Abbott to push legislative agenda
State of the State address expected to lay out conservative priorities as governor eyes future
Gov. Greg Abbott will deliver his annual State of the State address Monday night, likely highlighting the state’s resilience amid a devastating pandemic and pressing for an aggressively conservative legislative agenda as he eyes re-election and a possible presidential bid.
The speech, airing at prime time on television networks across the state, is set to be one of Abbott’s most consequential since taking office six years ago. Nearly 36,000 Texans have died from the coronavirus, the economy remains in limbo, and members of the governor’s own Republican party have blasted his response to the ongoing health crisis.
The governor is also newly emboldened, having helped fend off a Democratic takeover in the state House last fall and amassed an imposing war chest, at nearly $40 million. More recently, he has settled into a familiar role, railing against progressive policies and threatening legal action in the early days of the Biden administration.
“Texas will take action whenever the federal government encroaches on state’s rights, or interferes with constitutionally rights, or private property rights or the right to earn a living,” he tweeted earlier this month.
Observers expect much of the same rhetoric Monday.
“The governor wants to open up the conservative buffet,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “He wants these issues to be what the Legislature works on, and what he can brag about.”
Under state law, the governor controls what kinds of bills can be fast-tracked through the Legislature.
Rottinghaus said he will be watching for a focus on shielding businesses from civil liability during the pandemic, states’ rights and a thematic turn on law and order. The governor has already signaled he wants legislators this session to strengthen gun rights and religious freedoms, and ban left-leaning policies at the city and county level.
“That’s a pretty conservative pitch in a state that is in political transition,” Rottinghaus said, referring to the state’s increasingly blue voter turnout. “But I think that the governor feels comfortable doing that, because there’s uniform control of governance from Republicans, and because Democrats haven’t shown that they’re strategically able to make major electoral moves.”
The format will be a chance for Abbott, who is still relatively unknown nationally, to introduce himself to a broader audience. The governor is forgoing the typical midday address, taking his message directly to viewers at a time when they are more likely to be watching.
In recent weeks, Abbott has reignited his attacks on Austin and other Democratic-led cities, calling for legislation to prohibit cutting police budgets and allowing homeless camping in public. The Austin city council cut funding from its police budget last year and restructured other budget streams amid nationwide protests over police brutality. The move became a rallying cry for Republicans heading into the November election, while Democrats pushed for reforms to root out structural racism in policing.
On Wednesday, the governor vowed to sue the Biden administration over the new president’s climate change agenda, which includes a commitment to transition away from fossil fuels by 2035 and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Abbott has described the move as a hostile attack on the state’s oil and gas sector, already battered by the pandemic and a global price slump.
The governor appears eager to create as much contrast between himself and President Joe Biden as possible, much as his predecessors did as they set their sights on higher office. In 2011, just a few months before he announced a run for president, then-Gov. Rick Perry used his annual address to portray Texas as the envy of the country, a place where regulations were few and federal mandates routinely challenged.
“Abbott’s facing a lot of the kinds of things that Perry did, and he also has a lot of the same strategic considerations in terms of national politics,” said Rottinghaus, who is working on a book about Perry. “I think Gov. Abbott can use this State of the State to practice his presidential voice.”