■ Allen West will challenge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the Republican primary.
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Allen West, the former Florida congressman and firebrand who rode into office on the tea party wave a decade ago, said Sunday that he will run for governor of Texas in a bid to again seize on restless anger from the right.
His odds are far longer this time around: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is up for a third term and may also be eyeing a 2024 presidential bid, has already locked up the endorsement of Donald Trump — whose voters West would need to have any shot at winning a GOP primary in Texas.
The hurdles don’t stop there. Abbott is the most prodigious fundraiser of any governor in America, having started the year with nearly $40 million already socked away, and West is shunned by powerbrokers in his own party. Last month, West stepped down as chairman of the Texas GOP after spending a year using the platform to antagonize Abbott and other Republicans who he deemed insufficiently conservative.
Still, West’s celebrity in the grassroots that lingers from a combative one term in the U.S. House makes him the most prominent primary challenge Abbott has faced since becoming governor in 2015. Already there have been signs of Abbott moving to protect his right flank, passing ever-looser gun laws in Texas that he never previously endorsed and picking up Trump’s immigration mantle along the U.s.-mexico border.
“Let’s stand up for God, for country and for Texas,” West told those gathered Sunday at Sojourn Church in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, where he made his announcement.
Democrats, who continue to see Texas as a budding battleground even as their losing streak continues, have yet to put up a challenger to Abbott in 2022 although former congressman Beto O’rourke isn’t ruling it out.