Here’s your periodic reminder that it could always be worse.
Don Huffines
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday appointed Don Huffines, a former Republican state senator, to be comptroller of public accounts for the rest of the year, after the agency’s acting head, Kelly Hancock, steps down at the end of the month.
Hancock submitted his resignation letter to the governor on Wednesday. Huffines is currently running to serve a full term and defeated Hancock for the GOP nomination in March. He faces state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, in the November general election.
“Don Huffines brings the right mix of business experience and conservative principles to this vital office,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the appointment. “His private-sector experience and dedication to limited government make him exceptionally qualified to lead the state’s finances and protect every taxpayer dollar with integrity and accountability.
”Huffines, a 68-year-old businessman from the Dallas area, said he was honored to be tapped by the governor and intended to keep campaigning ahead of the fall election, “listening to Texans and working for every vote.”
The appointment returns Huffines, a GOP firebrand, to public office after being unseated in 2018 from the Texas Senate and failing to beat Abbott when he challenged the governor in the 2022 GOP primary, running to the right of the state’s top elected official.
The relationship between the two has since been smoothed over. After Huffines won the primary earlier this year against a field that included Hancock, who had Abbott’s support, Huffines told the Tribune that he and the governor had a “very nice conversation” and were aligned in working to defeat Democrats in the midterms.
[…]
Huffines has long supported vouchers and said he is excited about the prospect of running the initiative, championed by Abbott and formally known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts.
A self-branded “MAGA warrior,” Huffines won his primary with promises to DOGE Texas, ensure no state funds are being received by undocumented people and end what he sees as “woke” ideology.
See here for the background. As someone who remembers State Sen. Don Huffines (*), I cannot stress this enough: Huffines is a complete moron who firmly believes he’s right about everything, and he’s going to make you believe it too even if it kills you both. There’s a chance he might be entertaining as Comptroller, in a Molly-Ivins-on-acid kind of way, but there’s zero chance he’ll be good. Buckle up.
(*) Ousted after one term in 2018 by now-Sen. Nathan Johnson, who is also the Democratic nominee for Attorney General.
Once again, the Trib tries to erase third parties. I don’t know who the Libertarians might be running or not, but I know the Greens have a practicing Muslim, Shehla Fahzi for comptroller, who promises to trash all anti-BDS language in the Comptroller’s office, a pledge I am unaware of Dem Sarah Eckhardt making. (I’m going in part on an interview the Observer had shortly before primaries, when it never raised that issue with her.)