Neck-and-neck Texas governor race | What's Your Point?

As governor, within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to, number one, suspend the gas and diesel tax. Number two, freeze electricity rates. I will also issue an emergency proclamation for the legislature to pass a $1,500 refund to Texas families and property tax relief by ending corporate welfare. She sees what I know, and that is this election has slipped through her hands, and she doesn't have any ability to do anything else other than to grasp at straws to get attention, and it's just not going to work because Texans have figured out who she is. Panel, the latest Fox poll has incumbent Governor Greg Abbott up five points in what is clearly the most daunting challenge of his long political career. All right, Ben, I trust your acumen. You think Abbott pulls this off? Yeah, I do. But I'm assuming that that 10% deficit closes in the next eight days, because if it doesn't, there's not any statewide leader in the state of Texas is going to survive this. And we'd be looking at a 94-style election flipping the other way. I do think the gap's going to close. I think Abbott holds. And Paxton's got his challenges, and I'm not going to go into them. You all are correct. But the overriding, overarching issue is that President Trump has He's failed to convince the American voter and the Texan voter that the high energy prices and the high prices that everyone is paying is worth it in order to prevent a group of homicidal maniacs from building nuclear weapons. That's the bottom line. And he took the wrong political tactic, he drove himself into this political cul-de-sac about gas prices up, gas prices down, it'll come down next week, blah, blah, blah. We all know it's Trump speak, it was never gonna happen. Bottom line is still the same. didn't start and convince the american voter that what they're paying for is worth it that's to me the bottom line that's why if paxton loses and he's on a track to lose right now that'll be the overarching reason despite the fact he's a crappy candidate charles uh i was on battleground texas and i said look if there were star chamber republicans who could make a pre-election settlement they'd take okay we'll give you the senate race give us control of the legislature We retain that, the governor's mansion, lieutenant governor's slot, and we'll give you that seat on the railroad commission. Let's call it a day and regroup. You think they'd take that deal? Well, listen, I don't think the governor's too concerned. I mean, I think he's concerned, like I said last week, with this being kind of the most formidable challenger he's had. And I think because of the climate that we're in, that has also given her a boost. But I don't think he's that concerned about actually losing. The railroad commission race is so far down the ballot that I don't think anyone's really that concerned about Beau French anymore. And that the legislature, yes, there's a possibility and a likelihood that Republicans might lose some seats. But even if you look at the close districts like 133 and 138, they're still doing better than what people had expected them to do prior to the start of early voting. And so I think Republicans are gonna do better than maybe expected, better than we're expecting now, not better than I think we would have hoped months ago. But I do think that Republicans are gonna turn out when you get closer to Election Day. Tomorrow, if you asked me to list five Texas House Democrats who were the most progressive Gina Hinojosa would have made that list every time along with James Tallarico and yet here she is on within striking distance of the governor exactly and it's not because of her character or nothing about her and ain't got a damn thing to do with Tallarico what people don't realize is in Texas the rural makes up most of Texas those people lost their their contracts because they canceled USAID so they can't sell their rice they can't sell their flour to the foreign countries like they used to then they couldn't sell their beef and their chickens because the tariffs was too damn high now they can't even fill up the damn machine to do the crops because diesel's so damn high so they lost that then you go back and you put out vouchers and so you're killing the school systems which most of the people in the small towns the school is the biggest employer grandma is the cook daddy is the bus driver you took away that then you finna take away the subsidy to the health care so the rural hospitals go down hell this is suicide y'all killed y'all own damn self this ain't got nothing to do with the democrats This has got to do with them. And don't get into the data centers where now they're paying way more than they ever thought they'd pay because you're giving away electricity and the water. That's why your ass is underwater. All right. We're going to talk more about this coming up. Still to come Could 2026 provide the perfect storm for long-suffering Texas Democrats? Keen perspective just ahead on voter fatigue with Republican rule in the Lone Star State.