Texas Governor Abbott Wins Primary Over Conservative Challengers

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott won the Republican primary outright as challengers fell short in their quest to outflank him from the right.

NBC News and the Associated Press called the race for the two-term incumbent, forecasting he'd surpass the 50% support threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Abbott will face Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the general election Nov. 8. A Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll last month found the incumbent with a 7 percentage point advantage over O'Rourke.

Abbott's win signals he remains in the good graces of Republican voters. Huffines, who had the backing of two billionaire donors, and West, a former head of the state's GOP, relentlessly criticized Abbott for being insufficiently conservative, pointing to his lockdown orders in the early days of the pandemic and what they saw as an ineffective response to the immigration crisis at the Mexican border.

Analysts say that criticism helped push the governor, known as a traditional Republican who prioritized low taxes and cutting regulations, further to the right on social issues. That generated pushback from major companies across Texas, many in the tech sector, that said hard-right social policies would make it harder for them to attract talent.

But just last week, Abbott ordered the state's child-welfare agency to investigate gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender youth, saying it could constitute abuse. That followed a legislative session in which Abbott pushed through a slew of socially conservative measures, including the country's most restrictive abortion law, a rule curbing transgender children's participation in school sports, and new limits on voting.

Abbott will now get to turn his full attention to O'Rourke, who has hounded the governor over his response to the winter storm and blackout last year that killed more than 200 Texans. Abbott has said the grid has been fortified to prevent a repeat, though critics have cast doubt on how prepared the state is to handle another such event.

No Democrat has been elected to statewide office since 1994.