Erica Greider, writing for Texas Monthly, may be onto something.
She thinks it’s possible that the 2018 race for Texas governor might formulating not quite a month into the current governor’s first term.
Her clue? Two aspects relating to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
One is that Gov. Abbott has a lot of campaign cash stashed away. Indeed, he kept raising boatloads of money long after it was understood by everyone in Texas that he would be elected in a landslide over Democratic challenger Wendy Davis.
Two is that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick isn’t shy — as he demonstrated by challenging incumbent David Dewhurst in 2014 — about poking the establishment in the eye.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/brace-yourselves
She also believes Land Commissioner George P. Bush isn’t going to languish forever in his office and he might want to run for governor as well.
All three of them are Republicans. Abbott, of course, is in the driver’s seat. However, by my way of thinking, Patrick is going to pressure him to the right to ensure that he follows the TEA party agenda that Patrick is formulating as he runs the state Senate. I was intrigued, for example, by the team of ad hoc citizen advisers he formed, several of whom have TEA party connections.
Greider also notes one more potential rising political star. Too bad he’s a Democrat. That would be U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio. Texas Democrats get all hot and bothered when his name comes up as a possible candidate for governor.
Well, Wendy Davis had the same impact on Democrats when she announced her candidacy for the 2014 race. She flamed out.
The political tide continues to pull Texas politicians hard to the right. Politicians such as Patrick are preaching the state’s electoral choir. Greg Abbott hears it, too.
If the governor doesn’t mind his P’s and Q’s during the next, oh, three-plus years, he is going to get a challenge from within his party. And as Texas Republicans have shown they are able to do — e.g., Ted Cruz beating Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate, and Patrick knocking Dewhurst out of his lieutenant governor’s office — I wouldn’t be the least bitĀ surprised to seeĀ another GOP knockdown battle in 2018.