Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas
27
APPEARANCES
18
PODCASTS
Oct 10, 2026
Greg AbbottGUEST
But one thing that we find is when people actually learn about who Gina Hinojosa is and her record, uh, they are coming to my side very rapidly.
Will CainHOST
But do you still confident that Texas and at a larger spectrum, the United States of America is gonna be home to the future of technology? Whether or not that's data centers or AI, is this the place? If you are an entrepreneur, an innovator, a billionaire, an Elon Musk, you want to make your home Texas?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Listen, uh, it's, it's a one-off game, meaning it's different than any other game because you have the field divided half by half.
Greg AbbottGUEST
You know, one thing I still can't figure out is, uh, we, we, uh, Texas obviously is on the south side, uh, of the United States compared to OU or Oklahoma, which is on the north side.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Why is it that, that Texas has the northern side of the field as oppos- the s- as opposed to the southern side of the field? But that point aside, uh, listen, it's d- divided in half in half.
Greg AbbottGUEST
But I tell you, my favorite part of the game comes down to the last couple of minutes because it is divided half by half, and when you get down to the last couple of minutes, the northern half is kinda departed.
Gerry HamiltonHOST
Is there a Texas game, Texas-OU game, that stands out in your memory above all others, just for you personally? Was, is there one game in this rich history that kinda stands alone for you, or maybe a moment in a game?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, the, the CEOs who run businesses have ranked Texas the number one state for doing business for 22 years in a row.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, Texas has added more jobs than any other state, uh, for the last year, for the past 10 years.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Get this, so the Texas economy has grown so large, there are only seven countries in the world-
16 MINS LATER
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, during that pra- pause, uh, I have set guidelines and guardrails that all data center, data centers have to comply with.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, number one, uh, they must i- identify, uh, what water usage they're demanding, uh, and make clear they are not taking water from communities that need it.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Number two, uh, they must not take power from the Texas power grid that's needed.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, number four, they need to make sure that they are not disturbing, uh, neighborhoods or rural communities.
6 MINS LATER
Greg AbbottGUEST
And so what we gotta be able to do is, is to make w- sure we are able to match that.
Greg AbbottGUEST
You and others have done a great job spotlighting all the crazy things that he's said.
Greg AbbottGUEST
If we have the resources where we can, uh, identify to the public through ads and things like that, uh, about the leftist votes that he's taken in the state legislature, we're gonna be able to sh- ensure that Texans do not vote for him.
13 MINS LATER
Greg AbbottGUEST
And after I came out and took that position, so did the lieutenant governor, so did the speaker.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And, and what I know is that we're gonna be able to go into this next session and, and pass laws making sure, uh, that we have closed primaries in the state of Texas, uh, that we will set up a structure so that only, uh, only Republicans, uh, are gonna get to vote for Republicans.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, there's either a pathway, uh, where a, a court sets an order, uh, and establishes the standard, or the legislature, uh, comes up with what the system looks like.
Greg AbbottGUEST
But the problem is if, if, if the court sets the order, uh, what that would mean is that, uh, the general public, Republicans, uh, they wouldn't be able to come in and, uh, make arguments about it should be this way or that way.
Greg AbbottGUEST
There's, there's no listening system, uh, on, on the court process, uh, where Republicans can have a say on how the process would be structured.
Jackie HeinrichHOST
Is the president wrong or does he fundamentally misunderstand something about your position?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Well, Jack, I need to provide the full context of the decision, and so I can clarify the entire situation, and that is what I did is I pressed pause on any new data center approval in the state of Texas, and then I established guidelines and guardrails for all data centers to comply with.
Greg AbbottGUEST
They must lower the cost of electricity for consumers, and they must not disturb neighborhoods or rural communities.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And those guidelines and guardrails have now been fully applied to all data centers across the state of Texas.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Then, in addition to that, one of the triggers for putting the pause in place, and that is that the state power grid, known as ERCOT, they were receiving requests for five times more power than the state power grid was able to deliver.
Jackie HeinrichHOST
So I want to ask you, are you advocating that that existing foot washing station get pulled out?
Julie FineCORRESPONDENT
So I'd like to hear about the plans on how you plan to develop that workforce to make sure there are enough people available.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Well, I'll tell you this, that is, T- Texas ranks number one in the United States for having the best workforce.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, Texas ranks number one for adding more new jobs than any other state, and there's reasons for that, and that is because w- we work, uh, more than any other state to make sure we have the, the best trained and qualified workforce.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, two is through our, uh, two-year colleges, but three is through our universities.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, and we, we focus our education in Texas on real-life job skills, uh, that will ensure that when a, a student graduates or completes the course study there, they're gonna be ready to go straight into the workforce.
Julie FineCORRESPONDENT
Governor Abbott, when you look down the road five years, what does the Rio Grande Valley look like with this addition?
