conference Abbott was sworn in as governor of Texas on January 20, 2015, succeeding
Rick Perry. He is the first governor of Texas and the third elected governor of a
U.S. state to use a wheelchair, after
Franklin D. Roosevelt of
New York (1929–1932) and
George Wallace of
Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987). Abbott held his first meeting as governor with a foreign prime minister when he met with the
Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny on March 15, 2015, to discuss trade and economic relations. During the 2015 legislative session, initiated by officials at the
Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas legislature placed a rider to cut $150 million from its budget by ending payments and coverage for various developmental therapies for children on
Medicaid. A lawsuit was filed against the state on behalf of affected families and therapy providers, claiming the cut could cause irreparable damage to the affected children's development. The litigation obtained a temporary injunction order on September 25, 2015, barring THHSC from implementing therapy rate cuts. During
Donald Trump's first presidency, Abbott ardently supported Trump. The
Trump administration appointed several former Abbott appointees to federal courts, which some media outlets attributed to Abbott's influence on the administration. In 2021, Trump endorsed Abbott for reelection, choosing him over several Republican primary rivals who also positioned themselves as pro-Trump. Abbott's book
Broken But Unbowed (2016) recounted Abbott's personal story and views on politics. In October 2016, explosive packages were mailed to Abbott, President Obama, and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Abbott's package did not explode when he opened it because "he did not open [the package] as intended". On June 6, 2017, Abbott called for a special legislative session in order to pass several of his legislative priorities, an agenda supported by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Abbott vetoed 50 bills in the regular 2017 session, the most in a session since 2007. As governor, Abbott serves as chair of the State Preservation Board. As chair, he was part of the unanimous vote by the board to remove a plaque placed by the
Children of the Confederacy from the
Texas State Capitol. Abbott appointed multiple judges to various judgeships, including several GOP-affiliated judges who had recently lost local judicial elections. After the regular 2021 session,
The New York Times called Abbott and Patrick "the driving force behind one of the hardest right turns in recent state history". Other sources said Abbott and other state officials advanced strongly conservative policies. By his 2022 reelection campaign, Abbott more prominently emphasized "
culture war" issues. He had been compared to Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis in promoting conservative policies. According to a report by
The Texas Tribune and
ProPublica, Abbott centralized power under the governor's office during his tenure.
Abortion In November 2016, the State of Texas, at Abbott's request, approved new rules that require facilities that perform abortions either to bury or cremate the aborted, rather than dispose of the remains in a
sanitary landfill. The rules were intended to go into effect on December 19, On January 27, 2017, a federal judge ruled against the law, but the State of Texas vowed to appeal the ruling. On June 6, 2017, Abbott signed a bill into law banning dismemberment and
partial-birth abortions and requiring either burial or cremation of the aborted. That law was also blocked by a federal judge; the state said it would appeal. On May 18, 2021, Abbott signed the
Texas Heartbeat Act, a
six-week abortion ban, into law. In September 2021, he signed into law a bill preventing women from mail-ordering abortion medication seven weeks into pregnancy.
College diversity, equity, and inclusion In 2023, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 17, which prohibits Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices at Texas's public colleges and universities. The bill, passed largely along party lines, garnered both support and criticism, with proponents arguing it would save taxpayer funds and promote a merit-based approach to education and critics expressing concern about discrimination and hindrance to diversity efforts. As a result of Senate Bill 17 and similar legislation, universities have been compelled to reevaluate their DEI initiatives, often leading to significant restructuring and reallocation of resources. Senate Bill 17's implementation led the
University of Texas at Austin to lay off about 60 employees and close of the Division of Campus and Community Engagement, which was formerly the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.
