Governor Abbott Slaps Rep. Darby for Actions Similar to His Own

AUSTIN, TX — The campaign manager for Texas Governor Greg Abbott's campaign penned a strongly-worded letter accusing State Rep. Drew Darby of attempting to "confuse" voters. The issue at hand revolves around old images on Darby's DrewDarby.com that show Governor Abbott's endorsements from previous years.

Campaign manager Kim Snyder left no room for doubt that Darby has fallen out of favor with the Governor.

"Governor Abbott has made it clear that he believes the voters of House District 72 deserve a genuine conservative like Stormy Bradley representing them. That's why he endorsed her on December 7, 2023," Snyder asserted.

Abbott and Darby parted ways over the issue of school vouchers. Abbott advocated for providing $10,500 annual vouchers to every K-12 public school student, enabling them to choose a private school for attendance. Darby opposed this proposal, citing concerns that it would harm the numerous small independent school districts in District 72 due to reduced funding that he an other stalwart conservatives in the House believed would ultimately happen. The State of Texas was working with a $32 billion budget surplus this year. As Rep. Glenn Rogers (Dist. 60, Stephenville) penned on LIVE! earlier this month, "[I]n 2011 Texas legislators were faced with a major budget shortfall and were required to take $5 billion away from public schools, an amount that has never been fully recovered. It would not be conservative to implement a massive voucher entitlement program expecting continued large budget surpluses." https://sanangelolive.com/news/live…

Abbott made a concerted effort to target rural Republicans such as Darby and Springer , who were once his allies, for defeat in the March 5 primary due to their lack of support for his voucher plan. The legislation containing the governor's voucher plan passed the Texas Senate but failed in the House during the regular session and four subsequent special sessions.

When asked about the letter, we reached out to Darby, who stated that all endorsements have been removed from his website as of Friday night, which is where Snyder might have seen them. Darby even removed any mention of Congressman August Pfluger's endorsement, which was made a month ago. Darby clarified that these older pages were from a time when Abbott supported him.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

A simple search of Governor Abbott's campaign website for mentions of Darby revealed that Abbott's website, gregabbott.com, still contains four pages with the Governor's positive remarks about Rep. Darby. On November 28, 2017, Abbott endorsed Darby for re-election (source); in December 2019, Governor Abbott endorsed Darby for re-election (source); on March 3, 2020, Abbott congratulated Darby for his primary victory (source); and on November 3, 2020, Abbott congratulated Darby for his general election win (source).

Maybe Governor Abbott is the one confusing voters now.