Abbott Takes His 'Let's Roll' Tour to Amarillo, Lubbock and Laredo on the Last Day of Early Voting
The governor opened Friday at a cafe in Amarillo with two Panhandle Republicans, selling a fourth term as a choice between 'common sense and crazy' - while Gina Hinojosa answered that the culture-war pitch is a distraction from vouchers, data centers and property taxes.
Gov. Greg Abbott spent the last day of early voting the way incumbents with a tight race spend it: everywhere at once. He campaigned in Amarillo early Friday, the first of three 'Let's Roll' get-out-the-vote stops on his agenda for the day, with Lubbock and Laredo to follow, the Amarillo Globe-News reported.
At Youngblood's Cafe in Amarillo, Abbott was joined by State Rep. Caroline Fairly and Holly Jeffreys, the Republican candidate for House District 86 - a show of down-ballot unity in the deep-red Panhandle, the region whose turnout Republicans count on to offset the metros. Abbott, seeking an unprecedented fourth term, faces Democrat Gina Hinojosa, an Austin state representative, on Tuesday.
The closing arguments are now fully drawn. Abbott has told Republican voters the state faces a choice between 'common sense and crazy,' a frame his campaign has used across the stretch run. Hinojosa has answered that Abbott reaches for culture wars to distract from his record on school vouchers, data centers and property taxes - the three issues her campaign has pressed hardest in the final week.
The swing lands on a record electorate: the Secretary of State announced this week that Texas has 19 million registered voters, a record ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and early voting - which closed Friday night - has already outrun the entire 2022 early vote. What is left is Tuesday, and a governor's race polling within a few points for the first time in a generation.