Convention of States proposal during
Hurricane Harvey emergency In 2016, Abbott spoke to the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, calling for a
Convention of States to amend the
U.S. Constitution. In his speech, he proposed
the Texas Plan, a series of nine new
amendments to "unravel the federal government's decades-long power grab "to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government and limit the federal government's power and jurisdiction." The plan would limit the power of the federal government and expand
states' rights, allowing the states to
nullify federal law under some circumstances. On January 8, 2016, Abbott called for a national
constitutional convention to address what he saw as abuses by justices of the
United States Supreme Court in "abandoning the Constitution". Speaking to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Abbott said, "We the people have to take the lead to restore the rule of law in the United States." Abbott elaborated on his proposal in a public seminar at the
Hoover Institute on May 17, 2016.
COVID-19 pandemic and members of the
White House Coronavirus Task Force in the
Oval Office During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott issued a stay-at-home order from April 2 to May 1, 2020. This was one of the shortest stay-at-home orders implemented by any governor. In December 2020, Abbott directed Texas restaurants to ignore local curfews that had been imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Localities had implemented restrictions on indoor dining and drinking late at night on New Year's weekend amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. On March 2, 2021, Abbott lifted all COVID-19 restrictions in Texas, which included ending a mask mandate and allowing businesses to reopen "100 percent". In April 2021, Abbott signed an executive order banning state agencies and corporations that take public funding from requiring proof of vaccination against COVID-19. In June 2021, he signed a bill that would punish businesses that require customers to have proof of COVID-19 vaccination for services. On May 18, 2021, Abbott issued an executive order banning mask mandates in public schools and governmental entities, with a fine of up to $1,000 for failing to comply. On August 17, 2021, Abbott's office announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. According to his office, Abbott was "in good health and experiencing no symptoms". He received
Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment. Abbott emphasized personal responsibility over government restrictions, and resolutely opposed government mandates. On July 29, 2021, during an again worsening pandemic, he issued a superseding executive order (GA-38) that reinstated earlier orders and imposed additional prohibitions on local governmental officials, state agencies, public universities, and businesses doing business with the state, to prohibit them from adopting measures such as requiring face masks or proof of vaccination status as a condition of service. The order also provided for a $1,000 fine for local officials who adopted inconsistent policies. President Biden criticized Abbott for these measures. The ban on mask mandates led to a score of legal challenges between Abbott and local governments, including school districts. In August, an Abbott spokesperson said, "Private businesses don't need government running their business." In October, Abbott issued an executive order that banned any entity, including a private business, from requiring its employees to be vaccinated. According to the
Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resources Center, 93,390 COVID-19 deaths had been registered in Texas as of November 2024.
Criminal justice In the wake of the
George Floyd protests, Abbott called on candidates in the 2020 elections to "back the blue". After some Texas cities redirected funding from police to social services and emergency response, he threatened to seize control of local police departments. In 2021, Abbott vetoed a bipartisan criminal justice bill that would have made people convicted of certain crimes before they were 18 eligible for early parole and created panels to consider inmates' age and mental health at the time of their crimes when evaluating parole eligibility. He also vetoed an animal protection bill that would have made it illegal to chain up dogs without giving them access to drinkable water and shade or shelter. Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2023 after he was convicted of murdering Air Force veteran
Garrett Foster during a
Black Lives Matter protest. In 2023, Abbott said he would work swiftly for a pardon after a jury convicted Perry of murder.
Education Abbott supports using government funds to help families send their children to private schools. In multiple legislative sessions he advocated a bill providing what he called "
Education Savings Accounts" (ESAs). The bill repeatedly hit roadblocks in the Texas House of Representatives, where Democrats and rural Republicans believed the program would harm public school funding. When the legislation failed to pass in the 88th Regular Session, Abbott called multiple special sessions to approve it. The special sessions expired without passing the legislation. Leading into the 2024 elections, Abbott campaigned against incumbent House Republicans who voted against his voucher program in hope of replacing them with members supportive of it. The campaign succeeded in securing a majority of House members in the 89th legislative session who supported Abbott's ESA program. House Democrats attempted to put the issue of vouchers before the voters in a referendum but failed, and the bill passed the House with near unanimous Republican support. The legislation Abbott signed in 2025 gave participating families around $10,000 to cover tuition fees and other school-related expenses.
