President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday as he seeks a record-breaking fourth term in office.
The presidential endorsement is no surprise, but will it actually do Abbott any good?
According to an October poll by the Texas Politics Project, Trump’s approval rating — even in Texas — is underwater. More than 50% of registered voters in the Lone Star State said that they disapprove of Donald Trump, with 45% saying they “disapprove strongly” and 6% saying they “disapprove somewhat.”
Only 27% said they “approve strongly” of Trump and 15% “approve somewhat,” indicating that even for those who approve of the president, feelings are more ambivalent than they are for his staunch opposition.
And all that was before Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails by Jeffrey Epstein, including one in which he stated that Trump spent hours at the sex offender’s mansion with one of his trafficking victims. In another email, Epstein said Trump “knew about the girls.”
Meanwhile, Abbott is experiencing his lowest approval rating since he took office a decade ago.
According to a different data set by the Texas Politics Project, Abbott’s disapproval rating with registered voters in the state is at 50% while his approval rating stands at just 39%. Abbott’s approval plummeted over the course of the previous legislative session, starting with a 55% favorability rating in December 2024 and since plunging 16 points.
While one can only speculate regarding the cause, the biggest headlines associated with Abbott might hold some clues. During that time, Abbott loudly crusaded for school vouchers, which are largely viewed to have a negative impact on public schools.
Also during the session, the first bill Abbott signed into law was to create a Texas DOGE, a project spearheaded by the since-disgraced Rep. Giovanni Capriglione.
Never mind that Texas already has committees monitoring wasteful government spending. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows decided to create wasteful spending of their own, forming this duplicative and entirely performative committee to chase headlines.
In the end, the federal DOGE ended up being the Titanic, and Abbott and his cronies were just fiddling on the deck as it sank.
Then there were all the culture wars Abbott decided to weigh in on, parroting Trump at nearly every turn. From falsely (and bizarrely) claiming that Texas schools were providing litter boxes to student furries to attacking DEI and rainbow crosswalks, Texans probably can think of better things the governor could do with his time.
Those might include improving affordability for the state’s residents, something he’s running on as a “promise made, promise kept,” though home ownership is more distant than ever for renters in the state.
Then there’s Abbott’s disastrous handling of the July 4 Hill Country floods, fresh on the heels of the June 12 flash flood in San Antonio. As waters overtook cars near Beitel Creek, the Texas National Guard happened to be deploying to San Antonio — but not to assist with the response to its flash flood, which killed 13 people. Rather, Abbott sent troops here to guard the Alamo during a No Kings protest.
A couple weeks later, the governor responded to the Kerrville flood by calling people losers for questioning who was to blame for the catastrophe that claimed 138 lives.
Abbott did deploy the Texas National Guard for an emergency response that time, but he’s since demonstrated much more willingness to deploy them over culture wars — even in other states.
In October, Abbott deployed the Texas Guard to Chicago to guard ICE agents — yet another effort to appease Trump. In response, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said Abbott should instead focus on addressing poverty in his own state.
According to these aforementioned polling numbers, perhaps Texans agree.
Abbott has hitched himself to the runaway Trump train like an ill-advised caboose. The question remains whether that association will continue to benefit him.
Now that Trump has the lowest average approval rating of any president in the history of the United States, according to Gallup, we reckon that dog ain’t gon’ hunt.
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