Governor will be in McAllen for Election Day results

Governor Greg Abbott will end his reelection bid on Nov. 8 where he officially started it 303 days before: McAllen, Texas.

Abbott’s campaign announced Friday that he will deliver election night remarks from Quinta Mazatlan, returning to the Rio Grande Valley and what has become the governor’s preferred political arena against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke during the 2022 election.

In January, Abbott officially launched his campaign from the Hispanic Leadership Summit in McAllen, using the bordertown setting as a backdrop for a speech that featured traditional Republican talking points like tough immigration policies and prioritizing economic growth, policy points that dovetail with Valley issues.

Last month, Abbott and O’Rourke faced off at the only gubernatorial debate of the election, held at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. According to the Democrats, it was the only place Abbott would agree to debate.

Abbott visited Harlingen just this Monday for the beginning of early voting, campaigning with local Republican candidates.

“No governor has been to the RGV more than I have,” the governor bragged.

South Texas College Political Science Instructor Kevin Holton said it’s unprecedented to have a gubernatorial candidate spend their election night in the Valley in recent history — and may be unprecedented altogether — but that the visit is consistent with the governor’s campaign strategy.

A central prong of that strategy has been depicting the border and immigration issues as being ignored by the federal government. Abbott, with a frequent, physical presence on the border, is demonstrating that he’s in touch with Texans’ concerns about immigration, Holton said.

In contrast, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said in a statement Friday that the election night visit represents Abbott recognizing the Valley’s success rather than its border challenges.

“I am proud that Governor Abbott will be spending election night in McAllen, demonstrating how important our city and the Rio Grande Valley is to the state of Texas,” he wrote. “We’re proud to be the second safest city in Texas and sixth in the nation, and that we contribute one of the highest sales tax per capita to the state, so we thank Gov. Abbott for his recognition of all that is McAllen.”

Abbott will undeniably be spending election night in the heart of one of the most watched midterm battlegrounds in the nation. All three of the congressional districts that represent the Valley are up for grabs, and Republican candidates are waging aggressive campaigns for those seats.

“I think [the visit] signifies that the Republican party of Texas is really hoping that they can flip this area red,” Holton said. “This seems to be the one area among the Hispanic population in the state of Texas that does seem to be moving toward the red column.”

Holton says he’s dubious that Abbott will be able to sway a decisive amount of Valley voters away from O’Rourke’s camp and into his. Those South Texas voters will likely matter more for the congressional races.

“I think that he’s really trying to make a final, last minute push here in an effort to get voters out for the Republican party,” Holton said. “I think his presence might — might — encourage some folks, particularly down here in the District 15 area to come out and not only support his candidacy, but also Monica De La Cruz’s candidacy and perhaps [Mayra] Flores’ candidacy over in District 34 as well, since both of those elections seem to be pretty neck and neck.”

Hidalgo County Party Chair Adrienne Peña-Garza did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Emanuel Martinez, president of STC student organization the Young Conservatives of Texas, says he thinks being in McAllen for election night will give the governor the opportunity to celebrate his potential victory alongside Valley candidates who could be making trend-bucking wins.

“I really do believe it’s going to be a collective celebration,” he said. “Not just his victory, but multiple victories on the Republican front. The Democratic party has been in control for more than 100 years, so a victory of any kind here in the Rio Grande Valley for the Republicans will be a victory celebrated for years to come, because we’re breaking that mold of one-party rule.”

Those potential Republican wins, Martinez said, would owe something to Abbott’s presence in the Valley.

“I think the impact was a positive one,” he said. “We saw a more present governor, we saw a governor who cares — not only during election season, but before.”

If that message does pay off at the ballot box for Valley congressional candidates, Holton said, the repercussions could be significant.

“I think it does continue to indicate that the congressional elections down here are very important,” he said. “Not only for the state of Texas, but also for potentially determining who has the majority in congress for the next two years.”