Environment , India's union minister for petroleum and natural gas and skill development and entrepreneurship in a meeting with Abbott in 2018 , Abbott rejects the
scientific consensus on climate change. He has said that the climate is changing, but
does not accept the consensus that human activity is the main reason. In early 2014, Abbott participated in sessions held at the headquarters of the
United States Chamber of Commerce to devise a legal strategy to dismantle climate change regulations. In 2016, he supported
Scott Pruitt's appointment as head of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), saying, "He and I teamed up on many lawsuits against the EPA." As Texas attorney general, Abbott often sued the federal government over environmental regulations. After
Joe Biden was elected president, Abbott vowed to pursue an aggressive legal strategy against the Biden administration's environmental regulations.
February 2021 North American ice storm Joe Biden at the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in 2021 During the
February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, power-plant failures left four million Texas households without power. Abbott called for investigation and reform of the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the electric grid operator for most of Texas. On February 16, on
Hannity, Abbott said, "This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America ... Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary." The Texas energy department clarified that failure to winterize the state's power grid had caused most of the losses. In June, he signed a bill requiring power companies to be more prepared for extreme weather events.
Firearms In 2015, Abbott signed the
campus carry (SB 11) and the
open carry (HB 910) bills into law. The
campus carry law came into effect later that year, allowing licensed carry of a concealed handgun on public college campuses, with private colleges able to opt out. The
open carry bill went into effect in 2016, allowing licensed open carry of a handgun in public areas and private businesses unless they display a "30.07" sign, referring to state penal code 30.07, according to which a handgun may not be carried openly even by a licensed gun carrier. To do so is considered trespassing. Texas is the 45th state to have open carry. In 2017, Abbott signed into law a bill lowering handgun carry license fees. In 2021, he signed into law a bill that allowed Texans to
carry guns without a license. In an interview after the November 5, 2017,
Sutherland Springs church shooting, Abbott urged historical reflection and the consideration that evil had been present in earlier "horrific events" during the Nazi era, the Middle Ages and biblical times. The
Anti-Defamation League called his comparison of the shooting "to the victims of the Holocaust" "deeply offensive" and "insensitive". After the
2018 Santa Fe High School shooting, Abbott said he would consult across Texas in an attempt to prevent
gun violence in schools. A series of round-table discussions followed at the state capitol. In a speech at an NRA convention in Dallas about two weeks after the shooting, Abbott said, "The problem is not guns, it's hearts without God". In June 2019, he signed a bill allowing for more armed teachers, with school districts unrestricted as to the number they allow. The bill created "threat assessment teams" intended to identify potentially violent students. Although the state legislature passed measures for students services to deal with related mental health issues, proposals to adopt a
red flag law failed. Abbott said such a law was "not necessary in the state of Texas". After the shooting, Abbott convened a domestic terrorism task force to look into domestic extremism but reiterated his opposition to a red-flag law and rejected calls to convene a special session of the state legislature to address gun violence. On May 24, 2022, Abbott said that an 18-year-old carrying a handgun and possibly a rifle (later identified as a
Daniel Defense DDM4, an
AR-15 style rifle)
killed 19 students and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary School in
Uvalde. On May 25, Abbott held a news conference on the shooting. He said that mental health in the community was the root cause of the event.
Beto O'Rourke, who was running for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, approached the stage and said, "The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing." Abbott responded that it was a time for "healing and hope" for the victims' families, not "our agendas". Rather than attend the annual NRA meeting on May 27, Abbott published a YouTube message. He said that gun laws have not been effective, noting that the shooter broke two gun laws the day he committed the multiple murders. It is a felony to possess a gun on school property, and "what he did on campus is capital murder. That's a crime that would have subjected him to the death penalty in Texas".