Julie FineCORRESPONDENT
So I'd like to hear about the plans on how you plan to develop that workforce to make sure there are enough people available.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Well, I'll tell you this, and that is Te- Texas ranks number one in the United States for having the best workforce.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, Texas ranks number one for adding more new jobs than any other state, and there's reasons for that, and that is because w- we work, uh, more than any other state to make sure we have the, the best trained and qualified workforce.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, two is through our, uh, two-year colleges, but three is through our universities.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, and we, we focus our education in Texas on d- real-life job skills, uh, that will ensure that when, uh, a student graduates or completes the course study there, they're gonna be ready to go straight into the workforce.
Julie FineCORRESPONDENT
Governor Abbott, when you look down the road five years, what does the Rio Grande Valley look like with this addition?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Well, uh, let me address that last point first, and that is, yeah, it's a fact that we have a lot of people moving into Texas from other states, including from California.
Greg AbbottGUEST
What's lost, however, is this, and that is there are a lot of people moving out of the state of Texas every single year also.
Greg AbbottGUEST
The point very simply is we have a big exchange program going on where we are getting conservatives from California, uh, our liberals are moving to California, making Texas an even more red state.
Greg AbbottGUEST
But going back to the bottom line of what you were talking about, Sean, listen, Talarico has a voting record.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, I know he's known as six-gender Jimmy, whatever that means, but he voted to defund the police.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Well, let me address that last point first, and that is, yeah, it's a fact that we have a lot of people moved into Texas from other states, including from California.
Greg AbbottGUEST
What's lost, however, is this, and that is there are a lot of people moving out of the state of Texas every single year.
Greg AbbottGUEST
The point, very simply, is we have a big exchange program going on where we are getting conservatives from California moving.
Greg AbbottGUEST
But going back to the bottom line of what you were talking about, Sean, listen, Tallarico has a voting record.
Mary Elise O'BarHOST
I'd like to ask you now that the primary runoffs are over, whether a candidate lost or won, what would you like to see? What sort of steps would you like to see them take now the runoff is over moving forward to general election for unity for Republicans?
Greg AbbottGUEST
One is we have to understand that all these Republican nominees, they are light years better than their Democrat opponents.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And so we issued discovery request to have CAIR turn over every bank record, every financial transaction, every person they've met, uh, every time they've traveled to, uh, any foreign-based terrorist country, uh, or location.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, and, and, uh, we're, we're g- we're gonna get access to all of their financial records, uh, that will show who they've given money to, who they got money from, uh, what they paid for, what they have gotten paid to do.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And this is the first time anybody has been able to dig this deeply into the CAIR operations.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And what w- what happened this week is the federal judge in the court in which this case is pending, uh, uh, granted our request, uh, to have CAIR turn those documents over, and I think CAIR is in full-on panic mode right now.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And, uh, as soon as they got going, we found out that they were nothing but fraudulent, uh, negotiations and plans and actions on their part, uh, in trying to create this so-called Epic City.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And through an state investigations by almost a half a dozen state agencies, and through legal, uh, actions that were taken, uh, we were able to eliminate, uh, Epic City and what their plans were.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So along the lines of your thought that you were explaining right there, I've seen multiple national reports that we're seeking to confirm right now.
Greg AbbottGUEST
to engage in these protests with students in public schools across the United States.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And so we will be digging into this from an investigation side to see who all was involved in this, where it got spurred from, the extent to which teachers or administrators in the state of Texas have been complicit with this national operation.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Then to more specifically answer your question, the commissioner of education in the state of Texas has already put out a notification to public schools in the state of Texas, which may operate differently than in other states.
7 MINS LATER
Joe PagsHOST
From the governor's office, because this is a county taxation, this is not your office taxing us, what can you do? Can you bring pressure or leverage against the counties to say you've got to give some relief to the tax burden? Well,
Greg AbbottGUEST
I have real reform that's going to transform property taxes in the state of Texas that must be enacted by law at the state level.
Greg AbbottGUEST
First, for your audience who are not from Texas, even those from Texas may not know, the state of Texas itself does not impose a property tax.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So the first thing we have to do is to put a cap or limitation on spending increases.
6 MINS LATER
Joe PagsHOST
What do you think about that makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives? Because of the move that you and the legislature made here in Texas, do you feel confident that President Trump and people like me will have people who are like-minded continue to run the House of Representatives?
Greg AbbottGUEST
it?Well, actually, to be honest with you, eh, I think I'm doing more about it than any other governor in America, uh, because, uh, you know, we, we all know what happened with Madani and the Marxist regime he's imposing there, and we're not gonna let h- let it happen here.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So you mentioned that, uh, it's called the, the Epic Center up in the Dallas area, uh, that we just shut down.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, Epic, they, they proposed an Islamic-only development, uh, and I signed a law that we passed during this past session that prevents compounds like Epic City, uh, from even being created.
