TEXAS
     Nov. 6, 2018 Governor

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+Greg Abbott (R) i
4,656,196
55.81%
Lupe Valdez (D)
3,546,615
42.51%
Mark Tippetts (L)
140,632
1.69%

8,343,443

Plurality: 1,109,581 votes (13.31 percentage points).
    TX Secretary of State




Notes
: 
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had little difficulty in winning a second term, defeating former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, first openly gay Latina to run for the office, in a race that was never seen as competitive.  The last Democratic governor of Texas was Ann Richards, who was elected in 1990 and served one term.  In 2016 Trump carried the states with a plurality of 807,179 votes (8.99 percentage points)

Texas led off the 2018 primary season on March 6 (+).  Abbott won his primary with more than 90-percent of the vote.  For the Democrats, Lupe Valdez finished first with 42.89% followed by entrepreneur Andrew White at 27.37%; Valdez then won the May 22 runoff by 53.35% to 46.65%. 


Abbott enjoyed a huge, gigantic, enormous financial imbalance in this race.  According to the National Institute on Money in Politics, the Abbott campaign received contributions of $76.0 million compared to $1.7 million for the Valdez campaign (>).

The two candidates engaged in just one debate, at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin on Sept. 28 (>). 

Campaign Managers:
Greg Abbott:  John Jackson  
(Dec. 2014)  Texas Victory Director/RNC, June 2013-Dec. 2014.  Director of special projects for the Republican Party of Texas, Aug. 2012-June 2013.  Campaign manager on Rick Berg for U.S. Senate (ND), Oct. 2011-June 2012.  Campaign manager on Tag Greason for Delegate (VA), Mar. 2009-April 2010.  Political director for David Dewhurst (TX), 2009-10.  Campaign manager on Dolores Gresham for State Senate (TN), April-Nov. 2008.  Political director on Sekula Gibbs for Congress (TX), Jan.-April 2008.  Field director on Nick Rerras for State Senate, 2007.  Southern field director on Van Taylor for Congress, 2006.  Political director on Tucker Anderson for Congress, 2006.  Studied at Texas A&M.

Lupe Valdez:  Tyler Tucker
(July 2018)  Experience includes Northam for Governor; deputy organizing director (Richmond) on the 2016 Virginia Coordinated Campaign; Virginia House Democrats; Alison for Kentucky in 2015; Virginia Senate Democrats; and Terry McAuliffe for Governor in 2013.


Bill Romjue, a veteran campaign operative, was Valdez' initial campaign manager from Feb. 2018.



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