Homelessness In June 2019, the city of
Austin introduced an ordinance that repealed a 25-year-old ban on homeless people camping, lying, or sleeping in public. In October, Abbott sent Austin mayor
Steve Adler a widely publicized letter criticizing the ordinance and threatening to deploy state resources to "combat homelessness". In November 2019, Abbott directed the State of Texas to open a temporary homeless encampment on a former vehicle storage yard owned by the
Texas Department of Transportation, which camp residents dubbed "Abbottville".
Immigration and border security in a helicopter touring the
Mexico–United States border in 2017 In June 2015, Abbott signed a bill bolstering Texas's border security operations, including hiring additional state police, expanding the use of technology, and creating intelligence operations units. In November, after the
Paris terrorist attack earlier that month, he announced that Texas would refuse
Syrian refugees. In December, Abbott ordered the
Texas Health and Human Services Commission to sue the federal government and the
International Rescue Committee to block refugee settlement, but a federal district court struck the lawsuit down. In February 2017, Abbott blocked funding to
Travis County, Texas, due to its recently implemented
sanctuary city policy. In May, he signed into law
Texas Senate Bill 4, targeting sanctuary cities by charging county or city officials who refuse to work with federal officials and allowing police officers to check the immigration status of those they detain. In January 2020, Abbott made Texas the first state to decline refugee resettlement under a new rule implemented by the Trump administration. In a joint statement, all sixteen
Catholic bishops of Texas condemned the move. In 2021, Abbott said that illegal immigrants were invading homes. In March, he tweeted, "The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities."
PolitiFact rated Abbott's claim "Mostly False", since those being released were
asylum seekers with a legal right to remain in the U.S., and the number was only 108 at the time of the tweet. In June 2021, Abbott ordered Texas child-care regulators to take the licenses of child-care facilities that housed
unaccompanied migrant minors. He said that housing unaccompanied minors in child-care facilities adversely affected facilities housing Texan children in foster care. Later that month, he announced plans to build a
border wall with Mexico, saying the state would provide $250 million and that direct donations from the public would be solicited. In July 2021, Abbott advised state law enforcement officers to begin arresting illegal migrants for trespassing. On July 27, he ordered the National Guard to begin helping arrest migrants, and on July 28 he signed an order restricting ground transportation of migrants. Migrants arrested under Abbott's policy were imprisoned for weeks without legal help or formal charges. By December 2023, nearly 10,000 migrants had been arrested on trespassing charges. In September 2021, Abbott signed legislation spending nearly $2 billion on Texas's border security operations, including $750 million for border wall construction. This was a significant increase, and supplemented $1 billion already appropriated for border security in the two-year state budget. In December, Abbott announced that Texas would continue the
U.S. border wall President Trump had started. The wall has the same design as Trump's and is under construction. In April 2022, Abbott announced that Texas would increase inspections of commercial trucks entering from Mexico with the goal of seizing illegal drugs and illegal migrants. Shortly thereafter, the inspections caused a multi-mile backup of commercial vehicles carrying produce, auto parts, household goods, and other items. A spokesman for the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas said that up to 80% of perishable fruits and vegetables had been unable to cross and in some cases were in danger of spoiling. The president of the Texas Trucking Association said the delays were affecting every kind of trucking and being felt across the country. Mexican truckers blockaded several bridges in protest. Under heavy pressure from Texas business owners, who strongly criticized the "secondary inspections", Abbott canceled the policy on April 15. He said the reversal was because the governors of adjacent Mexican states had agreed to exercise stronger vigilance against human trafficking, drugs, and guns. Abbott's truck inspections cost Texas an estimated $4.2 billion and led to no apprehensions of drugs or illegal migrants. In April 2022, Abbott announced in a press conference a plan to direct the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bus illegal immigrants with 900 charter buses from Texas to Washington, D.C, citing a potential surge of immigrants crossing the border after
