Gov. Greg Abbott addresses supporters during his reelection campaign stop Thursday in Mission. (Monitor Photo)
MISSION — Greg Abbott made it clear Thursday: there’s much more at stake in Rio Grande Valley elections than just the governor’s mansion, and voters are passionate about a political climate with high stakes.
Abbott, who is running against Democrat Beto O’Rourke for reelection, was flanked by District 15 Congressional candidate Monica De La Cruz, Texas Senate District 27 GOP candidate Adam Hinojosa and a handful of other Republican hopefuls.
Abbott spent 20 minutes talking to a crowd that numbered in the hundreds, clearly more than organizers expected.
The governor was forced to move his campaign event outdoors to address his supporters in the parking lot of Ranch House Burgers rather than inside it.
Support like that, Abbott pledged, would bring change to South Texas.
“We are hosting our election night victory in McAllen, Texas. And we are going to turn the RGV red,” he said.
Abbott was glib, talking mostly about immigration. He wryly spoke about his initiative to bus migrants north, to the doorsteps of Democrats, and humorously urged anyone who hadn’t voted to get to the nearest polling site.
“It is so close, I will race anybody down there,” the governor joked. “I can see the wind, the wind’s going that way. A good wind at my back, I’ll beat anybody in a race down there.”
The governor has good reason to be confident enough to joke: it looks like there’s a wind at his back in the election as well. A University of Houston poll released this week put him 13 points ahead of O’Rourke.
It’s unclear how much Abbott’s Valley visits — the amount of which he’s fond of bragging about — will matter much for his race. Drumming up conservative support in the Valley could, however, have a significant impact for the Republicans running for the area’s three congressional districts, among them De La Cruz, who is in a heated race against progressive Democrat Michelle Vallejo.
The result of those races could have national implications, and Abbott had some ideas.
“Let me tell you what they’re gonna do. The first thing they’re gonna do when they get to Washington, D.C., they are going to fire Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house,” he said about the potential Republican winners in the Valley.
If those conservative congressional candidates win, Abbott said he expects them to counter funding for more IRS agents authorized through the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Instead of funding 87,000 IRS agents, I want them to use that money to fund 87,000 border patrol agents,” he said.
Despite the confidence and the humor, Abbott characterized next week’s elections as a contest between values and lack of values; hard work versus socialism.
That rhetoric has been popular with Valley Republican candidates this cycle, including De La Cruz.
It’s also seeped down into the voting populace.
When O’Rourke gave a stump speech at a polling place in McAllen on Monday, he and his supporters were greeted by a couple dozen jeering Republicans.
Abbott only got one heckler Thursday: Meri Gomez, of Mission, who began shouting at the governor halfway through his speech.
“I want an apology from Greg Abbott for the families of Uvalde,” Gomez, who wore a Michelle Vallejo campaign shirt, said.
Abbott supporters shouted back at Gomez and a few walked over to confront her, including Arturo Holguin, an Hidalgo County Republican precinct chair.
The two talked animatedly for several minutes. They eventually lowered their voices and even embraced.
“We have a difference of opinion politically, but at the end of the day when all of this is over with Tuesday, she’s gonna be my neighbor,” Holguin said.
Gomez and Holguin said they’d like to find some common ground to share politically. They didn’t appear to be successful in that endeavor on Thursday, but they did put some effort in. Most of the Republicans stuck to shouting at Gomez, and she generally yelled back.
Despite the tension, the high political stakes and repeat visits from both Abbott and O’Rourke, it’s unclear whether either party has made inroads.
So far, early voting turnout in the Valley has remained low, bucking expectations.
Terry Rosales, an owner of T & E Treasures, a toy store just a door down from where the governor spoke, brought out a ladder to stand on and looked over the crowd.
Rosales watched the speech for novelty’s sake. She’s largely a-political and is skeptical of promises from politicians.
“A lot of people say, “I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that.’ It’s like, OK, you’re in the office: look at our streets. Our roads are ridiculous, broken,” she said.
As for high profile visits from people like Abbott and O’Rourke? Rosales shrugs.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me,” she said.
