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AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott, thwarted in his efforts to create a school voucherlike program last year, has rebuilt his campaign war chest just in time for a Republican primary in which he promises to be a player.
Abbott’s campaign announced Wednesday that he raised over $19 million for his two political accounts in the last six months of 2023.
With upwards of $38 million in cash on hand, Abbott is flush enough to follow through on his threat to try to defeat incumbent GOP state representatives who in November thwarted his push for a school voucherlike plan known as education savings accounts, or ESAs.
Sixteen of the 21 anti-voucher House Republicans are up for re-election in the March 5 GOP primary, so Abbott has plenty of targets, said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus. The five over GOP House members who defied the three-term governor aren’t running again.
But the governor, who has three years remaining in his term, has little time to persuade the mostly rural voters who have been electing those lawmakers, Rottinghaus noted.
“Message normally beats money, and the governor, to be successful, needs to educate, persuade, then mobilize voters on the rather narrow issue of school choice,” he said. “It’s a tall order in a relatively short period of time.”
In a news release, Abbott campaign manager Kim Snyder all but connected the governor’s record-setting fundraising in the second half of 2023 with his previously stated desire that Republican primary voters punish opponents of ESAs, which would use public dollars to fund private school tuition.
“With the primary elections just around the corner, Governor Abbott has the resources needed to back strong conservative candidates who support his bold agenda to keep Texas the greatest state in the nation, including expanding school choice for all Texas families and students,” she said.
Texans for Greg Abbott, the governor’s main campaign committee, raised over $13 million from July through December. As of Dec. 31, it had over $32 million in cash.
In comparable time periods, Texans for Greg Abbott raised about $7 million in 2015 and $7.8 million in 2019, the campaign said.
Additionally, in the last six months, Abbott raised over $6 million for a previously dormant candidate/officeholder account, it said.
Campaign finance reports that detail donors and contribution amounts are due at the Texas Ethics Commission next Tuesday.
‘Right to choose’
Of the 16 voucher-opposing, Republican House incumbents who are running for re-election, Abbott has endorsed GOP challengers to these seven: Steve Allison of San Antonio, DeWayne Burns of Cleburne, Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, Drew Darby of San Angelo, Glenn Rogers of Graford, Hugh Shine of Temple and Gary VanDeaver of New Boston.
Last week, for example, Abbott endorsed former Glen Rose Mayor Helen Kerwin against Burns, who has represented Johnson and Somervell counties for five terms.
“Helen will work tirelessly to ensure that every Texas parent has the right to choose the best education for their children,” Abbott said in a release.
The governor has not endorsed against the other nine, who include Reps. Keith Bell of Forney, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth and Justin Holland of Rockwall, though Abbott did repost social-media criticism of Holland by his home county’s Republican Party executive committee.
While Abbott had limited success when he targeted three GOP House incumbents four years ago, he appears seriously peeved, said Southern Methodist University political scientist Matthew Wilson.
“I think he really will go against the anti-ESA Republicans aggressively,” Wilson said in an email.
“He was very angry that members of his own party joined with Democrats to thwart his core agenda item and a major priority for movement conservatives. How much success he will have remains to be seen. Conservatives in recent years have had limited success in unseating incumbents over education issues,” Wilson said.
‘Should be alarming’
David DeMatthews, an education policy expert at the University of Texas at Austin, said Abbott is taking some risks.
“The governor’s attention to vouchers while ignoring efforts to adequately fund public education for 5.4 million Texas children should be alarming to all voters,” DeMatthews said in an email.
“After mass shootings, teacher shortages and a global pandemic that impacted the education of our next generation, voters may hold the governor and voucher-supporting elected officials responsible for failing to support and adequately fund the state’s public schools.”
Through last year’s regular session and two fall overtime sessions, Abbott sought to link passage of ESAs to raising teacher pay and increasing basic funding of school districts squeezed by inflation.
Although it wasn’t clear whether Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Senate would sign off on the measure, the House’s chief schools policy writer, Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, pushed a bill that would have added $7.6 billion of public education funding. On Nov. 17, it died after College Station GOP Rep. John Raney succeeded, 84-63, in adding an amendment killing ESAs.
On Wednesday, Texas State Teachers Association spokesman Clay Robison said schools remain “underfunded,” which “says a lot about the governor’s misplaced priorities.”
Abbott strategist Dave Carney, asked for comment on the professors’ and Robison’s remarks, replied, “The facts don’t support the uninformed opinions offered by a typically well balanced range of wise guys you’ve chosen to include.”