Source: Politics<\/p>\n
In the span of a week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed bills restricting the teaching of critical race theory and allowing Texans to carry handguns without a license. He\u2019s preparing to order state lawmakers back into a special session to pass legislation restricting voting access, a GOP priority. And in the most pugilistic affront to President Joe Biden\u2019s White House yet, he announced Texas will build its own border wall.<\/p>\n
Less than six months into Biden\u2019s presidency, Texas conservatives are in revolt against the new administration. And Abbott, the often overshadowed governor of the nation\u2019s biggest red state, is emerging as an unlikely leader of the Biden resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the tip of the spear, we are on the front of the battle lines, no question,\u201d said James Dickey, the former chair of the Texas Republican Party. \u201cWith the federal government entirely abdicating their responsibility, that leaves us on the border needing to take up the fight, and Governor Abbott is clearly doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In part, raising the Texas flag is a return to form for Abbott, who made a political career out of suing the Obama administration. As state attorney general, his posture toward Washington was so hostile that he said of his job in 2013, \u201cI go into the office in the morning. I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n But in restoring Texas to its place as Washington\u2019s chief antagonist, Abbott is also doing something more revealing: Facing criticism from Republican activists for the mask mandate and business restrictions he imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, he is covering his right flank, while re-elevating immigration and border security \u2014 a major concern to Republican base voters \u2014 as a national issue. Just as important, he is carving out a distinct lane in the GOP\u2019s presidential sweepstakes at a time when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is beginning to rise in stature among the party grassroots.<\/p>\n Bill Pozzi, the GOP chair in heavily Republican Victoria County, said Abbott\u2019s aggressiveness on border policy represents a \u201cmea culpa\u201d to conservatives for his handling of the pandemic. Still, he said Abbott is \u201cdoing the exact right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t get why we\u2019re so reluctant to challenge the federal government,\u201d Pozzi said. \u201cThe federal government is vulnerable, and when they\u2019re making so many terrible decisions, come on. Who made them God? They\u2019re not God.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only four months ago that Abbott was suffering a beating in Texas for his handling of the deadly winter storm and electrical grid failure in the state. Millions of Texans were left freezing in their homes, while Abbott came under criticism for echoing misleading claims that renewable energy was to blame. Meanwhile, Abbott\u2019s issuance of a statewide mask mandate and business restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic enraged conservatives.<\/p>\n In a major lift for his rehabilitation with the base, former President Donald Trump, who has already endorsed Abbott\u2019s reelection campaign, will appear with him along the U.S.-Mexico border next week \u2014 a coronation of sorts in the GOP\u2019s anti-Biden crusade.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Trump\u2019s endorsement and his trip down to the border, and frankly what [Abbott] has said on the border the last couple of weeks, I think it\u2019s a stroke of, maybe not genius, but \u2026 I just think it\u2019s really smart, and I think it\u2019s going to help him politically,\u201d said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist based in Austin.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cHe really has a very good political barometer.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott, in announcing his plan to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall<\/a>, insisted that he was not making a political calculation, saying \u201canyone who thinks this is politics doesn\u2019t have a clue what\u2019s going on at the border.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis ain\u2019t Dr. Seuss or some other manufactured outrage,\u201d said Republican strategist Dave Carney, who advises Abbott. \u201cThis is a serious public policy problem that\u2019s going to affect the whole country.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Abbott would not be the first Texas governor to use his perch to advance a national profile. His two immediate predecessors, Rick Perry and George W. Bush, both ran for president. <\/p>\n Regardless of the motive, the political advantage that Abbott is gaining from the border controversy \u2014 and his positioning against Biden \u2014 could hardly be more obvious. In his bid for a third term in 2022, Abbott is facing a challenge from the right flank, with Don Huffines, a former state senator, already in the race. <\/p>\n Allen West, the firebrand former Florida congressman and outgoing chair of the Texas Republican Party, is also considering a bid<\/a>. Even Abbott\u2019s critics say his focus on immigration \u2014 and the thumb he\u2019s putting in Biden\u2019s eye on Texas\u2019 behalf \u2014 is likely to help blunt conservatives\u2019 frustrations with his handling of the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what Texans like,\u201d said Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton, who introduced a bill earlier this year to finish building a border wall. \u201cThey love telling D.C. what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Slaton, who questioned why Abbott is only now championing the idea, said Abbott should be pushing the border wall through the legislature in a special session, not making a \u201cunilateral decision.\u201d Still, Slaton, who said he won\u2019t support Abbott in the Republican primary, said he is \u201cpretty sure\u201d Abbott\u2019s effort will provide him with an advantage in the race.<\/p>\n The border exercise may also help Abbott nationally. Trump demonstrated in 2016 that a Republican could ride anti-immigrant sentiment to the White House, and the issue remains at the top of GOP voters\u2019 concerns. About one-fifth of Republicans rated immigration as the nation\u2019s most important problem in a Reuters\/Ipsos poll in March<\/a>, and three quarters of Republicans nationally support building a wall or fence along the border, according to a more recent NPR\/Ipsos survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a little less intensity, immigration and border security serve the same purpose with national Republicans as they do here,\u201d said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, which consistently reports border security and immigration polling<\/a> is at the top of Texas Republican voters\u2019 minds. \u201cAnd I think we saw that with Donald Trump\u2019s success five, six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n For the four years that Trump held the White House, Republicans outside of Washington were overshadowed on the issue by him, unable to wield immigration as an example of the federal government\u2019s perceived failures. Now, Henson said, \u201cwith a Democrat in the White House and Democratic majorities in Congress, that game\u2019s back on.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott is on the outer periphery of potential contenders for president in 2024 \u2014 he\u2019s not ruling out a run, but not aggressively preparing for one, either. The widely held view of Republican strategists, including many of Abbott\u2019s own supporters, is that he is not distinctive enough to electrify primary voters outside of Texas. <\/p>\n One prominent Texas Republican said, \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be the guy to have an \u2018oops\u2019 moment, but I don\u2019t see how he beats DeSantis on stage.\u201d Said another: \u201cHe is a \u2018measure twice, cut once\u2019 type of candidate. Terrible for POTUS.\u201d<\/p>\n Carney, Abbott\u2019s adviser, said Abbott \u201chas not ever discussed it either way,\u201d but that, \u201cIf he was going to do that, we\u2019d be doing stuff\u201d like traveling to early primary states, which Abbott is not.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nothing we\u2019re working on,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n Still, there are signs in how the governor has handled the border wall issue that Abbott wants to expand his footprint beyond Texas. While announcing his border security plans last week, the governor made a point of thanking several states, including DeSantis\u2019 Florida, for sending law enforcement officers to Texas to help along the border. In addition, by calling for the use of a crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to help pay for the wall, Abbott is inviting Republicans from across the country \u2014 who may not previously have been familiar with him \u2014 to participate in the cause.<\/p>\n Steinhauser called it \u201ca great media and marketing campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n A White House official dismissed the border wall as ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money, accusing Abbott of engaging in “political posturing and a return to immigration policies of the past.”<\/p>\n In Texas, too, Democrats are scoffing.<\/p>\n Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said the fact that the federal government already acquired sections of land along the border, along with hurdles like federal environmental regulations and the likelihood that many landowners will resist \u2014 means Abbott\u2019s plan is probably unfeasible.<\/p>\n But the politics of Abbott saying a wall can be built by the state, he said, are clear.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is just flat-out lying to the people of the state of Texas in order to somehow put himself in the better position of beating back these right-wing extremists that are running against him, in the state that has the most right-wing extremist Republican Party in the nation,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cThat\u2019s all it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n