Gov. Greg Abbott said that he will flip Harris County red this election cycle, a feat that, if achieved, would make it the most populous red county in the nation.
“Just like I won Harris County when I first ran for election [to governor in 2014], I will win Harris County again this election,” Abbott told Texas Bullpen during a podcast interview Friday. “But also, we will have the turnout necessary to make sure that other Republicans from the top of the ballot to the bottom of the ballot are going to be elected from the State House to the courthouse.”
Asked about how much he plans to dedicate to the initiative, Abbott said that “we will spend what it takes,” though plans released in December indicated that the governor could pull up to $25 million out of his own $90 million war chest to win.
Harris County, the third largest county in the country, has voted for Democrats at the top of the ticket for several election cycles, but Republicans in 2022 and again in 2024 have recently made notable inroads — particularly in county-level judicial positions.
“So if you go back and look at what we did two years ago, we made gains,” Abbott said with Texas Bullpen. “We got some judicial seats, and some other seats, and the way we were able to do that is to educate voters about the disastrous policies of the Democrats.”
GOP messaging heading into this year’s election, Abbott said, will continue to focus heavily on public safety issues.
“The policies of the Democrats truly were killing, literally murdering, Houstonians because of their let-them-loose policies about letting dangerous murderers out of jail on easy or no bail, only to murder again,” the governor said. “Republicans want to keep those criminals behind bars, making our streets safer.”
Abbott has recently called for the creation of a Chief State Prosecutor role that would have concurrent jurisdiction over criminal matters throughout Texas to help address instances where repeat criminals are released — sometimes dozens of times — instead of facing stiffer punishments.
Harris County voted for Republicans during presidential election cycles from 1968 to 2004, before voting for Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2008. Margins after that were often razor-thin, and Obama won Harris County in 2012 by less than 1,000 votes.
Outside of presidential years, Harris County has teetered back and forth, flipping blue at the gubernatorial level in 2010 when residents there voted for Bill White over Rick Perry for governor. But during Abbott’s first run for governor in 2014, he successfully recaptured Harris County as he defeated Democrat Wendy Davis by more than 20 points statewide.
Democrats will not let Harris County go without a fight, however, as Harris County Democrat Party Chair Mike Doyle told Texas Bullpen.
“Governor Abbott is always consistent in over promising and under delivering on his promises to Texans, whether it’s tearing apart our public schools while claiming he’s helping students, or protecting taxpayer funds while shoveling billions of dollars to his best donors,” Doyle wrote in an email to Texas Bullpen. “Voters in Harris County have already seen and are more clearly seeing every day the truth about Republican rule in this state.”
Early voting for the March 3 primary begins Feb. 17.
Watch the full Texas Bullpen podcast with Gov. Abbott here.
