Alamo City Migrant Hustle Could Be Abbott's
Opening for 2024 Race Without Ron DeSantis

Capitol Inside
September 20, 2022

Governor Greg Abbott could be getting his first glimpse of a potential path to the presidency beyond the yellow brick road in his imagination with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis facing a criminal investigation for defrauding migrants in San Antonio for airplane rides to Martha's Vineyard on the false premise of jobs and other benefits there.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar's probe into the Alamo City migrant hustle could be the best thing that ever happened for Abbott's dreams of a race for president in 2024 when he would appear to have no chance whatsoever if DeSantis is a candidate regardless of whether Donald Trump runs again. While Trump remains favored for the GOP nomination in two years in the polls, DeSantis is the consensus second choice and would have a decent shot at a primary victory in 2024 even if the former president sought the White House for a third time.

There have been no signs of apparent interest in an Abbott campaign for president despite his team's attempts to stir some up. But DeSantis could be digging his own grave with a reckless attempt to milk the Texas governor's novel scheme that's bused more than 11,000 migrants to major sanctuary cities like New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

DeSantis responded to the criminal investigation that Salazar launched on Monday night by jetting a planeload of migrants on Tuesday from San Antonio to Democratic President Joe Biden's home base in Wilmington, Delaware on the southern edge of the Philadelphia area. The Sunshine State boss found an easy way to exploit the program that Abbott invented with a plan that effectively gave migrants an opportunity to leave Texas behind in style with trips from San Antonio to a vacation resort for the wealthy on an island off the northeast coast.

But DeSantis runs the risk of criminal prosecution in Abbott's home state as a consequence of assertions that 48 Venezuelan citizens who a DeSantis operative recruited at a shelter in Texas signed up for flights to Boston with promises of employment and other perks that failed to materialize when they were dumped in Martha's Vineyard and abandoned.

Abbott sought to one-up the DeSantis pseudo-copycat maneuver by sending a bus with migrants to Vice-President Kamala Harris' residence in Washington D.C. late last week in a move that received minimal attention for an event of its magnitude. DeSantis attempted to outdo Abbott and himself today with the transportation of more migrants from Venezuela from Texas to Delaware through the skies over the nation's eastern half.

But Abbott has a chance now to undermine a future political rival with the way he responds to the law enforcement investigation into the DeSantis migrant scam in the second largest city that the Texas governor represents. Abbott shied away from calling DeSantis out initially for trying to pull the spotlight out from under him in the migrant hauling sweepstakes. The Texas governor's office actually gave the DeSantis thunder-stealing power play a sachhrine endorsement - a move that may have been born in fear of angering the new Goliath in the GOP.

Abbott's only hope for being the president someday could be an indictment of DeSantis in Bexar County for some sort of fraud. It might take a DeSantis conviction for Abbott to ever have a prayer of being president. The Texas governor as a result arguably has more to gain and to lose with the Democratic sheriff's probe into the SA migrant con than Salazar does himself.

How Abbott responds to the DeSantis incursion on the Texan's turf could be a major litmus test on whether conservatives who've been leery about the governor here see him as tough enough to lead the nation.

more to come...