Do we like Greg Abbott?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A record of signing laws that target trans people and labelling a Muslim civil-rights group terrorists, with some real but routine public service on the other side.
Abbott is a lawyer's lawyer. He was elected a trial judge in Houston in 1993, was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by George W. Bush, then became the state's longest-serving attorney general before winning the governor's office in 2015. He launched his fourth-term bid in November 2025, selling a booming economy, property tax cuts and a school voucher law.
Border security is his signature fight. Under Operation Lone Star, Texas spent more than $148 million busing migrants to New York, Chicago, Denver and other Democrat-run cities, according to a public-records analysis. Supporters call it holding Washington to account; critics, including the cities on the receiving end, call it using people as political props. Where you land depends on which of those you see.
On the harm test, the record is the problem. Abbott signed the 2021 law restricting trans students in school sports, the 2023 ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatment for trans minors, and a 2025 bathroom law restricting trans people's access to facilities in government buildings. Lambda Legal and the ACLU said they would fight the youth care ban in court. Those are his signatures, not just his party's.
Then there is the Muslim community. In November 2025 Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organisations, saying they seek to “forcibly impose Sharia law”. The federal government has not designated CAIR, and CAIR has denied any terror ties and sued. In May 2026 a federal court granted part of Texas's bid for donor records, and in September he told a party convention “We will fully ban Sharia Law in Texas.”
The Hill Country floods of July 2025 killed more than a hundred people, and asked who was to blame, Abbott replied that was “the word choice of losers”. Kerr County had no outdoor sirens, and earlier efforts to fund them had stalled. A year on, he said new sirens and text alerts worked when floods returned and no one died in Kerrville, which is a fair point in his favour.
Politically he is closely tied to Donald Trump, who endorsed his re-election in November 2025 and credited him with redrawing Texas's congressional map. Abbott added mid-decade redistricting to the special session after a call from Trump, Democrats fled the state to deny a quorum, and he signed a map expected to add five Republican-leaning seats. That is a hardball move, but within the rules of a very ugly game.