony Sanchez there by 13 points in 2002 in his first bid for the job that he'd inherited two years earlier after Bush was elected as the president. But Democrat Bill White edged Perry by 2 points in Harris County in 2010.
Abbott was in the Houston area on Tuesday to make a pitch for constitutional amendments on the Texas ballot early next month.
more to come ...
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