Title 42 provisions regarding communicable disease were set to be rolled back by President Biden the next month. Any mayor, county judge, or city could request buses for immigrants who had been released from federal custody. After initial criticism, Abbott clarified that the trip would be voluntary for immigrants. The first bus, carrying 24 immigrants, arrived in Washington D.C after a 30-hour trip. A second bus arrived the next day. Abbott came under fire for both buses, with one
American Enterprise Institute scholar suggesting he be federally prosecuted for human trafficking. Senator
Ted Cruz supported Abbott's actions and advocated that more immigrants be bused into other predominantly Democratic areas. In a press conference, White House press secretary
Jen Psaki said it was "nice" that Texas was "helping them get to their final destination as they await the outcome of their immigration proceedings". Washington, D.C., mayor
Muriel Bowser responded to the influx of migrants by requesting
National Guard support for what she called a "migrant crisis". On September 15, 2022, Abbott sent two buses with 101 mostly Venezuelan migrants detained after crossing the
U.S. border with Mexico to the residence of Vice President
Kamala Harris, at the
Naval Observatory in
Washington, D.C. On September 17, Abbott sent another bus with 50 migrants to Harris's residence. In June 2023, Abbott deployed floating barriers in the Rio Grande in an effort to deter illegal border crossings. The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott and the state of Texas after Abbott refused to remove the barriers. In December 2023, Abbott signed three border-security-related bills into law, including a bill making illegal immigration a state crime.
Interstate relations Abbott tweeted, "I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the
Texas National Guard" to support the
2025 deployment of federal forces in the United States.
Jade Helm 15 In April 2015, Abbott asked the
Texas State Guard to monitor the military training exercise
Jade Helm 15 amid Internet-fueled suspicions that the war simulation was really a hostile military takeover. In 2018, former
CIA and NSA director
Michael Hayden said Russian intelligence organizations had propagated the conspiracy theory and that Abbott's response convinced them of the power such a misinformation campaign could have in the U.S.
Labor unions In 2024, Abbott joined five other Republican governors (
Kay Ivey,
Brian Kemp,
Tate Reeves,
Henry McMaster, and
Bill Lee) in a statement opposing the
United Auto Workers unionization campaign.
LGBT rights In 2014, Abbott defended Texas's ban on same-sex marriage, which a federal court ruled unconstitutional. As attorney general of Texas, he argued that the prohibition on same-sex marriage incentivized that children would be born "in the context of stable, lasting relationships". He said, "the Supreme Court has abandoned its role as an impartial judicial arbiter." In a letter dated May 27, 2017, the CEOs of 14 large technology companies, including
Facebook,
Apple Inc.,
Microsoft, and
Amazon.com, urged Abbott not to pass what came to be known as the "bathroom bill": legislation requiring people to use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificates, not the one of their choice. Abbott revived the bill and Lieutenant Governor
Dan Patrick supported it. In March 2018,
Byron Cook, the chairman of the House State Affairs committee who blocked the bill, claimed that Abbott privately opposed the bill. The bill was never signed; Abbott later said, "it's not on my agenda" in a debate with
Lupe Valdez, the
2018 Democratic nominee for governor. In 2017, Abbott signed legislation to allow taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to refuse same-sex families from adopting children for religious reasons. In 2021, a Republican primary challenger criticized Abbott because Texas's child welfare agency included content regarding LGBTQ youths. Shortly thereafter, the agency, whose members Abbott appoints, removed the webpage that included a suicide prevention hotline and other resources for LGBT youths. In 2022, Abbott instructed Texas state agencies to treat gender-affirming medical treatments (such as puberty blockers or hormone treatments) for
transgender youths as child abuse.