Joe PagsHOST
Are we moving to maybe we can get those counties to get back to the free state of Texas outlook that we used to have?
Greg AbbottGUEST
And I emphasize the other night and many times before that, this election cycle, our key focus is on Harris County.
Greg AbbottGUEST
For those out of state, Harris County is the county in which Houston, Texas is located in.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And we are making investments at the local level, at the precinct level, to make sure we register and turn out the vote of Republicans who embrace the policies that we have and remind people that once again, one election, can destroy New York City.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So we're going to be working every single day to make sure that we keep Texas conservative.
5 MINS LATER
Joe PagsHOST
Can you compare and contrast the relationship you have now with President Trump back in and seeing zero people coming across the border?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, there's, there's nothing in the United States or Texas constitutions or in any law anywhere that prohibits Texas f- from being able to do this.
Greg AbbottGUEST
In other states like Califor- California and New York, they have constitutional provisions that tie their hands.
Greg AbbottGUEST
A catalyst for this was a court decision from the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals last year that said that coalition districts were no longer required.
Ben ShapiroHOST
What do you make of those threats? And is that going to determine in any way, shape, or form what the state of Texas does here?
Mark LevinHOST
And he has said, "Okay, Abbott, okay, Trump, I'm gonna rejigger what seats we have left and punish the Republicans out here." Number one, do you think he can do that? And number two, does his kind of tough talk in California, does that really make a governor of Texas worried at all?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Democrat governors who are talking about this, I think they're all potential candidates for the presidency.
Greg AbbottGUEST
You got Gavin Newsom, uh, you got the Illinois governor, you have the New York governor and, and maybe some others who are thinking about running for president the next time out, and they're, uh, competing with each other to try to look the, the toughest on this.
Mark LevinHOST
Lost anywhere from, and I've calculated this myself and I've talked about it, five, perhaps up to 10 seats because, quote-unquote, "they got the mathematics wrong." What do you think of that? I mean, Texas was supposed to have another seat or two.
Newt GingrichHOST
Would you explain why a quorum is needed for a special session? 'Cause you have pretty large majorities, don't you?
Greg AbbottGUEST
In Texas, we have good majorities in the House and Senate, as well as we hold every statewide office.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Texas has the longest statewide winning streak among Republicans in the United States.
Greg AbbottGUEST
In the Texas House, there are 150 members, 88 of whom are Republican, and so there'd be 62 of whom are Democrat.
Greg AbbottGUEST
To have a quorum requires two-thirds of the vote, which means we have to have 100 votes to have a quorum for the House to be able to conduct business.
Newt GingrichHOST
So, I'm curious, the way this is being developed, if they refuse to come back, is there any provision where you could declare their seats vacant and have a special election?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, when the going got tough for the Democrats, it looked like, uh, they were gonna have to take a vote that was not gonna go their way, they did not stand and fight, they ran away.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So the, the issue that you're talking about i- is the redistricting w- where Texas is, uh, redrawing the maps for the members of Congress to ensure that, uh, the people in the State of Texas are going to be able to vote for their candidate of choice, which is gonna happen to be Republican, in five new seats.
Greg AbbottGUEST
These Democrats, they had only one way to stop it and that was to break quorum, uh, in the Texas House of Representatives and they ran away.
Greg AbbottGUEST
So, uh, uh, first of all, what we're hearing on the ground, this is what we hear on the ground every single time this happens, and, and that is, Texans do not like people who don't show up for work.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And so they get angry when they see Democrats flee the state, not show up to the job they were elected to do, and, and not get the job done.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And so this always works to the detriment, uh, of the Democrat house members who flee the state.
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, second, uh, this is a character flaw, uh, by these Democrats, because, uh, one thing that is anti-Texan is running from a fight.
Sean HannityHOST
Instead, they picked up their toys and they went to, of all places I thought, somewhat ironically, Illinois, where, you know, it's the most gerrymandered state in the country.
Greg AbbottGUEST
We're, we're known because of the Battle of the Alamo, where everybody chose to stay and fight, even though they faced a dire outcome.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
How does this end?
Greg AbbottGUEST
Uh, one way or the other, they're coming back, and it's gonna end with these maps being passed.
Greg AbbottGUEST
And, you know, what I'm thinking now is if, if they don't start showing up, I may start expanding it.
Sean HannityHOST
Instead, they picked up their toys and they went to, of all places, I thought somewhat ironically, Illinois, where, you know, it's the most gerrymandered state in the country.
Greg AbbottGUEST
We- we're known because of the Battle of the Alamo where everybody chose to stay and fight, even though they faced a dire outcome.
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