Here comes Huffines

The political comeback nobody asked for is officially on.

Former state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, announced Monday that he is challenging Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2022 primary.

“Texas deserves actual Republican leadership that will act urgently and decisively—no more excuses or lies,” Huffines said in a statement.

Huffines is a wealthy businessman who served in the Senate from 2015-2019. Democrat Nathan Johnson defeated Huffines in 2018.

Abbott is up for a third term in 2022 and has drawn some heat from within his party for his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Huffines has criticized Abbott as being too slow to fully reopen the state and he spoke at a protest outside the Governor’s Mansion last fall.

Huffines’ announcement did not mention Abbott but took aim at “politicians who offer nothing but excuses and lies” and promised to take on the “entrenched elites of the Austin swamp.”

You can see Huffines’ statement here. It’s a lot. His name has come up before as a potential primary challenger to Abbott, and hey, he’s rich, he’s bored, and he’s got nothing better to do, so why not. As we have discussed before, Greg Abbott’s approval ratings have gotten soft, but he’s still strong with Republicans. I don’t see him as a credible threat and I doubt Team Abbott does as well, though I’m sure they’ll use a couple of their mega-millions to remind everyone what a non-entity Huffines is.

The story notes that Allen West (state GOP Chair and certified wackadoodle) and Sid Miller (Ag Commissioner) are also in the conversation as possible primary challengers to Abbott. Miller is the only one of the three that I think would present any real competition to Abbott, as he has at least won statewide, but my sense is that they’d still be fishing from the same pond of anti-Abbott Republicans. I don’t see them as likely to peel away existing support for Abbott. But I’m not a Republican, so take that with an appropriate amount of salt. The Chron and Reform Austin have more.

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11 Responses to Here comes Huffines

  1. Jason Hochman says:

    I’m not a big fan of Abbott and the way that he took the power of an imperial emperor to order shutdowns, masks, and other draconian measures for Operation Stay Safe.

    However, Abbott correctly Twittered about how the numbers in Texas have improved over the two months since he ended the repression. I remember many nitwits going into a panic and saying that he was going to start a surge of “cases.” Beto, in particular, Twittered a histrionic statement about how Abbott just killed thousands of us. Beto later deleted this, but didn’t eat his platter of crow.

    Clearly, Abbott is good scientist. Beto is probably there with his Young Einstein chemistry set thinking that he’s a scientist. Huffines, according to this post, did criticize Abbott for not reopening sooner, so perhaps Huffines is a better scientist. I don’t know for certain.

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    Barring another primary challenger I like better, he’s got my vote already!

  3. Frederick says:

    Jason is right. 51,000 dead Texans can’t be wrong.

  4. Jason Hochman says:

    Frederick, I think that the total of dead Texans who voted for Biden may have been higher than 51,000

  5. Mainstream says:

    Some years ago a group claimed to have found evidence of dead persons voting in Texas. I asked for their list of those in my neighborhood, and researched each of them. All of them were mistakes. Some had similar names and ages to someone who had died. Others were instances of a Jr. voting by mistake under Sr.’s name, who had not been removed from the rolls. Not a single claim of a dead voter was valid.

  6. Bill Daniels says:

    The Wu flu is only deadly for a very small percentage of the world’s population. So here’s the thing…..as soon as they’re all either dead, or vaccinated, and didn’t die from the vaccination, then that’s it….there’s no more problems…it’s just another virus that gets around, but doesn’t kill people. The sooner we get to that point, where the unfortunate and/or unlucky who are most susceptible to dying are actually dead, or survived their vaccinations, the better.

    Let’s just get this over with, and then let’s investigate why China did this to the world, and exactly how much culpability the US government, Faucci, and others had in the development of this virus at the Wuhan virology lab. I’m thinking people here in the US need to be charged with treason and mass murder for participating with the Chinese, and the CCP needs to be held accountable, too. Maybe it was an accident that this virus escaped from their lab, but even if it was just an accident, they’re culpable for keeping the international airport open, exporting the virus to the world while simultaneously desperately trying to lock down Wuhan.

  7. C.L. says:

    There’s a very interesting documentary series on Netflix entitled The Untold History of the United States. Some very interesting viewing if you think the only nefarious Countries (doing crooked shit) on this third rock from the sun are the ones to north/south/east/west of us.

  8. Bill Daniels says:

    C.L.,

    You should be more concerned about America in the present. We’re looking like a redux of the Jimmah Carter era. We’ve got inflation starting to go rampant, worst in over 13 years, we’ve got gas lines, Whitmer is trying to shut down pipelines in Michigan, tag teaming with Biden who shut down KeystoneXL and offshore/onshore drilling on federal lands. We’ve got the beginnings of hot war in the Middle East, an emboldened Iran harassing maritime traffic and our very own Navy, and we’ve got an out of control invasion of our southern border, with ICE working for the cartels to finish the last leg of the massive child smuggling operation they are engaged in.

    I, for one, am looking forward to the Misery Index making a comeback. I remember how bad things got under Carter, how bad things had to get before we got a Reagan, but this time, everyone will remember the good times, the peace, the strength and energy independence of America under Trump. I’m guessing when things get bad enough, all those mean tweets won’t seem nearly as important as they did back then.

    By the way, there’s over 21,000 kids in cages at the moment. When did we stop caring about kids in cages? I ask, because it used to be all the rage to cry and complain about kids in cages….now? Crickets.

    Sooner or later, maybe we’ll admit that paying people not to work, where they can make more on never ending unemployment and welfare than they can working, is not a workable long term strategy. And to continue massive “emergency?

  9. Jason Hochman says:

    Yes, I am still concerned about kids in cages. I contacted HEB and asked them to take down the Plexi-glass shields in their stores because it reminds me of the kids in cages and it triggers me. I think of Biden alternately whispering and yelling his lines, as he sniffs at the kids in their pens. But then again neither Biden, nor his boss, Mrs. Harris have gone to the border to deal with the crisis.

    The SARS Cov mk. 2 virus may have escaped from a lab. Now to light, there comes a paper written by the PLA in China about ways to modify corona viruses (gain of a function) to make them biological weapons.

    Congressmen such as Rand Paul have asked Dr. Fauci about this, and he has said that the NIH has not funded gain of a function research for Chinese entities. This is a change for Fauci. Usually when questioned by Sen. Paul or Jim Jordan, Fauci stands there ossified, like the Allied generals when France fell.

    I have been able to find one grant R01AI116442, from Fauci’s institute, that has spending in Wuhan. There may have been gain function funding from NIH that went to one of Fauci’s start ups and then was sub awarded to the Wuhan Virology institute. I will continue to investigate and will contact the authorities if I find the evidence that Fauci and his boss, Dr. Collins, can be charged and sent to prison for a long, long time.

  10. C.L. says:

    Waking up every morning during the Trump Administration was like waking up to a jackhammer outside your window, never sure what crazy tin foil hat bullshit was going to be unleashed on a daily basis by the toilet tweeting President. Forgive me if the reprieve given by the current Cabinet makes me sunrise smile.

  11. Bill Daniels says:

    C.L.:

    The jackhammer you’re going to hear now, is the Biden junta building more border wall down in the Rio Grande Valley.

    https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-resume-border-wall-005447814.html

    Can you explain how building more of Trump’s wall is NOT hateful, xenophobic, and racist? Seems like I remember a time, long ago, when building the wall was bad, when kids in cages was bad. There’s over 21,000 kids in cages at the moment. What gives? This is crazy!

    But at least Biden and Whitmer are shutting down pipelines, because that’s always a great strategy. Hey, gas price nationally just hit $ 3/gal. How high can Biden get it?

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