Greg Abbott Gives Victory Speech after Beating Beto O'Rourke

Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, Abbott.

That’s what I call a warm South Texas welcome right there. And to the mayor, I want to say it is an honor to be in your town to celebrate this incredible night right here in McAllen, Texas. Listen, I want to start out by thanking the most important person to me, and that is the fabulous first lady of the great State of Texas, my wife, Cecilia Abbott. We’re so proud to have a young lady that we admire more than any other young lady in the world, and that’s our wonderful daughter, Audrey Abbott. I want to thank all of the volunteers, all of our supporters, and my fellow Texans, for making this victory night possible. Thank you all. So let’s go back. We started this campaign in South Texas. We celebrated my primary victory in South Texas. Tonight, we return to South Texas to celebrate my reelection for being your governor for four more years.

Four more years! Four more years!

To be clear about this, we planted our flag in South Texas and we showed America that South Texas is now electing Republicans to office in our great state. Right before coming out here, the numbers stayed the same and I think they will stay the same. I’ll be able to tell you something that’s never been said before. The ground on which you are standing right now is now going to be represented for the first time by a Hispanic Republican woman, Monica de La Cruz. She’ll go to Congress and the first thing she will do is to fire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. But it is bigger than that because Republicans that we endorsed were elected from Nueces County to Cameron County, Hidalgo County, and all the way over to Terrell County on the border, and counties in between. So I want to say tonight, congratulations to the next generation of Republicans who were elected tonight. They will be tremendous representatives at whichever level they serve.

(03:33)
So I ran this campaign for Texans to have safer streets, for homeowners who are burdened with skyrocketing property taxes, for our oil field workers who begged for me to protect their jobs, for parents who just want to choose the school that’s best for their child, and for small business owners who thank me in every location I went to for keeping their jobs open and businesses open. During the time of COVID. I ran for the farmers and ranchers down here on the border who pleaded for a more secure border in the State of Texas. I ran for the thousands of Texans who came up to me and they said, “Governor, just keep Texas, Texas.” All of you inspired me and all of you propelled me to what has now become a resounding victory for my reelection. So now it’s time to go to work for all of those people as well as for all Texans. It starts by keeping Texas as the number one state for the best economy in America and the number one state for jobs.

(04:56)
We must tap into our $27 billion budget surplus and use that to give our property owners the largest property tax cut in the history of Texas. We must fight against Joe Biden’s war against oil and gas and keep Texas number one for oil and gas production in the United States of America. We must also strive for excellence in education. Now, we already rank number one for the number of blue ribbon schools, as well as we have one of the highest high school graduation rates in America. Also, since I was elected governor to begin with, Texas has become the number one state in America for the most tier one research universities, but more must be done to improve our math and reading scores, more must be done to improve college graduation rates, as well as to provide skill job training that leads to good jobs. But we must never forget, our schools are for education, not for indoctrination. Schools must stop pushing political agendas and get back to teaching the fundamentals of math and science and reading.

(06:20)
But more important than all of that, our students need to be taught why and how the United States of America began with literally nothing and went on to become the best country in the history of the entire world. That is what they need to be taught. We have no doubt some people here tonight who did their share to keep America strong with the mightiest military in our history. If you have ever worn the uniform of the United States military, would you wave your hand so we can see you? Thank you for your service. We have others who serve among those numbers. That is those who serve in the Texas National Guard. Wave your hand if you’re part of our troopers. We also must, speaking of law enforcement, we got to fully fund our law enforcement officers and give them the respect they deserve.

Yeah, that’s right.

We need to end these easy bail policies that allow dangerous criminals out onto the streets. We must escalate our battle against the deadly fentanyl that is pouring across our border. We must treat it like the crime that it is, and that is murder. I have jumpstart that process by declaring that the Mexican drug cartels are terrorist organizations and we are going after that. Texans have demanded a more secure border. What I think is going to happen tonight when as all is done, the new Republican Congress, they have promised to do their job to secure the border. We must hold them to their promise. They must reinstate the [inaudible 00:08:14] Mexico policy and go back to building our border wall. They must reimburse the State of Texas for every penny that we spent doing the federal government’s job to secure the border. They should defund the 87,000 IRS agents that Joe Biden tried to put in place and use that money to hire 87,000 border patrol agents so they can secure our border.

(08:47)
Speaking of which we have tonight with us, some members of the National Border Patrol Council. Wherever you guys are, they’re over here, thank you guys for what y’all are doing on the border. We appreciate you guys. But listen, where and if Congress falls short, Texas must continue our unprecedented efforts to secure our border. So listen, tonight, Texans sent a very resounding message. They want to keep Texas the beacon of opportunity that we have provided over the past eight years, a Texas where working families can flourish, a Texas where students can be prepared and inspired for college or for a career, a Texas that supports our law enforcement officers and our military, the Texas where we safeguard our fundamental freedoms, and a Texas where everybody has a path to prosperity. All of that is possible in Texas. So once again, I want to thank everybody who made tonight possible. Listen, we have quite literally the best campaign staff in the history of the State of Texas. They ran a strong, tough, good campaign that’s incomparable in the history of our state.

(10:11)
At the same time that our campaign staff was working, we had the people who serve in the governor’s office working around the clock, serving you, the people of Texas. So we can both serve the people of Texas and run a satellite campaign at the same time and win at doing both. I want to thank all the volunteers, people who did this for the cause. It’s not for the money. People who knocked on doors, people who sent out texts, people who made phone calls, people who got voters out, people who cared, people with passion. Like this young woman that I’ve met, there’s not been a single time I haven’t been down here without her and her daughter being here.

(10:49)
I even know about her daughter’s little boo boo on her knee that she had that’s healing up right now. But she’s precious. But all of you all are precious for the way that you put in the time and effort to make sure that we would win. I want to thank my supporters for record breaking resources that we needed to make sure that we won this race going away. But most importantly, I want to thank my fellow Texans. I want to thank you for your votes.

Thank you!

I want to thank you for your trust. Just know this, we will go to work every single day to earn that trust. Together, we will keep Texas the greatest state in the greatest country and the history of the world. So God bless you all and God bless our great State of Texas.