Governor Greg Abbott led the cheers for Donald Trump on Tuesday night at an event in a Phoenix suburb where the Texan began a new official role as the former president's chief campaign surrogate on the explosive issue of border security.
Abbott appeared with rookie Republican U.S. Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona at a town hall in Meza on the opening stop for a new policy education and awareness that the Trump campaign has initiated for major swing states with the Texas leader as the point man on the border.
Trump's team has enlisted U.S. Senator Rick Scott of Florida to spearhead policy events that revolve on the economy. Scott appeared at an event in Georgia to get the Agenda 47 Policy Tour off the ground there. Democrats who are backing Kamala Harris for president suspect the policy effort is an attempt to distract from the controversial policy agenda known as Project 2025.
Abbott stressed the importance of Arizona as a state that President Joe Biden flipped for the Democrats and Trump has to win to have a realistic chance to take the White House back in November.
The ABC News analytics site FiveThirtyEight showed Trump leading Harris by 0.3 percentage points in Arizona after trailing her there by 1.4 points on August 24.
Trump was up on Harris in North Carolina by 0.4 points on Wednesday night after being down by that amount in the final week of August. Harris led the former president by 1.4 percent in North Carolina a week ago. But the Tar Heels State backed Trump in 2020 - and he can't afford to lose NC or any other states he carried against Biden if he hopes to keep the comeback dreams alive.
Harris was ahead of Trump by 0.4 points in Georgia after catching Trump there in the past week. Harris led Trump by 2.3 points in Michigan and 3.6 points in Wisconsin in the FiveThirtyEight analysis.
Abbott warned that the problems that the country is facing at the southwest border would intensify dramatically if Harris takes over for President Joe Biden with a win over Trump this fall.
“Arizonans, you’re facing so many challenges on the border," the Texas governor said. "It’s going to be far worse if Kamala Harris were president of the United States. Do not allow yourselves as a state to be sucked into that.”
“We're ready for the fight,” Abbott said before an audience of several dozen people. "But there's a quick way to end this fight. And that's by sending Donald Trump back to the White House.”
Abbott repeated a false claim that he's made recently at home - telling Trump supporters in Arizona that the border was more secure on Trump's watch as president than it had been in decades. The number of migrants who were apprehended by federal agents during Trump's four years in the White House was actually higher than the count had been in Barack Obama's second term.
"The Biden-Harris administration even attacked Texas and fought against us as we were trying to secure our own border," Abbott contended at the Arizona forum.
Abbott bragged about the drastic steps that he's taken since declaring that Texas was under invasion from Mexico. Abbott has ordered military forces to install razor wire in selective locations on the Rio Grande. "Remember those big orange buoys that I put into the Rio Grande River?" Abbott asked the audience in Arizona. "I deployed them because Joe Biden would not.”
Arizona Republicans are pushing a November ballot measure that would cost the state an estimated $325 million a year. The proposition could be at risk with the state facing a budget deficit of $1.3 billion. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the proposal in a move that prompted GOP lawmakers to send it to the ballot as an end-around.
Abbott in contrast has persuaded Texas Republican allies in Austin to pour more than $11 billion into border security on his watch. Migrant rates went down more in Arizona in the past six months than they did in Texas despite the massive gap in spending by the two states.
The Arizona plan that voters will decide is modeled after a Texas law that gives state and local law enforcement police authority to arrest people in the U.S. illegally for possible deportation. The Texas measure has been stuck in the federal courts for more than a year despite legislative leader assurances that the state would prevail in the judiciary after Democrats warned that it wouldn't stand a chance.
FiveThirtyEight Major Swing States Polling Average |
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| State |
Electors |
538 Average |
Past 2 Weeks |
| Pennsylvania |
19 |
Harris +1.1 |
Harris +1.6 |
| Wisconsin |
10 |
Harris +3.5 |
Harris +4.3 |
| Michigan |
15 |
Harris +2.3 |
Harris +1.8 |
| Arizona |
11 |
Trump +0.3 |
Trump +1.2 |
| Georgia |
16 |
Harris +0.4 |
Harris +0.8 |
| Nevada |
6 |
Harris +0.7 |
Harris +0.8 |
| New Hampshire |
4 |
Harris +7.0 |
Harris +7.0 |
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| North Carolina |
16 |
Trump +0.5 |
Trump +0.7 |
| Florida |
30 |
Trump +4.7 |
Trump +6.0 |
| Texas |
40 |
Trump +6.1 |
Trump +8.5 |
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Independent Polls of Texas Voters for November 5 General Election |
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