Gov. Greg Abbott, Flush With Campaign Cash, Is Spending On Unseating His Rivals

This week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune.

By Rhonda FanningFebruary 9, 2018 1:04 pm, , ,

It’s that time of the week when we’re joined by Emily Ramshaw, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune.

This week, the deadline for registering to vote in the state’s primaries passed. The Tribune has everything you need to know about casting your ballot.

“The cool thing about Texas’ system is you can vote in any primary you want,” Ramshaw says. “It ties your hands a little bit. If there is a runoff election in your district, you can only vote for the party you voted for in the original primary. But it doesn’t tie your hands for the general election, so you could vote for one party’s primary, and then for any candidate you want in the general election.”

Ramshaw says there will likely be runoffs this year because there are a number of competitive races to fill open seats.

Gov. Greg Abbott has been getting involved in some primary races this time around.

“Abbott has such a huge war chest and the Democratic candidates aren’t likely to make much progress against him,” Ramshaw says. “He’s spending his money trying to unseat a few incumbents in the legislature who he has some beef with.”

An investigation this week from the Tribune and Reveal found that a University of Texas technology facility closed.

“This program had really been a flop after spending all of this money, a big sort of technology boondoggle,” she says of the Institute for Transformational Learning. “We got word this week from UT that they’re closing this system.”

Written by Jen Rice.