March 16, 2018      4:56 PM
SB: For all his bluster, Abbott failed to make the difference against any of the House Republicans he opposed
The governor’s gotten some credit for Middleton’s win in Galveston, but the facts on the ground show the challenger won it on his own
GALVESTON
– As a nasty storm moved across much of Texas in the days leading up to the GOP
primary, supporters of Republican candidate Mayes Middleton packed into Katie’s Seafood near the Galveston
Cruise Terminal, snacking on free shrimp boil and looking out over the
bay.
Gov.
Greg Abbott, grounded in San Antonio
where he’d spent part of his day calling Rep. Lyle Larson a “liberal” more than a dozen times during a rally for
GOP candidate Chris Fails, could not
make it to the island. His campaign said the storm was too dangerous for their
plane to take off.
So,
Gov. Abbott called into the Middleton rally, repeatedly saying Rep. Wayne Faircloth is a “liberal,” though
the crowd heard the lie fewer times because the phone call kept cutting out as
it was projected through the PA system.
The
previous day, Abbott had trashed Chair Sarah
Davis, R-West University Place, as a “liberal Democrat” in disguise during
a rally in Bellaire for Republican challenger Susanna Dokupil. Abbott spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV against Davis and Larson to no avail.
Abbott’s
preferred candidate won in the race where he couldn’t show up personally or on TV.
By Scott Braddock
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