Marijuana In June 2019, Abbott signed into law House Bill 1325, which legalized the cultivation of industrial
hemp (cannabis containing less than 0.3%
THC). It also legalized possession and sale of hemp-derived
CBD products without need for a doctor's approval. HB 1325 passed the Senate 31–0 and the House 140–3. An unintended consequence of the legislation was that numerous local prosecutors announced that they would stop prosecuting low-level marijuana offenses, due to a lack of testing equipment. Abbott has said that legal hemp products had to come with a "hemp certificate" and instructed the municipalities to continue enforcing marijuana laws. In 2022, a poll of Texas voters found that 55% of Texans either support or strongly support legalizing cannabis. After the enactment of HB 1325, the sale of consumable hemp products exploded in the state, including the sale products containing
delta-8-THC. In 2025, the legislature passed SB 3, which would have completely banned the sale of THC products in the state. Abbott vetoed the bill after public outcry, which put him at odds with Lieutenant Governor Patrick, the primary advocate for a complete ban. In explaining his veto, Abbott said the complete ban went too far and could face legal challenges. Instead of a full ban, he pushed for "regulation" including restrictions on the age of consumers, time of purchase, and testing requirements similar to those in the alcohol industry. Abbott included the issue of THC regulation in the two special legislative sessions he called over the summer of 2025, but due to continued disagreement with Patrick, comprehensive legislation on the issue failed to pass. On September 10, 2025, Abbott issued an executive order directing the
Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) to develop rules, regulations, and oversight of THC products. These included a prohibition on sales of the product to anyone under 21 and requiring a government-issued ID to purchase it.
Religion In 2015, Abbott signed the Pastor Protection Act, which allows members of the clergy to refuse to officiate at same-sex weddings if they feel doing so violates their beliefs. In 2017, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 24, preventing state or local governments from subpoenaing pastors' sermons. The bill was inspired by an anti-discrimination ordinance in
Houston, where five pastors' sermons were subpoenaed. In response, California added Texas to a list of states to which it banned official government travel. In 2025, Abbott signed
Texas Senate Bill 10, which requires all public schools to display the
Ten Commandments in their classrooms. A federal court blocked a
similar law in
Louisiana the previous day. In November 2025, Abbott declared the
Muslim Brotherhood and the
Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) "foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations". He also called for an investigation of so-called "sharia courts", saying, "The Constitution's religious protections provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws simply by donning robes and pronouncing positions inconsistent with western civilization".
Voting rights Abbott pressed for a purge of nearly 100,000 registered voters from Texas voter rolls. Texas officials initially claimed that the voters to be purged were not
U.S. citizens. The purge was canceled in April 2018 after voting rights groups challenged it, and officials at the Office of the Texas Secretary of State admitted that tens of thousands of legal voters (naturalized citizens) were wrongly flagged for removal. Abbott claimed that he played no role in the voter purge, but emails released in June 2019 showed he was the driving force behind the effort. In September 2020, Abbott issued a proclamation that each Texas county could have only one location where voters could drop off
early voting ballots. He said that would prevent "illegal voting" but cited no examples of voter fraud. Election security experts say voter fraud is extremely rare. Also in September 2020, Abbott extended the early voting period for that year's general election due to COVID-19; the
Republican Party of Texas opposed his decision. Abbott made "election integrity" a legislative priority after President Trump's failed
attempts to overturn the election results of 2020 United States presidential election by using baseless claims that the results were fraudulent. Voting rights advocates and civil rights groups denounced the resulting legislation, saying it disproportionately affected voters of color and people with disabilities. In July 2021, Democratic lawmakers in the Texas legislature fled the state on a chartered flight to Washington, D.C., in an effort to block the passage of a bill that would reform the state election procedures. Abbott threatened to have the lawmakers arrested upon their return to Texas. In August, the
Supreme Court of Texas made a ruling allowing for the arrest of the absent lawmakers, so they could be brought to the state capitol. In October 2021, Abbott appointed
John Scott as Texas secretary of state, putting him in a position to oversee Texas elections. Scott aided Trump in his failed efforts to throw out election results in the 2020 presidential election. == Personal life ==