Incumbent Greg Abbott defeated seven other candidates in the Republican primary for governor of Texas on March 1, 2022, and will advance to the Nov. 8 general election. As of 10:30 p.m. EST, 68% of precincts had reported. Abbott led with 68% percent of the vote, followed by Allen West with 11.9% and Don Huffines with 11.2%. No other candidate had received more than 4% of the vote.
Reuters‘ Joseph Ax and Julia Harte wrote, “Abbott is facing at least two credible Republican rivals for the first time in his tenure,” referring to Huffines and West. The Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace wrote about intraparty conflicts over Abbott’s responses to the coronavirus, saying, “Abbott was the target of GOP-led protests for his early moves to allow mask mandates and restrict business operations.”
No incumbent governor in Texas has lost their party’s nomination since 1978 when Gov. Dolph Briscoe (D) lost to then-Attorney General John Hill (D). Republicans have won every gubernatorial election in Texas from 1994 to 2018 by an average margin of 16.9 percentage points.
