Other Texas Republicans made noise, but this GOP primary was all about Greg Abbott | Opinion

If you thought Texas was conservative, you ain’t seen nothin’.

Bursting with MAGA energy and fired up by a resolute governor-turned-cable TV star, Texas voters threw a bunch of Republicans out of office Tuesday to enforce party purity.

Gov. Greg Abbott was the night’s real winner. Call him the $6 Million Man.

Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass gave Abbott $6.25 million and two PACs $19 million to get private-school vouchers passed in Texas. Abbott needs only a couple of May 28 runoff victories to finish the job.

On a night when former President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed Patrick’s chief nemesis, Speaker Dade Phelan, into a perilous runoff election, Abbott turned the whole House upside down and shook it until a record number of lawmakers fell out.

“It’s clear that Abbott has a lot of influence with the voters,” said Wade Emmert, a former state party lawyer and former Dallas County chairman.

The outcome “solidifies Abbott’s strength and helps his agenda, if people know he will come out swinging” in campaigns, Emmert said.

Abbott’s aggressive campaigns surprised and shocked reporters and even some candidates in Austin, particularly when he flew across the state to three and four rallies a day and unleashed bombastic attacks saying he “cannot trust” Republican incumbents who had voted for everything he ever wanted except school vouchers.

The Abbott-backed campaign for vouchers — disguised in mailers about “securing the border,” because that was something Republican voters actually cared about — took the spotlight over several other personal grudges in what one conservative consultant called a “once-in-a-generation” power clash.

Patrick had less success. In two races where he endorsed candidates opposing Abbott, Abbott won one and pushed Patrick’s other candidate completely out of the runoff.

Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to wage his own holy war against House members who thought Texas should consider removing him over his misuse of state employees, authority and money.

But that was all months ago, and Paxton’s greatest success seemed to be when Trump endorsed three Paxton allies in the little-noticed elections for Texas’ highest criminal court.

Paxton’s support also seemed to help three challengers, including his best defense lawyer, Mitch Little. Little now faces a Democrat in November in a House seat that includes far north Fort Worth.

SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson said Abbott had more success than Paxton because he was “more selective and judicious” with endorsements than Paxton — and also because Abbott “had more money to back them up.”’

If Tarrant County is truly a bellwether for Texas Republicans as often claimed, that held true again.

Voters yanked tax office boss Wendy Burgess in favor of challenger Rick Barnes and ousted District Judge George Gallagher in favor of Vince Giardino.

In Tarrant and Parker counties, voters sent 22-year state school board member Pat Hardy home in favor of Brandon Hall of Weatherford, an independent fundamentalist Baptist pastor at a Springtown church.

Incumbent state Rep. Stephanie Klick will face a May 29 repeat of her 2022 runoff against David Lowe. In an open Texas House seat, Paxton candidate Cheryl Bean was holding a commanding lead late Tuesday going into a runoff against John McQueeney.

Brandon Rottinghaus, the quotable University of Houston political science professor, summed it up this way: “Polarization has taken deep root in Texas.”

In most races in both primaries, the more conservative or liberal candidate won or forced a runoff.

“Texas has no quarter for moderates,” Rottinghaus said.

I’d say this election was about MAGA.

Money And Greg Abbott.